A migrant-centric reading of exodus 2: Tactics of survival for immigrant women and their unaccompanied children

Abstract

From a different vantage point, stories of migration, deportation, exile and diaspora in the Hebrew Bible have more than a didactic function; rather, they speak to and out of a set core of human experiences that in turn render them relevant across the historical spectrum of human migrations. Thus, rather than survey what the Hebrew Bible says about migration, how might its migrant-likeness compare to contemporary migrant-refugee tactics of survival? This article focuses on the story of baby Moses’s internal migration to the Pharaoh’s palace in Exodus 2 with a view toward the recent mass migration of unaccompanied Central America children to the United States. Through this parallel reading, the aim is to forge a migrant-centric reading of this narrative that casts it not as a birth story but as a relevant migrant-survival story that many unaccompanied Central American children are currently living. In the end, this article argues that by framing Exodus 2 solely as a birth story, readers inevitably foreclose on the possibility of elaborating an interpretation of this narrative that addresses the conflict, loss and trauma of many migrant-refugees in our world today.