She saw the child is literally “and she saw him, the child.” This unusual style adds to the suspense of the narrative. The apparent surprise and pity of the princess is suggested by the word lo. Although lo is archaic in English, many languages will be able to use an interjection or an ideophone here quite naturally. By placing a period after “baby boy,” Good News Translation preserves some of this suspense. Most probably the babe was crying from hunger. But we do not know this for sure. So translators should not indicate why the child was crying, unless this information is required in a particular receptor language.

She took pity on him means “she felt sorry” for the baby. By connecting this with the preceding clause, Good News Translation also suggests that the baby’s crying only added to her pity. Hence New English Bible has “and she was filled with pity for it.” Pity in many languages will be rendered in a figurative or idiomatic way; for example, “She had a warm heart [or liver, or stomach] toward him,” or “She felt weakness because of him.”

This is one of the Hebrews’ children is literally “from the children of the Hebrews this [one].” The text suggests that the princess had no doubt; she was certain that here was a Hebrew “baby boy” (Good News Translation). New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh brings out this certainty with “This must be a Hebrew child” (similarly Contemporary English Version and Revised English Bible). The Hebrew for child and children indicates that the baby was a boy. And if he had already been circumcised, an ancient Hebrew custom, the princess would have known that he had been born into a Hebrew family.

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .