And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her: the pronoun her refers to the mother and not the girl. Good News Translation makes this clear by translating “the woman.”

Take this child away translates what is literally “Cause this child to go,” so it means more than simply receiving the child. A different Hebrew verb meaning “to receive” or “to take hold of” is used in the second sentence for the woman took the child. It is safe to assume, therefore, that the princess intended for the mother to keep the child until he was weaned. Nurse him here literally means “suckle him” (New English Bible), but it also implies by context taking complete care of the child. Translators should try to find a term in the receptor language that includes both meanings.

I will give you your wages may suggest that the princess herself would pay the mother, for the emphatic pronoun “I” is used. For this reason New English Bible has “I will pay you for it myself,” and New Jerusalem Bible has “I shall pay you myself for doing so.” However, it may simply mean “I will pay you.” Either way, it suggests that this was an arrangement made by the princess herself without informing her father the king.

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 .