A baby in a basket

Four hundred years pass in a sentence. Joseph's family has become a nation, and a new Pharaoh who owes them nothing decides they are a threat. Slavery first, then an order to drown the baby boys. The empire's whole machinery is pointed at Hebrew infants — and it is defeated by women. Two midwives refuse and lie about it. A mother hides her son for three months and then puts him in a waterproofed basket in the reeds. His sister waits to see what happens. Pharaoh's own daughter finds him, knows exactly what he is, and keeps him — and pays his own mother to nurse him. The most powerful man in the world is outmanoeuvred by a handful of unnamed and unarmed women, and the boy grows up in his palace.