ותרד. מארמונה: AND THE DAUGHTER OF PHARAOH CAME DOWN. From her palace.
לרחוץ. מנהג המצריות היה. והזכיר דבר נערותיה שהולכות על מקום היאור. כמו ויד תהיה לך. בעבור ששלחה אמתה והיא אחת מהנערות לקחת התיבה. כי בת המלך לא תכנס אל מקום הסוף. כי במקום רחוק מן היבשה הושמה התיבה שלא יגיע אליה כל עובר. ועוד כי אין מדרך הדקדוק להיות זרועה כי המ"ם רפה ומ"ם אמה ארכו דגוש. ועוד כי אמה ארכו מדה לא זרוע: TO BATHE IN THE RIVER. As was the custom of Egyptian women. Scripture notes that her maidens walked by the riverside — the meaning of yad (side, place) here is the same as that of yad (place) in Thou shalt have a place (Deut. 23:13)97Yad means a hand. However, here as in Deut. 23:13 it means a place. Thus yad ha-ye’or means side of the river (place of the river), not hand of the river. — because it goes on to say that she sent her handmaid (Amatah), who was one of the maidens, to fetch the ark.98I.E. makes this point because there is an interpretation that amatah (her handmaid) means her arm. For a princess would not go among the flags, and the ark was placed far from the shore so that no one passing by would touch it. Furthermore, from a grammatical point of view the word amah (handmaid) cannot mean an arm, because its mem does not have a dagesh while the mem of ammah (cubit) in A cubit shall be the length thereof (Gen. 30:2) does.99Hence they are not one and the same word, even assuming for the moment that ammah (cubit) means an arm. Additionally, ammah (cubit) in A cubit shall be the length thereof refers to a measure and not to an arm.100Even if we should connect the word amatah with ammah, ammah does not mean her arm. It means her cubit.