But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank. Now here are some almost funny changes. Even if they say that this is some other kind of asphalt than what we are familiar with, they still choose to change this to a word that gives modern readers a very false idea. Now slime is easy enough to understand. Few people have never been exposed to some sort of slime, and that there would be a kind good for caulking a boat with when combined with or covered by pitch, seems reasonable enough.
Flags are wild irises that grow by water.
Now this is actually kind of an important point here. Moses' mother put him in the flags, which, if they were blooming at that time, would easily attracted the attention of Pharaoh's daughter when she came to bathe. This may have been Jochabed's intention in an effort to save her baby's life. It is quite likely that the place where Pharaoh's daughter bathed was commonly known since she wouldn't bathe just anywhere.