An Exegesis of the Hebrew Midwives, Exodus 1:15-22

15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?” 19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.” 20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. 22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.” (NIV)

Exodus 1:15-22 is a short pericope narrative story derived from the teaching of the Torah of the Tanak or Hebrew Bible also referred to as the bible of the Old Testament for Christians. It depicts a story of Jacob’s 70 descendants in total who settled in Egypt from Canaan where they all died but also multiplied in numbers. The growing population of the Israelites in Egypt has made Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, very fearful toward these people because he viewed them as his enemies. So, the king enslaved and oppressed them with harsh labor.

But the more they were oppressed the more they grew in numbers. Seeing this, the king wanted to cease their population and thus he summoned the two Hebrew midwives named Shiphrah and Puah and ordered them to kill all infant boys immediately upon seeing their gender at the birthstool and only letting the girls lived. However, the midwives disobeyed the king’s instructions.

Thus the primary message of this passage is about the two midwives named Shiphrah and Puah who are god-fearing women and they allowed the infant boys to lived and because of this God was kind to them and give them families of their own (Ex 1:21).

Historical Context

According to Coogan (2011), the historical date of the book of Exodus is uncertain but proposed to have taken place between the sixteenth and the thirteenth centuries BCE. Other biblical traditions relate Exodus to other events as to have happened about 480 years prior to the construction of Solomon’s Temple as mentioned in 1 Kings 6:1 and as such put the Exodus at mid-fifteenth century, which is about 965 BCE in accordance to the chronological dates used in Coogan’s book. The computation of 480 years is derived from the product of twelve, which is the number of the tribes, multiplied by forty, the usual length of generation. The 480 years, however, seemed questionable to some scholars.

It is also connected during the time when the foreign Hyksos rulers of Egypt were expelled at around mid-sixteenth century BCE, which may have attributed a negative outcome for the Semitic populations of the Nile Delta. Some scholars, however, are skeptical about these historical dates simply because the persons and events portrayed in Exodus 1-15 such as the pharaohs, the Hebrews, Moses, Aaron, the plagues, or the destruction at the sea has no correlation with the ancestral history depicted in Genesis 12-50. Without the given proper names, skeptics are unlikely to think that the book of Exodus ever existed at all whereas other scholars, because of their biblical tradition beliefs have regarded it as sufficient in preserving Egyptian historical memory in ancient times.

Thus during the ancient time, the story of Exodus was passed on by ancient people and also that of the first-century historian named Josephus and other modern scholars thereafter. These stories were passed on both verbally and in writing and often modified and embellished as part of a sacred tradition that was very much valued that also needs to be preserve for its future generation. As with the historical exaggerated account of the Israelites captivity and escape from persecutions and oppression of Pharaoh, king of Egypt to enter into the Promise Land. It was estimated that six hundred thousand men not including women and children, other people, and great numbers of livestock have escaped as mentioned in Ex 12:37-38.

That number however, appears to be misleading in the proposition that if each of the men were to have a wife and two children, the population could sum up to reach over two million people considering the population that of occurrence during antiquity times is unlikely. In contrasting this with the verses narrative in 1:17, 21, that of the two midwives, who feared god could only be of service to relatively small number of expectant pregnant mothers; thus it is suggested that a small number of population is more appropriate as compared to the claimed number stated in verses 12:37-38, which does not correlate at all in terms of ratio is impossible between the expectant mother to the attending Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, at the time of birthing.

Literary Context

This narrative passage occurs midway and toward the end of first chapter of the book of Exodus when after Pharaoh, the king of Egypt took noticed that the Israelites had exceedingly increase and greatly multiplied in numbers that he began to fear them. And so he consulted and contrived with his own people to put slave masters to oppress over them, treating them ruthlessly, and working them with hard labor with bricks and mortars for his undergoing architectural construction projects under the reign of Rameses II.

Additionally, this passage occurs just before the second chapter of Exodus, which is the birth of Moses, born of a Levite woman, who obviously have been saved by the two Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, at the time of his birth and by his own mother to escape from Pharaoh’s command of infant genocide by putting him in a paper basket and let him float among the reeds at the Nile River where he was found by Pharaoh’s daughter who eventually became his adoptive mother.

Form, Structure, and Movement

The literary form of the Hebrew midwives is written as a descriptive prose narrative that gives the passage an authoritative meanness, destructive, dramatic, with hidden conviction, and cruelty tone to it. It is also structured as a paragraph and a dialogue that expresses a monarchial authority between that of a king and those who served him under his kingship. It was a time in which slavery and cruel oppression was underway for over 40 years and survival was sought by the weak and by their birth multiplication as they were being oppressed and dominated harshly.

The movement of the narrative has development stages starting from an authoritative instruction, to interrogation, and finally to a decree of annihilation to killing all infant male babies throughout Egypt. On the other hand, verses 19-21, provides and gives a response with morally outright conviction to that perhaps made the king consciously and feeling morally outwitted by the midwives of his evil plot that only served to enrage him more.

Detailed Analysis

In verse 15-16, the names of the two Hebrew midwives are being revealed as Shiphrah and Puah and these names are of Semitic language of the Hebrew, which means that the two midwives are more likely to be that of an Israelite descent and not Egyptian descent. Thus I would agree with McArthur’s (1988) commentary on this verse and can disagree with Clifford (1990) as he thinks the midwives are Egyptians based on the given phrase ‘the midwives to the Hebrew women.” In determining the midwives ancestral identity, it provides more weight to decipher it by their names as oppose to just the way how the verse is constructed or translated as it can be translated many ways; thus it does not give that much weight to it in revealing their true identity. Being this was in antiquity, people in antiquity were more culturally and traditionally set on their ways of living to include giving names to their children.

In verses 16-17, the king instructed the two midwives to kill all infant boys and let the infant girls lived. However, the midwives feared God and did not follow the king’s instructions. It appears then that because the midwives let the boys lived and not die; it must have been their moral professional integrity of their profession as midwives and their consciousness that guided them to save the lives of the infant boys.

Thus we can say that it is the midwives’ courageous act, moral characteristic, kindness, faith, and obedience, and the god-fearing people that they are that have consciously allowed them to do the right thing, which is saving lives. Because the fear of God does not mean like trembling or scared, but in a sense that as creatures of God we are to obey, have faith, love, trust, as well as have reverence to him as loving God.

In verses 18-19, the king summoned the midwives and asked them why they let the boys lived? At this point the king was enraged and possibly tried to frighten the midwives by his sovereign authority and interrogating them, however the midwives steadfastly replied, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.” Shiphrah and Puah were able to respond intelligibly and thus they could not perform the killing that the king ordered them to do. In addition, the response allowed them to be free of any punishment that the king may have set or planned for them before hand in his mind.

In verses 20-21, it tells how God was kind and even made the Israelite people multiply in numbers and also gave the midwives families of their own. This means that the midwives themselves were married and that they too also have families of their own to take care of beside of their profession. They were helping mothers bringing new life into the world. And more likely the reason why God was kind to them was because of their faith, reverence, and obedience to God as opposed to obedience to Pharaoh, who is not God, but a cruel human being.

Last verse 22, the enrage and furious king ordered his people to throw all infant boys into the Nile River to die; only letting the girls lived. This genocide to all male babies is the king’s plot because of his fear toward these people and also fearing that if a war breaks out in the country these people will be his enemies. This strategy, however, appears ineffective first, because he actually needed these people for the building of his architectural projects. Second, Yahweh is the one who is in control of the human agents of the story of his chosen people as told in the following narratives of book of Exodus.

Synthesis/Conclusion

The theme of this passage concerned the two Hebrew midwives during the reign of king Pharaoh in Egypt where he enslaved and oppressed the Israelites by hard labor working them with bricks and mortars for his architectural construction projects. It is the abuse of his power, authority, and taking advantage of people through enslavement treatment and injustice that which lead to his downfall and those under his kingship. It is a story of survival of the infant boys who were saved and rescued by the two Hebrew midwives from the cruelty and violent mind of Pharaoh because they feared and revered God. Thus, God was kind to them and made them families of their own. The purpose of the story is teaching us the moral integrity of our work, the value of life, and to love life and not takes it away.

Reflection

During the conduct of my research to see if this passage narrative is quoted in the Dead Sea Scrolls, I discovered that there are six manuscripts from the book of Exodus that are included in the Dead Sea Scrolls, however, it didn’t specify nor give details the entirety of what the manuscripts are. These manuscripts were found by some archaeologist in cave 2 that was excavated in 1952 as reported by Gleason Archer (A survey of the Old Testament Introduction / Inventory of the Scrolls).

In retrospect, this passage has been used in liturgies from both the Christian-religious that of the Protestant Assembly of God; although no mention of a specific occasion, but was preached nonetheless. Also, the Jewish religious faith-based community celebrated the Hebrew midwives in one of their Jewish liturgical calendar as symbols to recognized Jewish women in the Bible and as an encouragement of the Jewish women of today.

The Jewish interpretation of the passage has been translated to words of encouragement, and phrases such as hope, future, and dreams. These words of encouragement have allowed women, regardless of beliefs, to make a shift and viewed them as contributors to society as they progress in their chosen field of work in midwifery or other career-wise related field of work.

Finally, in reading this passage in the modern world, the Hebrew midwives embody strength of moral character in upholding the integrity and moral courage of their profession by helping and nurturing families in bringing new life into the world. They can inspire other midwives and any other professionals in any faith-based community the importance of maintaining and keeping moral integrity at home and at work. And that we can be rewarded by our accomplishments through our performance of good deeds and by being a good role models and examples to others in our faith community.

References:

Clifford, R. J. (1990). The new jerome biblical commentary. Exodus. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall.

Coogan, M. D. (2011). The old testament. A historical literary introduction to the hebrew
scriptures (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Inc..

Durham, J. I. (1987). Word biblical commentary. Exodus, Vol. 3. Nashville, TN: Thomas
Nelson Publishers.

McCarter, P. K. (1988). Harper’s bible commentary. Exodus. New York, NY: Harper Collins
Publishers.

The Dead Sea Scrolls (2006). Retrieved from https://bible.org/article/dead-sea-scrolls:
Inventory of the scrolls

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