TANAKH · EXODUS · 2 OF 5
The midwives’ courage
Read Exodus 1:15–22 through the king’s command, the midwives’ fear of God, and the lives their refusal preserves.
In this lesson
A command meets a different allegiance
Pharaoh has made Israel’s life bitter through forced labor, yet the people continue to grow. Exodus now follows the king’s attempt to control birth itself. The scene names two midwives, women who help mothers give birth: Shifrah and Puah. Their work places them beside the lives the ruler seeks to destroy.
Read Exodus 1:15–22 by following three kinds of speech: the king’s instruction, his question after it fails, and the women’s answer. Between those speeches, the narrator tells us what they did and why. Keeping those voices distinct lets their courage emerge from the text itself.
Hear what the king demands
וַיֹּאמֶר מֶלֶךְ מִצְרַיִם לַמְיַלְּדֹת הָעִבְרִיֹּת אֲשֶׁר שֵׁם הָאַחַת שִׁפְרָה וְשֵׁם הַשֵּׁנִית פּוּעָה׃
וַיֹּאמֶר בְּיַלֶּדְכֶן אֶת הָעִבְרִיּוֹת וּרְאִיתֶן עַל הָאָבְנָיִם אִם בֵּן הוּא וַהֲמִתֶּן אֹתוֹ וְאִם בַּת הִוא וָחָיָה׃The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one named Shifrah and the other named Puah. He said, “When you help the Hebrew women give birth and look upon the birthstool, if it is a son, put him to death; if it is a daughter, she shall live.”
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva; punctuation is editorial
The ruler gives different instructions for sons and daughters. He tries to turn the women’s life-preserving work into its opposite. In a chapter that begins with names, the midwives receive names while the king is identified by his position. Attend to the people the Torah brings into view.
1. What work does the king try to turn against the children?
The work of assisting at birth. He orders the midwives to kill sons while allowing daughters to live. The command is directed at the very moment when mothers and children need care.
2. Name the two women, and distinguish their role from the ruler’s.
Shifrah and Puah are midwives. Pharaoh rules Egypt and gives the command; the women are ordered to carry it out. Their power and position differ, but the next verse shows that the king does not determine their allegiance.
Read the narrator’s explanation
וַתִּירֶאןָ הַמְיַלְּדֹת אֶת הָאֱלֹהִים וְלֹא עָשׂוּ כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר אֲלֵיהֶן מֶלֶךְ מִצְרָיִם וַתְּחַיֶּיןָ אֶת הַיְלָדִים׃
The midwives feared God. They did not do as the king of Egypt had told them, and they kept the boys alive.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva; punctuation is editorial
The verse moves from allegiance to refusal to preservation of life. “Feared God” describes the reverence and obedience that govern their action. The narrator supplies this explanation before Pharaoh asks why his command was not fulfilled. Their faithfulness becomes visible in what they refuse to do and whom they keep alive.
Worked reading. A reader says, “The command failed because the midwives never had an opportunity to act.” Verse 17 gives a fuller account: they feared God and did not obey the king. Whatever we make of the answer they later give Pharaoh, we must preserve the narrator’s direct statement of their chosen conduct.
3. Which three parts of verse 17 belong together?
They feared God, did not carry out the king’s command, and kept the boys alive. The first gives the allegiance behind the action; the next two describe refusal and care.
4. Why should a summary include more than “the boys survived”?
That result alone would hide the women’s agency. The narrator explicitly says that the midwives did not do what the king commanded and kept the children alive.
Follow the question and reply
וַיִּקְרָא מֶלֶךְ מִצְרַיִם לַמְיַלְּדֹת וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶן מַדּוּעַ עֲשִׂיתֶן הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה וַתְּחַיֶּיןָ אֶת הַיְלָדִים׃
וַתֹּאמַרְןָ הַמְיַלְּדֹת אֶל פַּרְעֹה כִּי לֹא כַנָּשִׁים הַמִּצְרִיֹּת הָעִבְרִיֹּת כִּי חָיוֹת הֵנָּה בְּטֶרֶם תָּבוֹא אֲלֵהֶן הַמְיַלֶּדֶת וְיָלָדוּ׃The king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this and kept the boys alive?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous; before the midwife comes to them, they have given birth.”
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva; punctuation is editorial
Pharaoh’s question repeats their preservation of the children, but treats it as disobedience to be challenged. Their answer points to birth before the midwife arrives. First identify what each speaker says. Then return to the narrator’s explanation rather than letting the women’s answer to the king replace it.
This is close reading: we distinguish an action, an explanation given by the narrator, and an answer spoken within a dangerous encounter. Those are three different parts of the story. Keeping them distinct helps us notice why the same event can be described in very different ways.
5. Repair this summary: “The narrator says the women feared Pharaoh, so they obeyed.”
The narrator says the midwives feared God and did not do as the king commanded. Pharaoh’s summons shows the pressure surrounding their choice; it does not reverse the explanation in verse 17.
Read blessing beside escalation
Now read the remaining verses before opening the answer. In two columns, name what happens to the midwives and people, and what Pharaoh does next. Ask whether the first column means the danger has ended.
וַיֵּיטֶב אֱלֹהִים לַמְיַלְּדֹת וַיִּרֶב הָעָם וַיַּעַצְמוּ מְאֹד׃
וַיְהִי כִּי יָרְאוּ הַמְיַלְּדֹת אֶת הָאֱלֹהִים וַיַּעַשׂ לָהֶם בָּתִּים׃
וַיְצַו פַּרְעֹה לְכָל עַמּוֹ לֵאמֹר כָּל הַבֵּן הַיִּלּוֹד הַיְאֹרָה תַּשְׁלִיכֻהוּ וְכָל הַבַּת תְּחַיּוּן׃God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very strong. Because the midwives feared God, he made households for them. Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you shall throw into the Nile, and every daughter you shall keep alive.”
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva; punctuation is editorial
“Households” renders the Hebrew בָּתִּים, literally “houses.” The story links God’s good treatment of the midwives with their fear of him. Alongside that blessing, it records the people’s continuing growth. Then Pharaoh widens the audience of his command from the midwives to all his people and names the river as the place of death.
6. What continuity and what escalation do you find?
The people continue to multiply, as in the earlier scene. Pharaoh’s plan still targets sons, but he now addresses all his people and orders the newborn boys thrown into the Nile. God’s good treatment of the midwives does not mean Pharaoh has stopped threatening Israel.
Explain courage from the passage
Write a short account of the midwives’ courage without using the word “brave.” Identify the command, their allegiance, their action and the outcome. Include one thing the narrator says and one thing a character says. End by explaining why the chapter still leaves us waiting for deliverance.
7. Compare your account with this model.
Pharaoh orders Shifrah and Puah to kill the boys at birth. The narrator says they fear God, refuse the command and keep the boys alive. When Pharaoh questions them, they tell him the Hebrew women give birth before the midwife arrives. God deals well with them and Israel grows, yet Pharaoh issues a wider command to throw the boys into the Nile. Lives have been preserved within a crisis that continues.
Return without the page
At your next session, recall the midwives’ names and the three movements of verse 17. Then name the change in Pharaoh’s audience at the end. Check your recall against the verses before continuing.
8. What should stay clear in your memory?
Shifrah and Puah fear God, refuse the king’s command and keep the boys alive. At the end Pharaoh speaks to all his people, not only the midwives. Their faithful action matters even while the larger danger remains.
Read in context
- Exodus 1:15–22: the complete midwives scene.
- Names under oppression: the failed labor policy that precedes it.
Next, follow one family’s response to the danger at the river: A child by the river.