20, 21. God dealt well with the midwives—This represents God as rewarding them for telling a lie. This difficulty is wholly removed by a more correct translation. To "make" or "build up a house" in Hebrew idiom, means to have a numerous progeny. The passage then should be rendered thus: "God protected the midwives, and the people waxed very mighty; and because the midwives feared, the Hebrews grew and prospered." read more
I. THE LIBERATION OF ISRAEL 1:1-15:21"The story of the first half of Exodus, in broad summary, is Rescue. The story of the second half, in equally broad summary, is Response, both immediate response and continuing response. And binding together and undergirding both Rescue and Response is Presence, the Presence of Yahweh from whom both Rescue and Response ultimately derive." [Note: Durham, p. xxiii.] A. God’s preparation of Israel and Moses chs. 1-4 read more
2. The Israelites’ bondage in Egypt 1:8-22This pericope serves a double purpose. It introduces the rigorous conditions under which the Egyptians forced the Israelites to live, and it sets the stage for the birth of Moses. read more
Plan B consisted of ordering the Hebrew midwives to kill all the male Hebrew babies at birth. Albriight confirmed that these women’s names were Semitic. [Note: W. F. Albright, "Northwest-Semitic Names in a List of Egyptian Slaves from the Eighteenth Century B.C.," Journal of the American Oriental Society 74 (1954):233.] "They were to kill them, of course, secretly, in such a way that the parents and relatives would be unaware of the crime, and would think that the infant had died of natural... read more
Oppression of the Israelites5. Seventy souls] Jacob himself is included in the number: cp. Genesis 46:8-27. Of the seventy, sixty-eight were males. If to the direct descendants of Jacob we add the wives of his sons and grandsons, and the husbands of his daughters and grand-daughters, and all their servants with their families, it appears that the total number of those who entered Egypt was very considerable, several hundreds if not thousands. This fact, as well as the acknowlodged prolificness... read more
(15) The Hebrew midwives.—Or the midwives of the Hebrew women (ταῖς μαίαις τῶν Έβραίων, LXX.). The Hebrew construction admits of either rendering. In favour of the midwives being Egyptians is the consideration that the Pharaoh would scarcely have expected Hebrew women to help him in the extirpation of the Hebrew race (Kalisch); against it is the Semitic character of the names—Shiphrah, “beautiful;” Puah, “one who cries out;” and also the likelihood that a numerous and peculiar people, like the... read more
(16) Upon the stools.—Literally, upon the two stones. It has been suggested that a seat corresponding to the modern hursee elwilâdeh is meant. This is a “chair of a peculiar form,” upon which in modern Egypt the woman is seated during parturition. (See Lane, Modern Egyptians, vol. iii. p. 142.) But it does not appear that this seat is composed of “two stones;” nor is there any distinct evidence of its employment at the time of child-birth in Ancient Egypt. The emendation of Hirsch—banim for... read more
(17) The midwives feared God.—The midwives, whether Hebrews or Egyptians, believed in a God who would punish wrong-doing, and therefore resolved not to obey the Pharaoh. read more
(19) The Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women.—This was probably true; but it was not the whole truth. Though the midwives had the courage to disobey the king, they had not “the courage of their convictions,” and were afraid to confess their real motive. So they took refuge in a half truth, and pretended that what really occurred in some cases only was a general occurrence. It is a fact, that in the East parturition is often so short a process that the attendance of a midwife is dispensed... read more
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Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Exodus 1:17
17. But the midwives feared God—Their faith inspired them with such courage as to risk their lives, by disobeying the mandate of a cruel tyrant; but it was blended with weakness, which made them shrink from speaking the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. read more