Exodus 1:15-18

"And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah: and he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the birthstool, if it be a son, then ye shall kill him, but if it be a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men-children alive. And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men-children alive?"

"Shiphrah ... Puah ..." "These women were not Egyptians but Hebrews, no doubt heads of the whole profession who were expected to communicate their instructions to their associates."[13]

This diabolical commandment of Pharaoh revealed the heartless, savage nature of Israel's enemies. "Kill all the male infants at birth!" Satan himself must have dictated this royal edict.

"The birth-stool ..." This was a form of chair upon which women in labor sat during the act of giving birth. "The Hebrew word [~'obnayim], meaning `two stones,' has two meanings, the stool itself, and the double stone of a potter's wheel."[14] From this, it may be inferred that the original birth-stool was merely a pair of stones upon which the woman in travail sat during child-birth. "This double meaning may also have been connected with the Egyptian belief that God creates men and fashions them into various shapes on a potter's wheel, just as the potter fashions pottery in his workshop."[15] Of course, such a belief was erroneous, but even the holy writers were evidently aware of it, apparently basing some of their arguments upon it (see Romans 9:19-24).

The midwives refused to obey Pharaoh's executive order, and Israel went right on multiplying more than ever just as they did after the imposition upon them of the brutal forced labor (Exodus 1:12). Incidentally, such forced labor is known as the corvee. The obvious failure of the royal strategy prompted this confrontation between the midwives and Pharaoh.