Exodus 1:8-21
Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.
Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.
And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which 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 stools; 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? And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them.
Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty. And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): The policy of the new Pharaoh was politically selfish. He attempted to stay the growth and break the power of the people.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Reasons of state were suggested for their dealing hardly with Israel. Pharaoh’s project was secretly to engage the midwives to stifle the male children as soon as they were born.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “But if it be a daughter, then she shall live.” This the king chose to have done, having nothing to fear from them, being of the feeble sex, and that they might serve to gratify the lust of the Egyptians, and that they might be married and incorporated into Egyptian families, there being no Hebrew males; and so, by degrees, the whole Israelite nation would be mixed with, and swallowed up in the Egyptian nation, which was what was aimed at.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Suppose this effort succeeded, what then? Why, the channel through which the promised Redeemer was to come would have been destroyed. If all the male children of the Hebrews were destroyed there had been no David, and if no David, no David’s Son. Just as Revelation 12:4 gives us to behold Satan working behind and through the wicked edict of Herod, Matthew 2:16, so we may discern him here working behind and through Pharaoh.
MATTHEW HENRY: When men deal wickedly, it is common for them to imagine that they deal wisely.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): In Pharaoh’s case, we see that he could accurately recount the various contingencies of human affairs, the multiplying of the people, the falling out of war, their joining with the enemy, their escape out of the land. All these circumstances he could, with uncommon sagacity, put into the scale; but it never once occurred to him that God could have anything whatever to do in the matter. Had he only thought of this, it would have upset his entire reasoning, and have written folly upon all his schemes. All this is the reasoning of a heart that had never learnt to take God into its calculations.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The order itself was inhuman enough; but it becomes, if possible, ten times more so, by making the midwives the executioners; thus obliging them not only to be savagely bloody, but basely perfidious in the most tender trust.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Reverence towards God had greater influence with them.
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): They feared God more than the king, and therefore chose to obey God rather than the king…they would not offend God by murdering the children, which they might have done many times secretly, and therefore it was only the fear of God which restrained them from it.
JOHN CALVIN: We must also observe the antithesis between the fear of God and the dread of punishment, which might have deterred them from doing right. Although tyrants do not easily allow their commands to be despised, and death was before their eyes, they still keep their hands pure from evil. Thus, sustained and supported by reverential fear of God, they boldly despised the command and the threatenings of Pharaoh. Wherefore those, whom the fear of men withdraws from the right course, betray by their cowardice an inexcusable contempt of God, in preferring the favour of men to His solemn commands.
MATTHEW HENRY: Note, If men’s commands be any way contrary to the commands of God, we must obey God and not man, Acts 4:19, Acts 5:29. No power on earth can warrant us, much less oblige us, to sin against God, our chief Lord. Again, Where the fear of God rules in the heart, it will preserve it from the snare which the inordinate fear of man brings.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Is it not a mark of grace in these women?
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Certain persons have spoken very unguardedly against this inspired record, saying, “The Hebrew midwives told palpable lies, and God commends them for it; thus we may do evil that good may come of it, and sanctify the means by the end.”
JOHN CALVIN: I hold, that whatever is opposed to the nature of God is sinful; and on this ground all dissimulation, whether in word or deed, is condemned.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): I see no sufficient reason to suppose, that there was the least prevarication in the midwives: for is it not natural to believe, that the same Divine Providence which so miraculously interposed for the multiplication of Israel, might grant an easy deliverance to the Hebrew women, and cause them to dispense with the assistance of midwives?
ROBERT HAWKER: I think it probable that the Hebrew women were distinguished with peculiar marks of divine favour in those seasons of child-bearing.
ADAM CLARKE: General experience shows that women, who during the whole of their pregnancy are accustomed to hard labour, especially in the open air, have comparatively little pain in parturition. The whole Hebrew nation, men and women, were in a state of slavery, and obliged to work in mortar and brick, and all manner of service in the field; and this at once accounts for the ease and speediness of their travail. With the strictest truth the midwives might say, “The Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women:” the latter fare delicately, are not inured to labour, and are kept shut up at home, therefore they have hard, difficult, and dangerous labours; but the Hebrew women are lively, are strong, hale, and vigorous, and therefore are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them.
MATTHEW POOLE: And so it might be—or, because the Hebrew women, understanding their danger, whereof they seem to have gotten notice, would not send for the midwives, but committed themselves to God’s providence. So here was nothing but truth, though they did not speak the whole truth, which they were not obliged to do.
ADAM CLARKE: The midwives boldly state to Pharaoh a fact—had it not been so, he had a thousand means of ascertaining the truth. And they state it in such a way as to bring conviction to his mind on the subject of his oppressive cruelty on the one hand, and the mercy of Jehovah on the other…Here then is a fact, boldly announced in the face of danger; and we see that God was pleased with this frankness of the midwives, and He blessed them for it.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: The closing verses present an edifying lesson in the conduct of those God-fearing women, Shiphrah and Puah. They would not carry out the king’s cruel scheme, but braved his wrath, and hence, God made them houses. “Them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed,” 1 Samuel 2:30. May we ever remember this, and act for God under all circumstances!
JOHN BOYS (1619-1625): Now, then: What is the most high and deep point of wisdom?
DANIEL de SUPERVILLE (1657-1728): “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,” Psalm 111:10. It is not only the beginning of wisdom, but the middle and the end. It is indeed the Alpha and Omega, the essence, the body and the soul, the sum and substance. He that hath “the fear of God,” is truly wise.
