Prior Book | Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | Exodus 1:15 ¶ Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other was named Puah; |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Exodus 1:15 ¶ Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah (beauty) and the other named Puah (splendor), |
Subject: Hebrew? |
Bible Note: Greetings, What I was trying to say and did a bad job of was it is possible that the midwives were Egyptian. I wanted to see if anyone had any opinion that they were or weren't. My reasoning is this: when the midwives are first introduced they are called Hebrew midwives, which suggests that they were Hebrew. But actually that can mean that they were midwives who were Hebrew or that they were midwives to the Hebrew people. Actually they were probably not Hebrew since if they were, Pharaoh couldn't of expected compliance and must of realized that his plan was doomed from the start. Also in v. 16 he makes a distinction between the two when he said "when you help the Hebrew women in childbirth.." If they weren't Hebrew they must of learned about the Hebrew God and feared Him more than Pharaoh. Some other interesting points: To the Hebrew people sheppherds were the lowest of the low and Pharaoh would not of treated them with the respect that he did. Also, 2 midwives would not of been able to serve 3-500,000 people who were 'multiplying greatly'. More than likely they were administrative and had many midwives under them. They would had to of told the staff under them to kill all the boys if they wanted to go along with Pharaoh. How would they of gotten the staff to go along? prayon |