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Exodus 1:17-21
The midwives refuse the order, answer Pharaoh’s challenge with an explanation, and the account notes their security and Israel’s continued growth.
Meaning in context
The midwives refuse the order, answer Pharaoh’s challenge with an explanation, and the account notes their security and Israel’s continued growth.
Section 6 of 7
Midwives resist and are questioned
The midwives refuse the order, answer Pharaoh’s challenge with an explanation, and the account notes their security and Israel’s continued growth.
Movement
From slavery to covenant presence
Artifact
Deliverance route and tabernacle pattern
Biblical Timeline
Exodus & Settlement
Exodus context: 1500 BC - 1000 BC
Biblical Timeline
Exodus & Settlement
Exodus context
Exodus & Settlement / 1500 BC - 1000 BC
Exodus context is set in the exodus and settlement period, where Moses, the exodus, wilderness, covenant instruction, conquest, and judges.
Scripture Text
Thesis
The midwives refuse the order, answer Pharaoh’s challenge with an explanation, and the account notes their security and Israel’s continued growth.
Verse by Verse
Fear of God leads to active resistance The midwives “feared God,” and that fear is shown by disobeying the king of Egypt’s command. Instead of killing the baby boys, they keep them alive. The verse presents their motivation and their concrete action together.
Pharaoh investigates the disobedience The king summons the midwives and questions them directly. His question assumes they had the opportunity to kill the boys but chose not to, and he treats the situation as a deliberate act that needs explanation.
The midwives’ explanation to Pharaoh They answer that Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women: they are “vigorous” and give birth before a midwife arrives. Their reply shifts the blame away from the midwives’ choices and onto timing and differences in childbirth.
Literary Context
This unit continues the opening conflict of Exodus: a new Egyptian king reacts to Israel’s growth with escalating measures meant to control and reduce them (forced labor, then targeted killing). The midwives episode follows the earlier command to kill newborn boys and sets up the later, broader command to throw Hebrew sons into the Nile (1:22), which in turn frames the birth-and-rescue story of Moses in chapter 2. The passage moves in a tight sequence: command resisted, interrogation, reply, then outcome statements that highlight both Israel’s continued growth and the midwives’ well-being.
Historical Context
The scene assumes a setting where a centralized royal administration can issue orders to workers connected with childbirth, and where population growth among an immigrant or minority group is viewed as a political risk. “Pharaoh” functions as the title for Egypt’s ruler, and “Hebrew” marks an ethnic community living under Egyptian control in the Nile Delta region. Midwives are presented as identifiable agents in the birth process, expected to be reachable by royal authority. The text portrays a clash between state policy and the everyday realities of childbirth and household life.
Theological Significance
This scene presents a direct clash between royal power and moral accountability. The midwives and that fear shows up as concrete resistance: they do not carry out the king’s command and the baby boys live (explicit in v.17). Pharaoh treats their noncompliance as deliberate and demands an explanation (v.18).
Questions
Keep Studying
Outcomes for the midwives and for Israel The narrative reports that God treated the midwives well, and at the same time Israel continues to multiply and become very strong. It then adds a specific result tied to the midwives’ fear of God: God gave them “families,” presented as a fitting outcome flowing from their stance.
The story also links God’s response to what happened. After the midwives’ refusal and explanation, the narrator reports that God treated them well, Israel kept multiplying, and the midwives received “families” (vv.20–21). These are presented as outcomes tied to the midwives’ God-fearing stance (explicitly stated in v.21).
How truthful was the midwives’ explanation (v.19)? Some read their claim about Hebrew women giving birth before help arrives as basically accurate, perhaps reflecting differences in circumstances and timing. Others think it is partly or wholly strategic—an answer designed to deflect blame and avoid punishment, whether or not it was always true.
What does “God gave them families” mean (v.21)? Many take this to mean God gave the midwives children (a reversal of Pharaoh’s death policy). Others understand it more broadly as establishing their households—security, social standing, and ongoing family lines—without specifying biological children.
The text reports the midwives’ words but does not pause to confirm their factual accuracy. It also uses a brief phrase (“gave them families”) that can describe children, household establishment, or family status, and the passage does not spell out the mechanism.