How Long Did Pharaohs Demand Israelite Babys Be Killed

March 09, 2022 Post a Comment

Midwives who announced in the Volume of Exodus

Shiphrah (Hebrew: שִׁפְרָה Šīp̄ərā ) and Puah (Hebrew: פּוּעָה Pūʿā ) were two midwives who briefly prevented a genocide^[1] of children past the Egyptians, according to Exodus i:15–21. According to the Exodus narrative, they were commanded past the King of Egypt, or Pharaoh, to kill all male person Hebrew babies, but they refused to do so. When challenged by the Pharaoh, they told him that Hebrew women'southward labour was curt-lived considering they were 'lively'^[2] or 'vigorous',^[3] and therefore the babies had been born (and protected) before the midwives arrived. God "dealt well with the midwives" and "made them houses".^[4]

Exodus 1:15–1:21 [edit]

fifteen And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the proper name of the one was Shiphrah, and the proper name of the other Puah;
16 and he said: 'When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, ye shall wait upon the birthstool: if it be a son, and so ye shall kill him; simply if it exist a girl, and so she shall live.'
17 Only the midwives feared God, and did non equally the king of Arab republic of egypt commanded them, just saved the men-children alive.
eighteen And the rex of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them: 'Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men-children live?'
19 And the midwives said unto Pharaoh: 'Because the Hebrew women are non as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwife come unto them.'
20 And God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty.
21 And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that He made them houses.^[5]

Interpretations [edit]

The Talmud [Sotah 11b] identifies Shiphrah with Jochebed, the mother of Moses, and Puah with Miriam, Moses' sister, making the two midwives female parent and daughter respectively.^[6]

"The midwives feared God" [edit]

The Torah has no word for religion. The closest related concept found in the Torah is what it calls "the fright of God" (Exod. 1:17). The midwives apparently believed that God'south moral demands outweighed Pharaoh'southward legal demands.^[7] For this reason, writer Francine Klagsbrun said that the midwives' refusal to follow the Pharaoh's genocidal instructions "may be the kickoff known incident of civil disobedience in history."^[eight] Theologian Jonathan Magonet agrees, calling them "the earliest, and in some ways the nearly powerful, examples, of resistance to an evil regime".^[nine]

The "fear of God" theme is reversed a few verses subsequently when Pharaoh commands the Egyptian people to conduct out the genocide (Exod. 1:22). The Egyptians apparently feared Pharaoh more than they feared God, and therefore, participated in the crime. Rabbi Joseph Telushkin compared the Shiphrah and Puah'due south defection with the rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust, many of whom had been religious. Those who aided the Nazis, on the other paw, feared the Nazis' power more than than they feared (or even believed in) God's judgment.^[ten]

"Made Houses" [edit]

Commentators have interpreted Exodus 1:20–21 in diverse ways.^[xi] Some scholars argue that the two halves of each verse are parallel, then that it is the Israelites ('who multiplied and grew profoundly') for whom God 'made houses'. This fits with the reference in Exodus 1:i to the children of State of israel coming down to Egypt, each with his "house". However, Magonet notes^[ix] that the more common view is that the houses are for the midwives - "houses" hither being understood as 'dynasties'. Rabbinic idea has understood these every bit the houses of kehunah (priesthood), leviyah (assistants to the priests), and royalty – the latter interpreted equally coming from Miriam.^[12]

Names [edit]

The proper name Šp-ra is constitute in a list of slaves in Egypt during the reign of Sobekhotep III (around 1745 BCE^[thirteen]). This listing is on Papyrus Brooklyn 35.1446, in the Brooklyn Museum. The museum states that "Scholars presume that this is a hieroglyphic transliteration of the Hebrew proper noun Shiphra."^[14] The name ways "to exist fair" or "cute", and may exist related to, or even the aforementioned as, the Aramaic Sapphira and (upwards to slight morphological adaptations) as Shiphrah, the name of the Hebrew midwife. The proper noun of the 2d midwife, Puah, is a Canaanite proper noun which means "lass" or "little daughter".^[fifteen]

External links [edit]

Original text of Exodus Chapter ane

Hebrew – English original text at Mechon-Mamre.org
Jewish Publication Guild translation at Mechon-Mamre.org
Judaica Press translation with Rashi'due south commentary at Chabad.org

References [edit]

^ Limmer, Seth 1000.; Pesner, Jonah Dov (2019). Moral Resistance and Spiritual Authority: Our Jewish Obligation to Social Justice. CCAR Printing. ISBN9780881233193 . Retrieved 11 January 2019.
^ Exod. i:xix NKJV
^ Exod. one: 19 NIV
^ "Exodus 1 / Hebrew - English Bible / Mechon-Mamre". www.mechon-mamre.org . Retrieved xiv Nov 2017.
^ "Exodus 1 / Hebrew - English Bible / Mechon-Mamre". world wide web.mechon-mamre.org.
^ See for example Judah Loew ben Bezalel'due south Gur Aryeh: Sifrei Chachamim ('Books of the Wise').
^ Kushner, Harold, ed. of the d'rash commentary. "Exodus." Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary. New York: The Jewish Publication Guild, 2001.
^ Voices of Wisdom, ISBN 0-394-40159-10
^ ^a ^b Magonet, Jonathan (1992) Bible Lives (London: SCM), 8.
^ Telushkin, Joseph. A Lawmaking of Jewish Ethics: Volume 1 - You lot Shall Exist Holy. New York: Bell Tower, 2006. p. 488.
^ Magonet, Jonathan (1992) Bible Lives (London: SCM), 7–8.
^ See for instance Talmud Tractate Sotah 11b; and Exodus Rabbah 1:17.
^ van Heel, Koenraad Donker (2014). Mrs. Tsenhor. Oxford Academy Printing. p. 114. ISBN978-977-416-634-1.
^ "Portion of a Historical Text".
^ Albright, Westward. F. (1954). "Northwest-Semitic Names in a List of Egyptian Slaves from the Eighteenth Century B. C.". Journal of the American Oriental Lodge. 74 (4): 223, 229. doi:ten.2307/595513. ISSN 0003-0279. JSTOR 595513.