Near the end of Exodus chapter one, we have the following statement: “Because the midwives feared Elokim, He made them בתים (houses).” What could that last phrase mean?

Here are some of the issues involved:

What is the meaning of “batim?”

Are the midwives Israelites or Egyptians?

Who made them? God or Pharaoh? (ויעש does not state who did this act.)

“Vayaas lahem” suggests that the beneficiaries were not women. Otherwise, it would have said להן. (Admittedly, these male/female grammatical principles are not always followed in Tanach. We have another example nearby, at Exodus 2:17: צאנם instead of צאנן.)

As further background, here are the prior verses (1:15-20): “The king of Egypt spoke to the ‘meyaldot haivriyot,’ one named “Shifra” and the other ‘Puah,’ saying, “When you deliver the Hebrew women, look at the birthstool: if it is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.” The midwives—fearing God—did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live. The king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, ‘Why have you done this thing, letting the boys live?’ The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women: they are vigorous. Before the midwife can come to them, they have given birth.” God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and increased greatly.”

Even though it is not stated in the verses, many have taken the position that the purpose of this midwife scheme was to trick the Israelite parents. When a death takes place in childbirth, the parents can be told that the infant died due to some other reason before or during birth. (Admittedly, after a while, if only female babies were born, this would generate suspicion.) I had not realized that this was the background until I wrote this article, but it makes sense. The midwives would need to make it look like they did nothing wrong, so that people would continue to use them.

Here are some of the interpretations of “vayaas lahem batim” in our sources:

Targum Yonatan: God made them “beit malchuta” and “beit kehunata rabata.” This is followed by Rashi: “batei khehunah uleviah umalchut.” Rashi adds that the priests and Levites came from Yocheved and the kings from Miriam. In rabbinic tradition, “Shifra” is “Yocheved” and “Puah” is “Miriam,” and Miriam was the wife of Caleb (who was from Yehudah). See Sotah 11b-12a. (But in another rabbinic tradition, the two midwives were “Yocheved” and “Elisheva,” wife of Aaron.)

Rashbam: Pharaoh set up buildings to guard these two women and prevent them from attending to future Israelite birthing women.

Ibn Ezra: God rewarded these Israelite women with many descendants. He cites Samuel 2, 7:11 where “bayit” could have the meaning “descendants.” Because they helped the Israelite population increase, they were rewarded the same way.

Hizekuni: “Batim” means “banim.”

Daat Zekenim: Pharaoh had houses built for the two Israelite women that would be placed next to Pharaoh’s servants, who would then be able to monitor them.

Radak (Sefer HaShorashim): God built the two women these buildings to hide them from Pharaoh who may have wanted to punish them.

Ralbag: “Batim” means “kings and leaders.”

Several interpret “batim” as “osher vekavod” (wealth and honor).

Another view is that the reference is to more Israelite houses that would call for these righteous women to assist in births.

Several suggest that Pharaoh built buildings—either for the Israelites or the Egyptians—for the purpose of placing Egyptian and Israelite homes next to one another. In this way, when an Israelite woman would give birth, the noise would wake up the Egyptian babies, and that noise would wake up the Egyptian parents. The Egyptian parents would then kill the Israelite baby.

According to others, Pharaoh built buildings that were like our clinics so that the Israelite women would no longer be delivering at home but would be delivering under state supervision.

Rabbi Dr. Hertz: “God built up their families or increased their prosperity.”

Umberto Cassuto: He cites 1 Kings 2:24 where “bayit” means “dynasty.”

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan: God gave them “great families (of their own).”

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After all that, what do I think? The first issue is whether the midwives were Israelite or Egyptian. I am going to agree with Samuel David Luzzatto, Rabbi Dr. Hertz and Malbim (see on 1:16) that they were Egyptians, or at least not Israelites. Rabbi Hertz writes: “It is hardly probable that the king would have expected Hebrew women to slay the children of their own people.” Also, the expression “fearing Elokim” is often used in Tanach to describe the beliefs of righteous non-Israelites. It is used twice in our story. (But I admit it is, sometimes, used for Israelites.) As pointed out in Luzzatto’s commentary, if the women had been Israelites, there would have been no need to mention their fear of Elokim. Also, the fact that they compared the Israelite women to Egyptian women suggests that they had prior background assisting Egyptian women.

(Writing in the last decade of the first century, Josephus too wrote that they were Egyptian. It is certainly possible that he was following a view of some Sages, now lost.)

There is a widespread view today that the names “Shifra” and “Puah” are Semitic. But their names being Semitic does not have to mean that they were Israelites. Goshen—which was near the land of Canaan—may have been an area where Semites lived who were not Israelites. (See Luzzatto.)

“Hameyaldot haIvriyot” can easily be interpreted to mean the non-Hebrew midwives who delivered the Hebrew women (as if there was an את in between the two words).

As to who is doing the “vayaas” in verse 21, the simplest understanding is that it is God, not Pharaoh, since God was the one acting in verse 20. Moreover, “vayaas” seems to be an explanation of the good things that God did to the midwives in the previous verse which were left unspecified there.

Certainly, a simple understanding of our phrase is that as a reward for their actions, God rewarded the midwives—measure for measure—with families and many children. (The root בית is used with a meaning like “family” at both Exodus 1:1 and Exodus 2:1 and surely many times elsewhere. I thank my friend Sam Borodach, z”l, for reminding me of this.) But Luzzatto offers a very interesting idea that I did not mention above. Perhaps it was precisely single women, or married women without children, who were the ones who were the midwives. (They had the extra time.) This would explain very simply why a home with family was the reward. (Perhaps this background to midwives was understood by all at the time and did not have to be spelled out.)

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A final issue that needs to be discussed is why the story refers to only two midwives. One possibility is that these were the chiefs of the midwives. Another possibility is that these were the midwives in an area where the better classes of Israelites lived—the ones who were the potential future leaders. But the simplest explanation is that of Luzzatto, which focuses on the plan’s secrecy: “Pharaoh did not wish to speak with all the midwives at once, for if all of them were to kill Israelite boys at the same time, the matter would become widely known. This would not happen if only two of them—and not the others—were to kill; they would be able to say that it was an accident.” Pharaoh would have spoken to more midwives later but the plan never got that far after its initial failure. In verse 22, Pharaoh went on to his next plan.

Mitchell First can be reached (usually in his “bayit”) at [email protected]