As the first plan miscarried, the king proceeded to try a second, and that a bloody act of cruel despotism. He commanded the midwives to destroy the male children in the birth and to leave only the girls alive. The midwives named in Exodus 1:15, who are not Egyptian but Hebrew women, were no doubt the heads of the whole profession, and were expected to communicate their instructions to their associates. ויּאמר in Exodus 1:16 resumes the address introduced by ויאמר in Exodus 1:15. The expression על־האבנים, of which such various renderings have been given, is used in Jeremiah 18:3 to denote the revolving table of a potter, i.e., the two round discs between which a potter forms his earthenware vessels by turning, and appears to be transferred here to the vagina out of which the child twists itself, as it were like the vessel about to be formed out of the potter's discs. Knobel has at length decided in favour of this explanation, at which the Targumists hint with their מתברא. When the midwives were called in to assist at a birth, they were to look carefully at the vagina; and if the child were a boy, they were to destroy it as it came out of the womb. וחיה for חייה rof ו from חיי, see Genesis 3:22. The w takes kametz before the major pause, as in Genesis 44:9 (cf. Ewald, 243a).

Exodus 1:22 Parallel Commentaries

A.M.

2431. B.C.

1573. Every son.

Exodus 1:16 And he said, When you do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the stools; if it be a son...

Exodus 7:19-21 And the LORD spoke to Moses, Say to Aaron, Take your rod, and stretch out your hand on the waters of Egypt, on their streams...

Psalm 105:25 He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal subtly with his servants.

Proverbs 1:16 For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.

Proverbs 4:16 For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.

Proverbs 27:4 Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?

Acts 7:19 The same dealt subtly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children...

Revelation 16:4-6 And the third angel poured out his vial on the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood...