Shiphrah and Puah

November 4, 2024 Ally Portee

How two women engaged in one of the greatest acts of civil disobedience in The Bible

15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?” 19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.” 20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

Exodus 1:15-21

When you read original translations of this passage in Hebrew, it describes Shiphrah and Puah as “Hebrew midwives” or “midwives to the Hebrews.” We don’t know if they were Hebrew or Egyptian who disagreed with the king of Egypt but either way, they defied their king and let male babies live. Sometimes redemption comes through acts of disobedience. Think Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Harriett Tubman (who was called Moses), the many involved in the US Civil Rights Movement, Jochebed (the mother of Moses), and these two women: Shiphrah and Puah.

According to Merriam-Webster, civil disobedience is: the refusal to obey governmental demands or commands especially as a nonviolent and usually collective means of forcing concessions from the government. This is what these two Hebrew midwives essentially did, they civilly disobeyed an earthly king because they “feared God.”

To disobey requires a boldness, some kind of rebellion, fearlessness of consequences that might arise, and courage to obey God if He’s the one asking you to civilly disobey. This one act of disobedience by these two women set off a chain of other civil disobedience that ultimately led to God’s ultimate will: the Hebrew people gaining their freedom from 430 years of slavery. When Shiphrah and Puah disobeyed, it led Moses’s mother Jochebed to disobey the king’s ruling that led her to hiding her son in her house for 3 months. She had to act on faith to place him in a basket where he floated down the Nile until Pharaoh’s daughter discovered him. There Moses was able to live in plain sight as a royal, amongst the people that tried to kill him.

Other chains of civil disobedience were set off when Moses returned to Egypt demanding the Hebrew’s be set free. Through God unleashing plagues on the Egyptians, His ultimate will was done. If Shiphrah and Puah had not feared God more than the king of Egypt, Moses may have never been the one to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt and almost to their Promised Land.

The Nile River in Egypt

Sometimes despite the costs, we have to take a leap of faith and disobey. Now, I’m not advocating to disobey for the sake of disobeying, or to break laws because you feel you need to. God must unequivocally be guiding such moves, not our own plans, thoughts, or will. The truth of the matter is that when God calls people to do the things that Moses did, He will give favor and power to those people. It’s very dangerous to disobey laws, government leaders, and institutions in our own power and might.

Shiphrah and Puah’s act of civil disobedience shows that when we defy something we know is wrong and God is behind it all, some of the best acts of redemption and freedom will follow. Because Shiphrah and Puah obeyed God, He gave them babies of their own. Because Jochebed obeyed and fought to let her son live God aligned everything that with the witty help of Miriam (Moses’ sister), Jochebed was able to be a wet nurse for Moses and legally be with him, spending more time (Biblical historians say 2-3 years) as he grew, where he could hear his familial language being spoken. Time is often the best gift we can be given to be with someone, and for a mother like Jochebed this was the ultimate gift.

For these three women who defied the Egyptian king who wielded great power as Pharaoh, they were blessed even more and with no sorrow for their faith.