Exodus 1:16

_AND HE SAID, WHEN YE DO THE OFFICE OF A MIDWIFE TO THE HEBREW WOMEN, AND SEE THEM UPON THE STOOLS; IF IT BE A SON, THEN YE SHALL KILL HIM: BUT IF IT BE A DAUGHTER, THEN SHE SHALL LIVE._ When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools, х_ `AL_ (H5921) _ HAA'AABªNAAYIM_ (H70)] - upon the two stones. The word occurs in other passages, where it signifies vessels of stone (Exodus 7:19), and a potter's vessel (Jeremiah 18:3). Opinions are divided as to what was the mode of destruction which the king pointed out. Some, as Gesenius, think that the "stools" were low seats, such as are frequently represented on the Egyptian monuments; and our version represents the labo

15-22 The Egyptians tried to destroy Israel by the murder of their children. The enmity that is in the seed of the serpent, against the Seed of the woman, makes men forget all pity. It is plain that the Hebrews were now under an uncommon blessing. And we see that the services done for God's Israel are often repaid in kind. Pharaoh gave orders to drown all the male children of the Hebrews. The enemy who, by Pharaoh, attempted to destroy the church in this its infant state, is busy to stifle the rise of serious reflections in the heart of man. Let those who would escape, be afraid of sinning, and cry directly and fervently to the Lord for assistance....

Verse Exodus 1:16. _UPON THE STOOLS_] על האבנים _al haobnayim_. This is a difficult word, and occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible but in Jeremiah 18:3, where we translate it the _potter's wheels_. As אכי signifies a _stone_, the _obnayim_ has been supposed to signify a _stone trough_, in which they received and washed the infant as soon as born. _Jarchi_, in his book of _Hebrew roots_, gives a very different interpretation of it; he derives it from בן _ben_, a _son_, or בנים _banim, children_; his words must not be literally translated, but this is the sense: "When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and ye see that the birth is broken forth, if it be a son, then ye shall kill him." Jonathan ben Uzziel gives us a curious reason for the...

UPON THE STOOLS - Literally, “two stones.” The word denotes a special seat, such as is represented on monuments of the 18th Dynasty, and is still used by Egyptian midwives....

EXPOSITION EXODUS 1:15-2 Some time—say five or six years—having elapsed and the Pharaoh's first plan having manifestly failed, it was necessary for him either to give up his purpose, or to devise something else. Persevering and tenacious, he preferred the latter course. He bethought himself that a stop might be put to the multiplication of the Israelites by means of infanticide on a large scale. Infanticide was no doubt a crime in Egypt, as in most countries except Rome; but the royal command would legitimate almost any action, since the king was recognised as a god; and the wrongs of a foreign and subject race would not sensibly move the Egyptian people, or be likely to provoke remonstrance. On looking about for suitable instruments to carry out his design, it struck the monarch that something, at any rate, might be done by means of the midwives who at

AND HE SAID, WHEN YE DO THE OFFICE OF A MIDWIFE TO THE HEBREW WOMEN,.... Deliver them of their children: AND SEE [THEM] UPON THE STOOLS; seats for women in labour to sit upon, and so contrived, that the midwives might do their office the more readily; but while they sat there, and before the birth, they could not tell whether the child was a son or a daughter; wherefore Kimchi h thinks the word here used signifies the place to which the infant falls down from its mother's belly, at the time of labour, and is called the place of the breaking forth of children, and takes it to be the "uterus" itself; and says it is called "Abanim", because "Banim", the children, are there, and supposes "A" or "Aleph" to be an additional letter; and so the sense then is, not when ye see the women on the seats, but the children in the place of coming forth; but then he asks, if it be so, why does he say, "a...

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS I. ISRAEL'S DELIVERANCE OUT OF THE HANDS OF THE EGYPTIANS 1. The House of Bondage CHAPTER 1 _ 1. The names of the children of Israel; their increase (Exodus 1:1)_ 2. The new king and his policy (Exodus 1:8) 3. The continued increase (Exodus 1:12) 4. Their hard bondage (Exodus 1:13) 5. The midwives commanded (Exodus 1:15) 6. Their disobedience and God's reward (Exodus 1:17) 7. Pharaoh's charg

EXODUS 1:15 E ( EXODUS 1:20 B J). ATTEMPT TO DESTROY MALE CHILDREN. From another source we learn of two more ineffectual measures to restrict population. The two midwives, whose names tradition loved to recall for their heroism (while careless about the Pharaoh's name!), were, according to Josephus, Egyptian. Though commentators differ, the tone of the passage confirms that view, which requires the rendering, the midwives of the Hebrew women (lit. those women who help the Hebrew women to bring forth). Humanity and natural religion (they feared God, _cf._ Genesis 20:11; Genesis 42:18) outweighed the royal command. The proce

SEE THEM UPON THE STOOLS— The word אבנים _abnim_ occurs only here, and Jeremiah 18:3. The LXX have not translated it. _IF IT BE A SON,—YE SHALL KILL HIM_— The order itself was inhuman enough; but it becomes, if possible, ten times more so, by making the midwives the executioners; thus obliging them not only to be savagely bloody, but basely perfidious in the most tender trust. Josephus says, that a prophecy of a child to be born of the Hebrew race, who should greatly annoy the Egyptians, determined Pharaoh to make this decree; but the sacred writer gives no hint of any such prediction, and refers us to a more satisfactory cause, Exodus 1:10. The reasons are evident, why the daughters were to be saved; from whom no wars could be feared....

THE TEXT OF EXODUS TRANSLATION 1 Now these are the names of the sons of Is-ra-el, who came into E-gypt (every man and his household came with Jacob): (2) Reu-ben, Sim-e-on, Le-vi, and Ju-dah, (3) Is-sa-char, Zeb-u-Iun, and Ben-ja-min, (4) Dan and Naph-ta-li, Gad and Asher. (5) And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: and Joseph was in E-gypt already. (6) And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. (7) And the children of Is-ra-el were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them. (8) Now there arose a new king over E-gypt, who knew not Joseph. (9) And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Is-ra-el are more and mightier than we: (10) come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any...