SUMMARY
Women repeatedly thwart Pharaoh’s genocidal intentions.
ANALYSIS
In his next attempt to control Israel’s population, Pharaoh orders that all the male children of the Hebrews (an infrequent designation for Israelites) be killed by their midwives. The policy is not only despicable, it is also foolish: in the long run, Pharaoh would diminish his labor pool for heavy construction work. Pharaoh’s policy is undercut by the midwives who defend their action to Pharaoh by claiming that the Hebrew women are so vigorous that they give birth before the midwives can arrive. The Hebrew word for “vigorous” or “lively” (1:19) can also be translated as “animals.” The midwives turn Pharaoh’s own prejudices against him; he understands the Hebrews as “other,” and so he believes this lie that the midwives tell him. Pharaoh again looks silly, hardly an image of royal control.
Finally, Pharaoh orders that every male child that is born be thrown into the Nile. In the Hebrew text he fails to restrict the order to the Israelites. Defiance of his order comes from within his own household as his daughter takes Moses out of the river into Pharaoh’s own house. At this point the reader does not know the future role of MosesProphet who led Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land and received the law at Sinai., but on second reading every reader recognizes that Pharaoh is subverted from within his own householdA household is a living unit comprised of all the persons who live in one house. A household would embrace all the members of a family, including servants and slaves. In the book of Acts, stories are told of various persons and their households, like.... Again, he hardly looks like a sovereign who is in royal control. Once again, the text subtly mocks the Egyptian ruler even as the threat to Israel and God’s promises remains in place.
