Midwife
- 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.
The word "do the office of a midwife" is translated from yalad consisting of three letters YodLamedDealeth, which appears more than 500 times in the Bible but only translated midwife 10 times. It is commonly translated beget and according to Hebrew conjugation of Hithpael can mean "to declare one’s birth (pedigree)".[1]
The word we see translated stool appears twice in the Bible and is also translated wheel which is oben composed of the letters AlefBeitNun[2] which comes from the word meaning stone or stones.[3] Which is from the word BeitNunHey which means to build, set up or establish.[4]
- 17 But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.
18 And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive? 19 And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them. 20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty.
In verses 17 and 18 we see the words saved and alive. Both are from the single word ChetYodHey[5] which can be compared to ChetVavHey meaning "to tell, declare, show, make known."[6]
Eventually Pharaoh charged[7] that the male children are thrown into the river. How this "charge" was enforced nor can we be sure the form of its implantation or the motivation that allowed such a thing to take place. We fill in the gaps of our understanding with our own imaginations.
There is no doubt historically that abortions and infanticide were taking place at this time in history but once we understand that the tremendous leeway has been given to translators for interpretation by translating so many words in such a wide variety of ways we may be encouraged to take a deeper look at the text.
Comprehending the metaphors of the Hebrew language and meanings of the Hebrew letters may allow us to make a more complete study of the sophistry that led the Pharisees astray.
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Footnotes
- ↑ 03205 ^דלי^ yalad \@yaw-lad’\@ a primitive root; v; AV-beget 201, bare 110, born 79, bring forth 25, bear 23, travail 16, midwife 10, child 8, delivered 5, borne 3, birth 2, labour 2, brought up 2, misc 12; 498
- 1) to bear, bring forth, beget, gender, travail
- 1a) (Qal)
- 1a1) to bear, bring forth
- 1a1a) of child birth
- 1a1b) of distress (simile)
- 1a1c) of wicked (behaviour)
- 1a2) to beget
- 1b) (Niphal) to be born
- 1c) (Piel)
- 1c1) to cause or help to bring forth
- 1c2) to assist or tend as a midwife
- 1c3) midwife (participle)
- 1d) (Pual) to be born
- 1e) (Hiphil)
- 1e1) to beget or to father (a child)
- 1e2) to bear (fig. -of wicked bringing forth iniquity)
- 1f) (Hophal) day of birth, birthday (infinitive)
- 1g) (Hithpael) to declare one’s birth (pedigree)
- 1a1) to bear, bring forth
- 1a) (Qal)
- 1) to bear, bring forth, beget, gender, travail
- ↑ 070 ^ןבא^ ‘oben \@o’ben\@ from the same as 068; n m; AV-stools 1, wheels 1; 2
- 1) wheel, disc
- 1a) potter’s wheel
- 1b) bearing-stool, midwife’s stool
- 1) wheel, disc
- ↑ 068 ^ןבא^ ‘eben \@eh’- ben\@ from the root of 01129 through the meaning to build; n f; AV-stone(s) 247, weight(s) 7, divers weights + 068 3, hailstones 3, stony 2, carbuncle + 0688 1, hailstones + 01259 1, hailstones + 0417 1, headstone 1, masons + 07023 1, plummet 1, slingstones 1; 272
- 1) stone (large or small)
- 1a) common stone (in natural state)
- 1b) stone, as material
- 1b1) of tablets
- 1b2) marble, hewn stones
- 1c) precious stones, stones of fire
- 1d) stones containing metal (ore), tool for work or weapon
- 1e) weight
- 1f) plummet (stones of destruction) also made of metal
- 1g) stonelike objects, eg hailstones, stony heart, ice
- 1h) sacred object, as memorial Samuel set up to mark where
- 1i) (simile)
- 1i1) sinking in water, motionlessness
- 1i2) strength, firmness, solidity
- 1i3) commonness
- 1j) (metaph)
- 1j1) petrified with terror
- 1j2) perverse, hard heart
- 1i) (simile)
- 1) stone (large or small)
- ↑ 01129 ^הנב^ banah \@baw-naw’\@ a primitive root BeitNunHey; v; AV-build 340, build up 14, builder 10, made 3, built again + 08735 2, repair 2, set up 2, have children + 08735 1, obtain children + 08735 1, surely 1 (inf. for emphasis); 376
- 1) to build, rebuild, establish, cause to continue
- 1a) (Qal)
- 1a1) to build, rebuild
- 1a2) to build a house (ie, establish a family)
- 1b) (Niphal)
- 1b1) to be built
- 1b2) to be rebuilt
- 1b3) established (of restored exiles) (fig.)
- 1b4) established (made permanent)
- 1b5) to be built up (of childless wife becoming the mother of a family through the children of a concubine)
- 1a) (Qal)
- 1) to build, rebuild, establish, cause to continue
- ↑ 02421 ^היח^ chayah \@khaw-yaw’\@ a primitive root [compare 02331]; v; AV-live 153, alive 34, save 13, quicken 14, revive 12, surely 10, life 9, recover 8, misc 9; 262
- 1) to live, have life, remain alive, sustain life, live prosperously, live for ever, be quickened, be alive, be restored to life or health
- 1a) (Qal)
- 1a1) to live
- 1a1a) to have life
- 1a1b) to continue in life, remain alive
- 1a1c) to sustain life, to live on or upon
- 1a1d) to live (prosperously)
- 1a2) to revive, be quickened
- 1a2a) from sickness
- 1a2b) from discouragement
- 1a2c) from faintness
- 1a2d) from death
- 1a1) to live
- 1b) (Piel)
- 1b1) to preserve alive, let live
- 1b2) to give life
- 1b3) to quicken, revive, refresh
- 1b3a) to restore to life
- 1b3b) to cause to grow
- 1b3c) to restore
- 1b3d) to revive
- 1c) (Hiphil)
- 1c1) to preserve alive, let live
- 1c2) to quicken, revive
- 1c2a) to restore (to health)
- 1c2b) to revive
- 1c2c) to restore to life
- 1a) (Qal)
- 1) to live, have life, remain alive, sustain life, live prosperously, live for ever, be quickened, be alive, be restored to life or health
- ↑ 02331 ^הוח^ chavah \@khaw-vah’\@ a primitive root [compare 02324, 02421]; v; AV-shew 6; 6
- 1) (Piel) to tell, declare, show, make known 2) (CLBL) to breath
- ↑ Exodus 1:22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.