Exodus 1:19
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. 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.
The verse belongs to the story in which the Hebrew midwives defied Pharaoh's command to kill the newborn sons and kept the male children alive. In it they answer Pharaoh that the Hebrew women were vigorous and gave birth before the midwives could reach them, and by this they concealed their refusal to carry out his order. They acted as they did because they feared God, and God approved of them and prospered them. The verse shows the appointed order that women are to attend, care for, and take charge of women in childbirth. Women should therefore be educated, trained, employed, and fairly valued as midwives and physicians for women, so that women rather than men do this work and treat the diseases of their sex.
Narrative Setting and Meaning
The verse belongs to the account of the Hebrew midwives defying Pharaoh's order to kill the newborn sons and saving the male children alive. It records their explanation to Pharaoh that the Hebrew women were lively and gave birth before the midwives arrived, an explanation that concealed their refusal to carry out the order. In that refusal the midwives feared God, and God approved of them and prospered them. Their defiance angered Pharaoh, who then ordered all his people to throw every newborn Hebrew son into the river.
Women Caring for Women
In Bible times it was the order and appointed work for women to serve as midwives who attended women in childbirth, cared for them, and took charge of them in delivery. The verse belongs to that arrangement, showing Hebrew midwives as the attendants at birth who explain that the Hebrew women give birth before they arrive. It therefore teaches that women should take responsibility for women in confinement and childbirth and care for them at that time. That responsibility includes taking charge of women in childbirth under the Bible-era order in which women cared for women.
Men should not perform this childbirth work nor take over work assigned to women, but women rather than men should attend deliveries. Women physicians rather than male physicians should attend childbirth, keeping men from taking what was assigned to women. For this reason women should be educated and trained to do the work skillfully, to serve as midwives and physicians for women. They should be trained and employed as midwives and physicians for women, educated to take responsibility for childbirth care, to treat diseases of their sex, and to be fairly valued for their services.
As women take responsibility for women, the Lord works with them in that care.