Discover who Shiphrah and Puah were in the Bible, the two midwives who feared God more than Pharaoh and helped preserve Israel's future in Egypt.
Summary Table
| Topic | Description |
|---|
| Names | Shiphrah and Puah |
| Role | Hebrew midwives in Egypt |
| Bible Reference | Exodus 1:15–21 |
| Time Period | Early years of Israel's slavery in Egypt, before Moses' birth |
| Main Command Defied | Pharaoh's order to kill all newborn Hebrew boys |
| Main Lesson | Fearing God is more important than fearing human power |
| Reward from God | He gave them households (families) of their own |
Biblical Background
Historical Setting
The story of Shiphrah and Puah opens the book of Exodus, and it begins with a troubling shift in Israel's fortunes. Genesis ends on a hopeful note. Joseph has risen to power in Egypt, his family has settled safely in the land of Goshen, and seventy members of Jacob's household are thriving under Pharaoh's protection. But Exodus 1:8 introduces a jarring change: "Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph." This new ruler had no personal memory of Joseph's service to Egypt, and he saw the growing Israelite population as a threat rather than a blessing.
Scholars continue to debate exactly which Pharaoh this was, since Exodus does not name him directly. Some historians connect this period with the rise of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, while others place it earlier, during the Hyksos period or its aftermath. Because Egyptian records rarely mention foreign slave populations by name, it is difficult to pin down an exact date with certainty. What the text makes clear, however, is the change in atmosphere: the Israelites, once welcomed guests, had become the object of fear and suspicion.
Exodus 1:9–10 records Pharaoh's own words to his people: he worried that the Israelites had become "too many and too mighty" and feared that, in the event of war, they might join Egypt's enemies and escape the land. This fear led to forced labor. The Israelites were put to work building the store cities of Pithom and Raamses (Exodus 1:11). Yet the text says that "the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread" (Exodus 1:12). Unable to slow Israel's growth through hard labor, Pharaoh turned to a far more sinister plan, and this is where Shiphrah and Puah enter the story.
It is worth pausing here to note something readers sometimes miss. This is not simply a story about two women; it is the hinge point of the entire Exodus narrative. Without their courage, the events that follow, including the birth and survival of Moses, may never have happened. The Bible often highlights the choices of ordinary, seemingly small figures at pivotal moments in salvation history, and Shiphrah and Puah are a striking early example of that pattern.
Geographic and Cultural Context
The setting of this account is Egypt, most likely in the eastern Nile Delta region, where the Israelites had settled generations earlier in the land of Goshen (Genesis 47:6). Goshen offered fertile pastureland well suited to the shepherding lifestyle of Jacob's descendants, and it kept some distance between the Israelites and the Egyptian population centers along the Nile.
By the time of Shiphrah and Puah, however, that comfortable arrangement had unraveled. The Israelites were now conscripted laborers, forced to serve Egyptian building projects under harsh conditions (Exodus 1:13–14). In the ancient Near East, forced labor of this kind was common practice for controlling foreign or subject populations, and Egyptian records from this general era do describe the use of Semitic laborers on state construction projects, which fits well with the biblical description.
The names Shiphrah and Puah themselves are worth a closer look. Both are genuine Northwest Semitic names, the same family of languages that includes Hebrew and Canaanite dialects. Interestingly, a name very close to "Shiphrah" appears in an Egyptian administrative document known as Papyrus Brooklyn 35.1446, a household list of servants dating to roughly the eighteenth century BC. Scholars disagree on how much weight this discovery should carry. Some see it as meaningful evidence that names like Shiphrah were genuinely in use among Semitic servants in Egypt during this general period, lending historical plausibility to the biblical account. Others caution that a similar-sounding name in one document, centuries removed from the events of Exodus, cannot by itself prove a direct historical link to the specific midwives of the Bible. Readers should treat this archaeological detail as an interesting point of background color rather than definitive proof, since the strength of the connection is genuinely debated among historians.
What is not debated is the cultural role midwives played in this world. Midwifery was one of the few professions in the ancient world where women held real, specialized authority, often passed down through experience and oral tradition rather than formal schooling. A midwife would have been a trusted, respected figure within her community, present at the most vulnerable moments of a family's life. This is part of what makes Pharaoh's plan so calculated. He tried to weaponize a role built on trust and turn it into an instrument of death.
The Biblical Account
Major Events
Exodus 1:15–16 records Pharaoh's direct order: "When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live." This command targeted only male infants, likely because Pharaoh wanted to eliminate future soldiers while still allowing Hebrew women to survive and, presumably, be absorbed into Egyptian households or intermarried over time. It was a chillingly efficient form of population control disguised as routine medical instruction.
Exodus 1:17 gives us the turning point of the whole account: "But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live." This single verse is the theological heart of the story. The text does not say the midwives were simply brave or morally opinionated; it says they "feared God." In the Bible, the fear of God consistently refers to a deep reverence and awe toward God that reorders a person's priorities, placing loyalty to Him above every earthly authority, including kings. Their fear of God was greater than their fear of Pharaoh, and that reordered fear produced action.
When Pharaoh eventually confronted the midwives and demanded to know why the boys were still alive, they offered a clever and revealing explanation. Exodus 1:19 records their answer: "Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them." Commentators have long discussed this statement. Some read it simply as a shrewd excuse, a half-truth crafted to protect themselves and the babies without directly confronting Pharaoh's authority. Others note that Hebrew women, accustomed to physical labor, likely did have quicker and easier deliveries than the more sheltered women of Egyptian nobility, meaning the explanation may have carried real truth even if it was not the full reason for their disobedience. Either way, Scripture does not condemn the midwives for their answer. Instead, the passage moves immediately to God's response to their actions.
Exodus 1:20–21 tells us the outcome: "So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families." The Hebrew phrase translated "families" literally means "houses," a common Old Testament idiom for descendants and a lasting legacy. In a culture where family lineage and children were considered signs of divine blessing, this was a deeply meaningful reward. God did not merely spare the midwives from punishment; He actively blessed them for their faithfulness.
Frustrated that his plan through the midwives had failed, Pharaoh escalated his cruelty even further. Exodus 1:22 records his final, most extreme order: "Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live." This command, issued to all of his people rather than to a small group of midwives, sets the stage directly for Exodus chapter 2, in which a Hebrew mother hides her infant son in a basket among the reeds of the Nile. That child, of course, is Moses.
Key Biblical Characters
Shiphrah is named first in the biblical text (Exodus 1:15) and appears to have held a position of some authority or seniority among Hebrew midwives, since only two names are given despite the size of Israel's population at the time. This likely means Shiphrah and Puah were prominent, respected leaders over a larger group of practicing midwives, rather than the only two midwives serving the entire nation.
Puah is named second and shares equal credit with Shiphrah for the decision to disobey Pharaoh. The text treats both women as a unified pair acting from the same conviction, and Scripture never separates their courage or their reward.
Pharaoh, though unnamed, functions as the antagonist of the account. His shifting strategy, from forced labor, to secret infanticide, to a public decree of drowning, shows an escalating pattern of desperation and cruelty as each plan fails to stop Israel's growth.
A genuinely debated question among readers and scholars concerns the ethnicity of Shiphrah and Puah themselves. The Hebrew phrase in Exodus 1:15 can be translated either as "the Hebrew midwives" (implying the women were themselves Israelites) or as "midwives to the Hebrews" (implying they may have been Egyptian women who served the Hebrew community). Both translations appear in respected English Bibles, and Hebrew grammar alone cannot fully settle the question. This matters for interpretation because if the midwives were Egyptian, their act of defiance becomes an example of a foreign people choosing to honor God over their own king and ethnic loyalty, similar to figures like Rahab later in Scripture. If they were Hebrew women, their courage is an example of Israel's own faith community resisting oppression from within. Readers should hold this question with appropriate humility, since Scripture itself does not resolve it definitively.
It is also worth noting a later Jewish tradition, found in rabbinic literature such as the Talmud, that identifies Shiphrah and Puah with Jochebed and Miriam, the mother and sister of Moses. According to this tradition, "Shiphrah" was a descriptive nickname referring to Jochebed's care in making the babies "beautiful," while "Puah" referred to Miriam's habit of "crying out" or cooing to soothe the infants. This is a meaningful interpretive tradition within Judaism, but it comes from later rabbinic commentary rather than from the biblical text itself, and Exodus never makes this identification directly. It should be understood as tradition, not as a stated biblical fact.
Meaning and Lessons
What Can We Learn Today?
The story of Shiphrah and Puah offers one of the clearest biblical examples of civil disobedience rooted in faith. The midwives did not organize a public rebellion or confront Pharaoh with open defiance. Instead, they quietly refused to participate in evil while continuing to serve within their role. This models an important biblical principle found throughout Scripture: when human authority commands what God forbids, believers are called to obey God rather than man (compare Acts 5:29). At the same time, the story shows that this kind of resistance does not always look loud or dramatic. Sometimes faithfulness looks like quietly refusing to do harm, even while remaining in a difficult or dangerous position.
This account also teaches that God notices and rewards faithfulness, even when it happens far from public attention. No one but Pharaoh and the midwives themselves likely knew the details of what had happened in those birthing rooms, yet Scripture tells us plainly that "God dealt well with the midwives" (Exodus 1:20). This is a comforting reminder for anyone who feels that their quiet acts of integrity go unnoticed. God sees what others do not, and He is not indifferent to obedience offered in hidden places.
The story also has an important lesson about influence and position. Shiphrah and Puah were not kings, priests, or wealthy landowners. They were working women in a profession that history often overlooked. Yet their decision changed the future of an entire nation. The Bible consistently shows that God uses people from ordinary walks of life to accomplish extraordinary purposes, a pattern repeated later with figures like the shepherd boy David and the young girl who served Naaman's wife.
Finally, this account offers a sobering picture of how fear and power can corrupt leadership when left unchecked. Pharaoh's escalating cruelty, moving from forced labor to secret killing to public drowning, shows how unrestrained fear of losing control can lead people to increasingly extreme and evil actions. The Bible does not shy away from showing the darker realities of human authority, and it consistently affirms that no earthly ruler, however powerful, stands above the authority and justice of God.
Frequently Asked Questions
Were Shiphrah and Puah real historical people?
The Bible presents them as real, named individuals rather than symbolic characters. While Egyptian records rarely document foreign servants by name, the general historical background, including forced labor of Semitic peoples in Egypt during this era, fits well with the account in Exodus. Their names are also authentic Northwest Semitic names attested in extra-biblical Egyptian sources from a similar time period, which supports the plausibility of the record, even though it cannot prove the identity of these two specific women.
Were Shiphrah and Puah Hebrew or Egyptian?
This is genuinely debated among scholars, since the original Hebrew phrase in Exodus 1:15 can be translated either way. Some hold that they were Israelite women serving their own community, while others argue they were Egyptian midwives assigned to serve Hebrew mothers. Scripture does not clearly settle this question, so readers will find both views represented in reputable study Bibles and commentaries.
Why did God bless the midwives for what looks like a lie to Pharaoh?
Scripture never explicitly praises or condemns the specific wording the midwives used when explaining themselves to Pharaoh. The blessing described in Exodus 1:20–21 is directly connected to their fear of God and their refusal to kill the infants, not to the truthfulness of their explanation. Bible scholars differ on how to evaluate their statement itself, but the text is clear that their underlying reverence for God, shown through saving the children, is what God rewarded.
How does this story connect to Moses?
The events involving Shiphrah and Puah occur just before the birth of Moses in Exodus 2. Pharaoh's failed attempt to use the midwives leads directly to his harsher decree that all Hebrew boys be thrown into the Nile. It is against this exact backdrop that Moses' mother hides him in a basket among the reeds, where he is later found and raised by Pharaoh's own daughter. Without the courage of Shiphrah and Puah slowing Pharaoh's plans and exposing his methods, the setting for Moses' dramatic rescue would look very different.
What does it mean that the midwives "feared God"?
In the Bible, "fearing God" describes a deep reverence and awe toward God that shapes a person's choices and priorities above every other loyalty, including loyalty to human rulers. It is not primarily about being afraid of punishment, but about recognizing God's authority as higher than any earthly power. For Shiphrah and Puah, this fear of God directly produced their courage to disobey an immoral order from the most powerful man in Egypt.
Conclusion
Shiphrah and Puah appear in only seven verses of Scripture, yet their story carries enormous weight in the unfolding plan of the Bible. Faced with a direct order from Pharaoh to kill newborn Hebrew boys, these two midwives chose to fear God rather than fear a king, and in doing so, they protected the very generation that would include Moses, Israel's future deliverer. Their quiet, costly obedience reminds readers that faithfulness to God does not always require a public stage; sometimes it looks like steady, hidden integrity in an ordinary job, carried out at real personal risk. They held no political power, wore no royal title, and left behind no monument, yet the entire course of biblical history bends around the decision they made in an ordinary birthing room.
A few key takeaways stand out from their story. First, the text is careful to tell us why they acted as they did: they "feared God" (Exodus 1:17, 21). Their motivation was not simply personal bravery or a general sense of right and wrong, but a specific, reverent loyalty to God that outweighed their fear of Pharaoh. Second, Scripture shows us that God responded directly to their faithfulness, giving them households of their own as a lasting blessing. Third, the story reminds us that evil, when it is not checked, tends to escalate. Pharaoh's plan grew crueler with every failure, moving from forced labor, to secret killing, to a public decree of drowning newborn boys in the Nile. And fourth, the account sets the stage for one of the most important birth narratives in all of Scripture, since it is this same threat that leads Moses' mother to hide him in a basket among the reeds just one chapter later.
This story still matters today because the core choice Shiphrah and Puah faced has never gone away. Believers throughout history, and still today, encounter moments when human authority, workplace pressure, or social expectation asks them to compromise what they know is right in God's eyes. Most people will never be asked to defy a king, but many will face smaller, quieter versions of the same test: a request to look away from wrongdoing, a pressure to stay silent about an injustice, or a temptation to protect their own safety at someone else's expense. The example of these two women shows that fearing God above all else is not just an ancient ideal reserved for extraordinary circumstances; it is a practical way of living that shapes real decisions, even small ones made in ordinary workplaces and everyday relationships.
Their story also offers real comfort. It reassures readers that God takes notice of faithfulness that no one else may ever see. No reporter, historian, or neighbor recorded what happened inside those birthing rooms in Egypt, yet God saw it, and Scripture makes sure we know that He responded. For anyone who has ever wondered whether a small, hidden act of integrity truly matters, this story answers clearly: it does, and God is able to bless obedience in ways that extend far beyond the moment it was offered, sometimes rippling forward for generations.
For families, teachers, and Bible study groups using this passage, it can be a wonderful opportunity to talk with children and teens about courage that does not look flashy or dramatic. Shiphrah and Puah did not need armies or thrones to change history; they simply refused, in a moment of real danger, to do what they knew was wrong. That is a lesson that translates easily into classrooms, homes, and daily life, no matter how many centuries separate us from ancient Egypt.
As we move forward in this series, we turn next to Simeon, the second son of Jacob and Leah, whose story reveals both the consequences of unchecked anger and the surprising ways God's plan of redemption unfolds even through flawed and complicated family relationships.
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