Lectionary Calendar
Friday, September 19th, 2025
the Week of Proper 19 / Ordinary 24
Attention!
For 10¢ a day you can enjoy StudyLight.org ads
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!

Read the Bible

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

出埃及记 1:21

接生婦因為敬畏 神, 神就為她們建立家室。

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Fear of God;   Integrity;   Midwifery;   Oppression;   Servant;   Usurpation;   Scofield Reference Index - Faith;   The Topic Concordance - Fear;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Egypt;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Exodus;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Abortion;   Family Life and Relations;   Lie, Lying;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Pharaoh;   Puah;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Shiphrah;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Exodus, Book of;   Midwife;   Shiphrah;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Exodus;   Moses;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Midwives;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Puah;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Egypt;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Shiph'rah;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Enslavement, the;   Encampment at Sinai;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Crime;   Midwife;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Ark of Moses;   Jochebed;   Miriam;   Sidra;  

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
收 生 婆 因 为 敬 畏   神 , 神 便 叫 他 们 成 立 家 室 。

Contextual Overview

15 Two Hebrew nurses, named Shiphrah and Puah, helped the Israelite women give birth to their babies. The king of Egypt said to the nurses, 16 "When you are helping the Hebrew women give birth to their babies, watch! If the baby is a girl, let her live, but if it is a boy, kill him!" 17 But the nurses feared God, so they did not do as the king told them; they let all the boy babies live. 18 Then the king of Egypt sent for the nurses and said, "Why did you do this? Why did you let the boys live?" 19 The nurses said to him, "The Hebrew women are much stronger than the Egyptian women. They give birth to their babies before we can get there." 20 God was good to the nurses. And the Hebrew people continued to grow in number, so they became even stronger. 21 Because the nurses feared God, he gave them families of their own. 22 So the king commanded all his people, "Every time a boy is born to the Hebrews, you must throw him into the Nile River, but let all the girl babies live."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

made them: 1 Samuel 2:35, 1 Samuel 25:28, 2 Samuel 7:11-13, 2 Samuel 7:27-29, 1 Kings 2:24, 1 Kings 11:38, Psalms 37:3, Psalms 127:1, Psalms 127:3, Proverbs 24:3, Ecclesiastes 8:12, Jeremiah 35:2

Reciprocal: Leviticus 25:43 - but shalt 1 Kings 21:11 - did as Jezebel 1 Chronicles 17:10 - the Lord Ecclesiastes 8:5 - keepeth

Cross-References

Genesis 1:18
to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw that all these things were good.
Genesis 1:24
Then God said, "Let the earth be filled with animals, each producing more of its own kind. Let there be tame animals and small crawling animals and wild animals, and let each produce more of its kind." And it happened.
Genesis 1:25
So God made the wild animals, the tame animals, and all the small crawling animals to produce more of their own kind. God saw that this was good.
Genesis 1:26
Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image and likeness. And let them rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the tame animals, over all the earth, and over all the small crawling animals on the earth."
Genesis 1:31
God looked at everything he had made, and it was very good. Evening passed, and morning came. This was the sixth day.
Genesis 6:20
Two of every kind of bird, animal, and crawling thing will come to you to be kept alive.
Genesis 7:14
They had every kind of wild and tame animal, every kind of animal that crawls on the earth, and every kind of bird.
Genesis 8:17
Bring every animal out of the boat with you—the birds, animals, and everything that crawls on the earth. Let them have many young ones so that they might grow in number."
Genesis 8:19
Every animal, everything that crawls on the earth, and every bird went out of the boat by families.
Genesis 9:7
"As for you, Noah, I want you and your family to have many children, to grow in number on the earth, and to become many."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God,.... And regarded his command, and not that of the king, though they risked his displeasure, and their lives:

that he made them houses; which some understand of the Israelites making houses for them, being moved to it by the Lord, to preserve them from the insults of the Egyptians; others of Pharaoh building houses for them, in which he kept them, until the Hebrew women came to their time of delivery, who were ordered to be brought to these houses, that it might be known by others, as well as the midwives, whether they brought forth sons or daughters, neither of which is likely: but rather the sense is, that God made them houses, and hid them from Pharaoh, as Kimchi interprets it, that he might not hurt them, just as he hid Jeremiah and Baruch: though it seems best of all to understand it of his building up the families of these midwives, increasing their number, especially their substance and wealth, making them and their households prosperous in all worldly good; but because the word is in the masculine gender, some choose to interpret it either of the infants themselves, the male children the midwives preserved, and of their being built up families in Israel, or by means of whom they were built up; or of the Israelites themselves, whose houses were built up by their means: and others are of opinion that material houses or buildings are meant, built for the Israelites, that the midwives might know where to find them and their wives, when ready to lie in, who before lived up and down in fields and tents: but the sense of God's building up the families of the midwives is to be preferred, there being an enallage or change of the gender, which is not unusual; see Exodus 15:21.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Made them houses - i. e. they married Hebrews and became mothers in Israel. The expression is proverbial. See the margin reference.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 1:21. He made them houses. — Dr. Shuckford thinks that there is something wrong both in the punctuation and translation of this place, and reads the passage thus, adding the 21st to the 20th verse: "And they multiplied and waxed mighty; and this happened (ויהי vayehi) because the midwives feared God; and he (Pharaoh) made (להם lahem, masc.) them (the Israelites) houses; and commanded all his people, saying, Every son that is born, c." The doctor supposes that previously to this time the Israelites had no fixed dwellings, but lived in tents, and therefore had a better opportunity of concealing their children but now Pharaoh built them houses, and obliged them to dwell in them, and caused the Egyptians to watch over them, that all the male children might be destroyed, which could not have been easily effected had the Israelites continued to live in their usual scattered manner in tents. That the houses in question were not made for the midwives, but for the Israelites in general, the Hebrew text seems pretty plainly to indicate, for the pronoun להם lahem, to them, is the masculine gender; had the midwives been meant, the feminine pronoun להן lahen would have been used. Others contend that by making them houses, not only the midwives are intended, but also that the words mark an increase of their families, and that the objection taken from the masculine pronoun is of no weight, because these pronouns are often interchanged; see 1 Kings 22:17, where להם lahem is written, and in the parallel place, 2 Chronicles 18:16, להן lahen is used. So בהם bahem, in 1 Chronicles 10:7, is written בהן bahen, 1 Samuel 31:7, and in several other places. There is no doubt that God did bless the midwives, his approbation of their conduct is strictly marked; and there can be no doubt of his prospering the Israelites, for it is particularly said that the people multiplied and waxed very mighty. But the words most probably refer to the Israelites, whose houses or families were built up by an extraordinary in crease of children, notwithstanding the cruel policy of the Egyptian king. Vain is the counsel of man when opposed to the determinations of God! All the means used for the destruction of this people became in his hand instruments of their prosperity and increase. How true is the saying, If God be for us, who can be against us?


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile