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Thursday, July 31st, 2025
the Week of Proper 12 / Ordinary 17
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Read the Bible

Contemporary English Version

Exodus 1:21

This verse is not available in the CEV!

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

Hebrew Names Version
It happened, because the midwives feared God, that he gave them families.
King James Version
And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.
Lexham English Bible
And so because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.
New Century Version
Because the nurses feared God, he gave them families of their own.
New English Translation
And because the midwives feared God, he made households for them.
Amplified Bible
And because the midwives feared God [with profound reverence], He established families and households for them.
New American Standard Bible
And because the midwives feared God, He established households for them.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And because ye midwiues feared God, therefore he made them houses.
Legacy Standard Bible
Now it happened that because the midwives feared God, He made households for them.
Complete Jewish Bible
Indeed, because the midwives feared God, he made them founders of families.
Darby Translation
And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.
English Standard Version
And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.
George Lamsa Translation
And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, he blessed them with families.
Christian Standard Bible®
Since the midwives feared God, he gave them families.
Literal Translation
And it was, because the midwives feared God, He made houses for them.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And for so moch as the mydwyues feared God, he made them houses.
American Standard Version
And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them households.
Bible in Basic English
And because the women who took care of the Hebrew mothers had the fear of God, he gave them families.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And it came to passe, that because the midwifes feared God, he made them houses.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that He made them houses.
King James Version (1611)
And it came to passe, because the midwiues feared God, that hee made them houses.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And as the midwives feared God, they established for themselves families.
English Revised Version
And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.
Berean Standard Bible
And because the midwives feared God, He gave them families of their own.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And for the mydewyues dredden God, he bildide `housis to hem.
Young's Literal Translation
and it cometh to pass, because the midwives have feared God, that He maketh for them households;
Update Bible Version
And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them households.
Webster's Bible Translation
And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.
World English Bible
It happened, because the midwives feared God, that he gave them families.
New King James Version
And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them.
New Living Translation
And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
New Life Bible
Because the nurses feared God, He gave them families.
New Revised Standard
And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made for them households.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And because the midwives feared God, he built them houses.
Revised Standard Version
And because the midwives feared God he gave them families.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Because the midwives feared God, He established households for them.

Contextual Overview

15 Finally, the king called in Shiphrah and Puah, the two women who helped the Hebrew mothers when they gave birth. 16 He told them, "If a Hebrew woman gives birth to a girl, let the child live. If the baby is a boy, kill him!" 17 But the two women were faithful to God and did not kill the boys, even though the king had told them to. 18 The king called them in again and asked, "Why are you letting those baby boys live?" 19 They answered, "Hebrew women have their babies much quicker than Egyptian women. By the time we arrive, their babies are already born." 20God was good to the two women because they truly respected him, and he blessed them with children of their own. The Hebrews kept increasing 22 until finally, the king gave a command to everyone in the nation, "As soon as a Hebrew boy is born, throw him into the Nile River! But you can let the girls 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 day and night, and to separate light from darkness. God looked at what he had done, and it was good.
Genesis 1:24

The Sixth Day

God said, "I command the earth to give life to all kinds of tame animals, wild animals, and reptiles." And that's what happened.
Genesis 1:25
God made every one of them. Then he looked at what he had done, and it was good.
Genesis 1:26
God said, "Now we will make humans, and they will be like us. We will let them rule the fish, the birds, and all other living creatures."
Genesis 1:31
God looked at what he had done. All of it was very good! Evening came and then morning—that was the sixth day.
Genesis 7:14
They took along every kind of animal, tame and wild, including the birds.
Genesis 8:17
Let out the birds, animals, and reptiles, so they can mate and live all over the earth."
Genesis 8:19
the living creatures left in groups of their own kind.
Genesis 9:7
I want you and your descendants to have many children, so people will live everywhere on earth.
Exodus 1:7
the people of Israel became so numerous that the whole region of Goshen was full of them.

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?


 
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