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the Week of Proper 11 / Ordinary 16
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Read the Bible

Douay-Rheims Bible

Exodus 1:21

And because the midwives feared God, he built them houses.

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.
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 And the king of Egypt spoke to the midwives of the Hebrews: of whom one was called Sephora, the other Phua, 16 Commanding them: When you shall do the office of midwives to the Hebrew women, and the time of delivery is come: if it be a man child, kill it: if a woman, keep it alive. 17 But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded, but saved the men children. 18 And the king called for them and said: What is it that you meant to do, that you would save the men children? 19 They answered: The Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women: for they themselves are skilful in the office of a midwife; and they are delivered before we come to them. 20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied and grew exceedingly strong. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he built them houses. 22 Pharao therefore charged all his people, saying: Whatsoever shall be born of the male sex, ye shall cast into the river: whatsoever of the female, ye shall save alive.

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
And to rule the day and the night, and to divide the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:24
And God said: Let the earth bring forth the living creature in its kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth, according to their kinds. And it was so done.
Genesis 1:25
And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and cattle, and every thing that creepeth on the earth after its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:26
And he said: Let us make man to our image and likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping creature that moveth upon the earth.
Genesis 1:31
And God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good. And the evening and morning were the sixth day.
Genesis 6:20
Of fowls according to their kind, and of beasts in their kind, and of every thing that creepeth on the earth according to its kind: two of every sort shall go in with thee, that they may live.
Genesis 7:14
They and every beast according to its kind, and all the cattle in their kind, and every thing that moveth upon the earth, according to its kind, and every fowl according to its kind, all birds, and all that fly,
Genesis 8:17
All living things that are with thee of all flesh, as well in fowls as in beasts, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, bring out with thee, and go ye upon the earth: increase and multiply upon it.
Genesis 8:19
And all living things, and cattle, and creeping things that creep upon the earth, according to their kinds went out of the ark.
Genesis 9:7
But increase you and multiply, and go upon the earth and fill it.

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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