Shalom ,
The Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt is a core miracle of the Bible, serving as the basis for all other acts of God’s salvation. Moses, the remarkable leader of the Exodus, might never have grown to fulfil his destiny without a group of powerful women behind him. Who were these women and how did they save him?
Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water” (Ex. … And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son.
The Brave Women Who Reared Moses
One of the remarkable things about the biography of Moses is the crucial role played by dynamic women in his life. His mother, Jochebed, and his sister, Miriam, saved his life by placing him in a basket in the Nile. The daughter of Pharaoh discovered him and adopted him as her own son. Zipporah protected him when he sought refuge in the Land of Midian. It is truly amazing that such an ancient story gives such prominence to these powerful women.
The Quiet Rebellion of the Midwives
But we are forgetting about two unsung female heroes: Shiphrah and Puah, the two midwives who defied Pharaoh’s edict to kill all Hebrew baby boys (Exodus 1:15). Like many great figures in the Bible, they were willing to sacrifice their own lives to save countless others. By sparing Moses’s life, they saved the future of the Jewish people. Why did they do it?
Shiphrah and Puah were two midwives who briefly prevented a genocide of children by the Egyptians, according to Exodus 1:15–21. According to the Exodus narrative, they were commanded by the King of Egypt, or Pharaoh, to kill all male Hebrew babies, but they refused to do so
Ordered by Pharaoh to kill all male children at birth, Shiphrah and Puah, being God-fearing, disobeyed him, under the pretext that the vigorous Hebrew women were able to dispense with the services of a midwife. In reward for their heroic and virtuous behavior, God “established households” for Shiphrah and Puah (ibid., 5:21), which probably means that they became the matriarchs of enduring families in Israel.
The name Shiphrah, which also appears in an Egyptian list of slaves in the form Š-p-ra, probably means “fair one.” Puah may be related to the Ugaritic pḡt, meaning “girl.”
Shiphrah is identified with Jochebed, the mother of Moses (Sot. 11b). The name refers to the fact that as a midwife, she beautified (meshapperet, מְשַׁפֶּרֶת) the children which she delivered; and Israel multiplied exceedingly (she-paru, שֶׁפָּרוּ) as a result of her actions; and that she performed deeds which were pleasing (shafru, שָׁפְרוּ) to God (Ex. R. 1:13).
Discover the Hidden Layers
According to Scripture, it was the faith of Shiphrah and Puah which gave them the courage to disobey Pharaoh’s decree. In the original Hebrew, the term for faith is Yirat Elohim (יראת אלוהים), literally meaning “fear of God.” But this “fear” was not fright or trepidation; it was awe. Awe for the one God of Israel. Enroll today in our live, online Biblical Hebrew course and discover the hidden layers of Scripture.
www.swordify.com
In Judaism
In the Jewish narrative, Pharaoh’s daughter first appears in the Book of Exodus, in Exodus 2:5-10. The passage describes her discovery of the Hebrew child, Moses, in the rushes of the Nile River and her willful defiance of her father’s orders that all male Hebrew children be slain, instead taking the child, whom she knows to be a Hebrew, and raising him as her own son. The Talmud and the Midrash Vayosha provide some additional backstory to the event, saying that she had visited the Nile that morning not to bathe for the purpose of hygiene but for ritual purification, treating the river as if it were a mikveh, as she had grown tired of people’s idolatrous ways, and that she first sought to nurse Moses herself but he would not take her milk and so, she called for a Hebrew wet nurse, who so happened to be Moses’ biological mother, Jochebed.[11][12][13][14] Rabbinic literature tells a significantly different take on the events that day, portraying Pharaoh’s daughter as having suffered from a skin disease[15] (possibly leprosy[16]), the pain of which only the cold waters of the Nile could relieve, and that these lesions healed when she found Moses. It also describes an encounter with the archangel Gabriel, who kills two of her handmaidens for trying to dissuade her from rescuing Moses.[15] After Moses is weaned, Pharaoh’s daughter gives him his name, purportedly taken from the word māšāh (Hebrew: מָשָׁה, lit. ’to draw’), because she drew him from the water, but some modern scholars disagree with the Biblical etymology of the name, believing it to have been based on the Egyptian root m-s, meaning “son” or “born of,” a popular element in Egyptian names (e. g. Ramesses. Thutmose) used in conjunction with a namesake deity.[17][18] In her later years, Pharaoh’s daughter devotes herself to Moses, and to Yahweh; she celebrates the first Passover Seder with Moses in the slaves’ quarters and for that, her firstborn is the only Egyptian to survive the final of the Ten Plagues of Egypt, and leaves Egypt with him for the Promised Land. In the Books of Chronicles, (1 Chronicles 4:18), she is said to have married a member of the Tribe of Judah, Mered, and to have had children with him, and she is referred to as a Jewess, indicating that she had accepted Yahweh as her own god.[19][20] Furthermore, the Jewish rabbis claim that, in the Book of Proverbs (Proverbs 31:15), she is praised in Woman of Valor. Further, the Midrash teaches that because of her devotion to Yahweh and her adoption of Moses, she was one of those who entered heaven alive.[21]
Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, and her maidens walked beside the river; she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to fetch it. When she opened it she saw the child; and lo, the babe was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away, and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son; and she named him Moses, for she said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”
— RSV, Exodus 2:5-10
In Islam
Asiya and her servants find baby Moses in the Nile. (From the Persian Jami’ al-tawarikh).
Main article: Asiya
In contrast to her story as portrayed in Judaism and Christianity, in Islam, she is known as Asiya (in the Hadith) and the Pharaoh’s wife (in the Quran). Also, she does not draw Moses from the Nile, her servants do, and Pharaoh, having learned of the boy’s existence, seeks to kill him but Asiya intervenes and Pharaoh changes his mind, allowing the boy to live. Mirroring the Judeo-Christian story, Jochebed is called to Pharaoh’s palace to act as a wet nurse for him but then, her story, as told by Islam, deviates from the Judeo-Christian version once more, with Asiya being tortured to death at the hands of Pharaoh for professing a belief in Allah
Her name
The Book of Exodus (Exodus 2:5) does not give a name to Pharaoh’s daughter, or to her father; she is referred to in Hebrew as simply the Bat-Paroh[1] (Hebrew: בת־פרעה), a Hebrew phrase that literally translates to “daughter of Pharaoh.” The Book of Jubilees (Jubilees 47:5) and Josephus both name her as Thermouthis (Greek: Θερμουθις), also transliterated as Tharmuth and Thermutis, the Greek name of Renenutet, the Egyptian snake deity.[2][3][4][5] Meanwhile, Leviticus Rabbah (Leviticus Rabbah 1:3) and the Books of Chronicles (1 Chronicles 4:18) refer to her as Bit-Yah (Hebrew: בתיה, lit. ’daughter of Yahweh’), also transliterated as Batyah and Bithiah, and it is written that she is given the name for her adoption of Moses, that because she had made Moses her son, Yahweh would make her his daughter.[6] Also in the Books of Chronicles (1 Chronicles 4:18), she is called ha-yehudiyyah (Hebrew: הַיְהֻדִיָּ֗ה, lit. ’the Jewess’), which some English translations of the Bible treat as a given name, Jehudijah (Hebrew: יהודיה, romanized: yehudiyyah, lit. ’Jewess’), notably the King James Version, but the word is actually an appelative, there to indicate that Pharaoh’s daughter was no longer a pagan.[7][8] In Christianity, she is also named as Merris and Merrhoe, and in Islam, she is named Asiya (Arabic: آسيا), Asiyah (Arabic: آسية), and Asiya bint Muzahim (Arabic: آسيا بنت مزاحم).[9][10]
SOCIAL
Visual Verse of the Day
“The wilderness and the dry lands shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom.” Isaiah 35:1
