Open in the app
Mid-century illustration of a calm sea at dawn

Exodus 1:15 · World English Bible

Exodus 1:15 Meaning The King of Egypt Spoke

The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah,

Read it in the app

What does Exodus 1:15 mean?

Tyranny always looks for the weakest instrument to carry out its cruelty, and here the king turns to the women who bring life into the world. He orders those charged with birth to become agents of death, which is the exact inversion a tyrant needs.

From the Clinical Psychology reading below.

Exodus 1:15 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY

Clinical Psychology

Tyranny always looks for the weakest instrument to carry out its cruelty, and here the king turns to the women who bring life into the world. He orders those charged with birth to become agents of death, which is the exact inversion a tyrant needs. Power of that kind survives by recruiting the powerless against the strong, setting the vulnerable to work against the very thing that threatens it. These midwives may well have served the empire rather than the Hebrews, which makes the pressure on them sharper still.

They are named while the king is not. That detail carries the whole judgment. Shiphrah and Puah refuse, because the fear of God stands beneath every free act of conscience. Reverence for what is highest is what lets an ordinary person defy an order from the top. When those who serve life are commanded to serve death, the free ones remember whom they finally answer to.

Clinical Psychology lensGo deeper in the app

Clinical Psychology lens

Live Exodus 1:15 today

  1. Think of one thing you have been told to do, at work or in your family, that you quietly know is wrong, and decide now what you will actually do when it comes up again.
  2. When someone in the room is being pushed into something unfair, say one sentence out loud for them. You do not have to win the argument, you just have to not be silent.
  3. Under real pressure, a deadline, a boss, a group all nodding along, slow down long enough to ask who you finally answer to. Then answer to that.

What have you been asked to go along with that you know you should refuse?

The same truth in other traditions

Stoicism · Epictetus

Some things are in another person's power and some are entirely in yours, and your choices stay yours no matter who gives the order. That is where a free person stands.

Bhagavad Gita 2

Faced with pressure to do what is wrong, the answer is your own duty rather than the easier instruction. What you answer to sits above who is asking.

Judaism · Talmud

If someone tells you to harm another to save yourself, you are not permitted to do it. The line holds even when the authority is real.

Mid-century illustration of Jesus teaching the crowd on a hillside above the sea

Free · No account needed

Read all of Exodus 1 through 17 lenses

Lensightful opens every verse of the Bible through the traditions you choose. Save readings, ask a follow-up question, and get one verse a day.

Get Lensightful on the App Store