Keluaran 1:17

1:17 But ¹  the midwives feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live. ² 

Keluaran 1:19

1:19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew ³  women are not like the Egyptian women – for the Hebrew women ⁴  are vigorous; they give birth before the midwife gets to them!” ⁵ 

Yosua 6:25

6:25 Yet Joshua spared ⁶  Rahab the prostitute, her father’s family, ⁷  and all who belonged to her. She lives in Israel ⁸  to this very day because she hid the messengers Joshua sent to spy on Jericho. ⁹ 

Yosua 6:2

6:2 The Lord told Joshua, “See, I am about to defeat Jericho for you, ¹⁰  along with its king and its warriors.

1 Samuel 17:19

17:19 They are with Saul and the whole Israelite army ¹¹  in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.”

[1:17]  ¹ tn Heb “and they [fem. pl.] feared”; the referent (the midwives) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:17]  ² tn The verb is the Piel preterite of חָיָה (khaya, “to live”). The Piel often indicates a factitive nuance with stative verbs, showing the cause of the action. Here it means “let live, cause to live.” The verb is the exact opposite of Pharaoh’s command for them to kill the boys.

[1:19]  ³ sn See further N. Lemche, “‘Hebrew’ as a National Name for Israel,” ST 33 (1979): 1-23.

[1:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Hebrew women) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “before the midwife comes to them (and) they give birth.” The perfect tense with the vav consecutive serves as the apodosis to the preceding temporal clause; it has the frequentative nuance (see GKC 337-38 §112.oo).

[1:19]  sn The point of this brief section is that the midwives respected God above the king. They simply followed a higher authority that prohibited killing. Fearing God is a basic part of the true faith that leads to an obedient course of action and is not terrified by worldly threats. There probably was enough truth in what they were saying to be believable, but they clearly had no intention of honoring the king by participating in murder, and they saw no reason to give him a straightforward answer. God honored their actions.

[6:25]  ⁶ tn Heb “kept alive.”

[6:25]  ⁷ tn Heb the house of her father.”

[6:25]  ⁸ tn Or “among the Israelites”; Heb “in the midst of Israel.”

[6:25]  ⁹ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[6:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I have given into your hand Jericho.” The Hebrew verb נָתַתִּי (natatti, “I have given”) is probably best understood as a perfect of certitude, indicating the certainty of the action. The Hebrew pronominal suffix “your” is singular, being addressed to Joshua as the leader and representative of the nation. To convey to the modern reader what is about to happen and who is doing it, the translation “I am about to defeat Jericho for you” has been used.

[17:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “all the men of Israel.”