Exodus 1:15
“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,”
What does Exodus 1:15 mean?
Pharaoh is beginning to see the rapidly growing Hebrew population as a threat to his power, so he turns to the midwives who assist Hebrew women in childbirth. By naming Shiphrah and Puah, the Bible honors these women as real people with real names and real courage, not just nameless background figures. What comes next in this passage reveals that Pharaoh will ask them to commit an unspeakable act, and their response becomes one of the Bible's earliest examples of conscientious objection to an unjust ruler. These two women, given a platform by their essential work, face a choice between obedience to a king's cruelty or loyalty to their conscience and their God.