What Does Exodus 1:17 Mean?
But the midwives stood in awe of God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had spoken to them, but kept the boys alive.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.THE KEY
The midwives’ awe of God becomes a refusal to let Pharaoh’s command turn children into deaths.
THE MEANING
Awe of God can outrank the demands of human power, as the midwives’ refusal keeps the boys alive. Here reverence takes concrete form: it preserves vulnerable lives.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a ruler’s command must be obeyed simply because it is backed by power dissolves here: the midwives refuse when that command demands the death of children.
THE ROOT
וַתְּחַיֶּיןָ
vateḥayyenā
GROWS FROM
חיה
ḥ-y-h
To live; by extension, to keep or give life.
“kept alive” in this verse is vateḥayyenā. The verb translated “saved ... alive” grows from the root for living. The verse presents the midwives’ refusal as the act of keeping life present where the king’s command would end it.
ALSO GROWS
ḥay: Living, alive
חַי
The branch names the state the midwives preserve: the boys remain alive.
ḥayyāh: Living creature
חַיָּה
This branch connects the verb to the living beings threatened by the command.
ḥayyim: Life
חַיִּים
The shared root holds their act within the larger reality of life itself.
וַתִּירֶאןָ
vattirʾenā
GROWS FROM
ירא
y-r-ʾ
To fear, revere, or stand in awe.
“stood in awe of God” in this verse is vattirʾenā. When directed toward God, yare carries the sense of awe. The verse measures that awe against the king’s command: it is expressed in what the midwives refuse to do, not merely in an inward feeling.
ALSO GROWS
yirʾāh: Fear, reverence, awe
יִרְאָה
This noun names the orientation that shapes the midwives’ response to the king.
nōrāʾ: Fearsome, awe-inspiring
נוֹרָא
This related form carries the root’s sense of inspiring awe, illuminating the weight of the one they fear.
THE PATTERN
Awe of God displaces fear of human power and directs allegiance toward life.
Then Peter and the other sent ones answered and said, We must obey God rather than humankind.The awe of the LORD is a spring of life, to turn aside from the snares of death.The trembling of man sets a snare, but the one who leans his full weight on the LORD is set on high.THE THREAD
And he said, When you help the Hebrew women bring forth, and see them upon the stools, if it is a son, you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, she shall live.The phrase “she shall live” uses the root חיה (ḥ-y-h), the same root behind “saved ... alive” here. Pharaoh makes life conditional by sex; the midwives’ act keeps the boys alive across the boundary his command draws.
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