What Does Exodus 1:21 Mean?
And it came to pass, because the midwives stood in awe of God, that he made them houses.
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
And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.THE KEY
Awe before God, rather than coercive power, becomes the ground on which the midwives’ own household is established.
THE MEANING
The midwives’ reverence for God shapes their loyalty and their hands toward protecting life. “Houses” can mean households or family lines, so the verse holds a striking answer: the women who help other families begin are themselves given a household. Their future is not defined by the power that tried to control birth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A ruler’s command is not the final authority over whose life continues or whose household can exist.
THE ROOT
יָרְאוּ
yare'u
GROWS FROM
ירא
y-r-ʾ
To fear or revere; toward God, awe.
“stood in awe of God” in this verse is yare'u. The English “feared” can sound like simple fright, but here the word carries awe toward God. That points to the midwives’ deeper allegiance: a human command does not hold their ultimate loyalty.
ALSO GROWS
yir'ah: Awe or fear
יִרְאָה
This noun names the reverence underlying the midwives’ choice.
nora: Awe-inspiring or fearsome
נוֹרָא
This branch echoes the weight of what inspires reverence.
בָּתִּים
batim
GROWS FROM
בית
b-y-t
House or dwelling; by extension, a household or family line.
“made them houses” in this verse is batim. The word can point beyond buildings to the people and generations gathered within a household. The verse therefore answers the midwives’ protection of life with the establishment of family life for them.
ALSO GROWS
bayit: House or household
בַּיִת
The singular retains both the dwelling and the family gathered in it.
beit-av: Father’s household or family line
בֵּית־אָב
This compound shows how a house can name a continuing family.
מְיַלְּדֹת
meyalledot
GROWS FROM
ילד
y-l-d
To bear, bring forth, or beget.
The word for the midwives grows from the same root as words for a child and for birth. The ones who help life come forth are themselves given a household that can continue.
ALSO GROWS
yeled: Child
יֶלֶד
This is the life the midwives help enter the world.
moledet: Birth, lineage, or birthplace
מוֹלֶדֶת
This branch carries the root from an individual birth toward the wider line and place of origin.
THE PATTERN
Awe of God reorders loyalty beyond human authority and bears consequences in the life that follows.
In the awe of the LORD is a strong place to lean your full weight on, and his children have a shelter.Praise the LORD. Flourishing is the man who is in awe of the LORD, who greatly delights in his commands. His seed is mighty in the land; the generation of the upright is blessed.But in every nation the one who lives in awe of him and works alignment is received by him.THE THREAD
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.The word translated “feared” is the same in both verses: יָרְאוּ (yare’u), awe or reverence toward God. Verse 17 shows that awe in their refusal of the king’s command; verse 21 shows the household established for them.
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