Call the Midwife! Exodus 1

Exodus starts out on a strong note.  The names of the 12 sons/tribes are repeated, and then we read that Joseph and his brothers and their generation all die.  The Hebrews continue to multiply, and along comes a king of Egypt who doesn't remember Joseph.  The usual fears about a large ethnic group not under your religious/cultural control come to the surface and the Hebrews are put to forced labour.

Was this the corvée labour with which Egypt built the pyramids and other great public works?  Some say yes, but corvée was really a form of taxation - a class of people (peasants!) was forced to work for a certain number of days per year.  The next verses of Exodus put the kibosh on that.

Ex. 1:15   The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah,  16 “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.”

This was a guy who did not like having Hebrews around!  Especially strong ones!  The midwives are not going to play along and respond to the Pharaoh's questions by explaining that Hebrew women are so vigorous that they manage to give birth before the midwife can get there.  That's when the king tells all his people that every Hebrew boy born must be thrown in the Nile.

From a word-lover's point of view, we get to see a lot of the Hebrew root י־ל־ד (y-l-d).

In its basic (called the qal) form, it means to give birth, or to beget. (yalad)
The passive (nifal) form: to be born. (nolad)
The piel form: to help to give birth.  It is the feminine participle of this form that gives us the word for midwife: t®d;RlÅyVm (meyalledet, plural meyalldot)

There are other verbal forms, and of course the nouns, yeled (male child) and yaldah (female child).  There's even an adjective, yalod, but some interpret that as the participle of the qal passive verb.  If there is such a thing as the qal passive.  Which is debated.

But it's fun to read a chapter where you get a whole bunch of different forms of the same root.

Damn I love this stuff!!  :)