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A Day in the Life · The Old Testament World
She worked at the edge between life and death, called at any hour, trusted with the most vulnerable moments a household would ever face. Two midwives are named in Scripture, and their courage changed the course of a nation.
Her Work at a Glance
Assisted women through labor, a skilled role passed down through experience rather than formal schooling.
Shiphrah and Puah are named and remembered in Exodus, unusual honor for women in their position.
They refused Pharaoh's order to kill Hebrew baby boys, risking their own lives to do it.
"God dealt well with the midwives... he made them houses" (Exodus 1:20-21).
A midwife spoke comfort to Rachel in her final, fatal labor with Benjamin (Genesis 35:17).
Tamar's midwife marked the first hand to emerge with a scarlet thread to record the actual birth order (Genesis 38:28).
A word before we begin. Scripture names only a handful of midwives directly and gives limited detail about daily training or practice beyond what these specific stories show us. We stay close to what the text itself records: their presence at difficult or significant births, and in the case of Shiphrah and Puah, their specific recorded courage and the specific recorded reward God gave them.
Named, Remembered, Honored
Egypt · An Impossible Order
Pharaoh gave two Hebrew midwives, named directly in the text, a monstrous order: "When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live" (Exodus 1:15-16). They refused outright: "the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive" (Exodus 1:17). When confronted, they offered an explanation that was at least partly true and entirely unprovable: "the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them" (Exodus 1:19). God's response to their defiance was direct: "Therefore God dealt well with the midwives... because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses" (Exodus 1:20-21).
Present at the Hardest Moments
On the Road to Ephrath · Rachel's Last Hours
A midwife's work was not only triumphant rescues; it also meant standing beside women in labors that did not end well. When Rachel's labor with Benjamin turned dangerous, it was her midwife who stayed close and spoke the only comfort available in the moment: "when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also" (Genesis 35:17). Rachel died shortly after giving birth, and the midwife's brief recorded words are a glimpse of the real emotional weight this work carried, courage and comfort offered even when the outcome could not be controlled.
A Careful, Exact Record
Tamar's Delivery · A Contested Birth Order
When Tamar gave birth to twins, the order of birth carried real legal and inheritance weight, so her midwife acted quickly and carefully to document it accurately: "when she travailed, that the one put out his hand: and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first" (Genesis 38:28). The thread slipped back and the other twin was actually born first, a small but fascinating detail showing a midwife's job included careful, reliable witness to exactly what happened, not just managing the delivery itself.
The Questions You'd Actually Ask
Their explanation, that Hebrew women delivered too quickly for the midwives to arrive in time, is presented in the text without God's direct commentary on whether it was strictly true for every case. What Scripture does commend explicitly is their underlying refusal to kill the infants and their fear of God over fear of Pharaoh (Exodus 1:17, 20-21), which is the point the text highlights and rewards.
Every midwife named or described in Scripture is a woman, consistent with the intimate, physically close nature of assisting women through labor in that culture.
God's own reward to Shiphrah and Puah, giving them houses or households of their own (Exodus 1:21), is itself evidence that this skilled, trusted work carried real honor, particularly for women whose courage and competence were directly credited by name.
Where It Lands
Shiphrah and Puah are two of the earliest named examples in Scripture of ordinary working women who risked everything rather than obey an unjust command. Their names are preserved while Pharaoh's specific instructions are remembered only as the monstrous thing they refused to do. God's own narrative priorities here are telling: He names the midwives and rewards their fear of Him, not the king who gave the order.
"The midwives feared God" is given as the direct reason for their defiance and their reward (Exodus 1:17, 21). The fear of the LORD, a right reverence and submission to God above every human authority, remains the deciding factor whenever obeying people would require disobeying God, a principle that runs consistently from Exodus through the apostles' own declaration, "We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).
For You
Shiphrah and Puah held no political power, no army, no obvious means of resisting a king's direct order. What they had was the fear of God and the willingness to act on it, even at real personal risk, and that was enough for God to honor them by name.
Where is a pressure in your own life, whether from authority, culture, or convenience, quietly asking you to do something you know is wrong? Let their example remind you that fearing God rather than people is never wasted, even when the cost feels real.
Carry It With You
Exodus 1:17 KJV
"But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive."
For the Historical Notes
Scripture is quoted from the KJV throughout.
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