Shiphrah and Puah שפרה ופועה

Pharaoh summoned the midwives and ordered: if it is a boy, put him to death; if a girl, let her live. "But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt told them, and they let the boys live."

Called to account, they answered in a way that could not be faulted: Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife arrives. The answer was untrue, and Scripture does not condemn it by a single word.

The reward is given its own line: "and because the midwives feared God, He made them houses." What those houses were is explained variously — a house of priesthood, of kingship, of Levites — but the shape of the sentence matters more than the interpretations: resistance is recorded as a deed that is repaid.

Notice how the chapter is built. Pharaoh, the most powerful man of the age, is not named in it. The two midwives are. Scripture assigns names by something other than rank.

The Talmud (Sotah 11b) identifies them with Jochebed and her daughter Miriam, and explains the names: Shiphrah from mesháperet, the one who makes the newborn presentable; Puah from the sound used to soothe a woman in labour.