ויעש להם בתים – Rewarding the Midwives?

Introduction

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At the end of Chapter 1, after the Torah records how the midwives did not kill the Israelite baby boys, we read:

EN/HEע/E

וַיְהִי כִּי יָרְאוּ הַמְיַלְּדֹת אֶת הָאֱלֹהִים וַיַּעַשׂ לָהֶם בָּתִּים.

And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that He made them houses.

This short verse contains several ambiguities:

  • Who is the subject of "וַיַּעַשׂ"? Is it God who made the "בָּתִּים" or Paroh (or perhaps the Israelites1)?
  • To whom does "לָהֶם" refer? Were the "בָּתִּים" made for the midwives or for the Israelite mothers/babies?2
  • What are these "בָּתִּים" and what is their purpose? Why was there a need to build additional housing – did the midwives (or Israelite mothers) not already have homes?

In Exegetical Approaches we will see how different exegetes address these questions.

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