SEV Biblia, Chapter 1:21
Y por haber las parteras temido a Dios, él les hizo casas.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Exodus 1:21
Verse 21. He made them houses.] Dr. Shuckford thinks that there is something wrong both in the punctuation and translation of this place, and reads the passage thus, adding the 21st to the 20th verse: "And they multiplied and waxed mighty; and this happened ( yhyw vayehi) because the midwives feared God; and he (Pharaoh) made ( µhl lahem, masc.) them (the Israelites) houses; and commanded all his people, saying, Every son that is born, &c." The doctor supposes that previously to this time the Israelites had no fixed dwellings, but lived in tents, and therefore had a better opportunity of concealing their children; but now Pharaoh built them houses, and obliged them to dwell in them, and caused the Egyptians to watch over them, that all the male children might be destroyed, which could not have been easily effected had the Israelites continued to live in their usual scattered manner in tents. That the houses in question were not made for the midwives, but for the Israelites in general, the Hebrew text seems pretty plainly to indicate, for the pronoun µhl lahem, to them, is the masculine gender; had the midwives been meant, the feminine pronoun hl laken would have been used. Others contend that by making them houses, not only the midwives are intended, but also that the words mark an increase of their families, and that the objection taken from the masculine pronoun is of no weight, because these pronouns are often interchanged; see 1 Kings xxii. 17, where µhl lahem is written, and in the parallel place, 2 Chron. xviii. 16, hl lahen is used. So µhb bahem, in 1 Chron. x. 7, is written hb bahen, 1 Sam. xxxi. 7, and in several other places. There is no doubt that God did bless the midwives, his approbation of their conduct is strictly marked; and there can be no doubt of his prospering the Israelites, for it is particularly said that the people multiplied and waxed very mighty. But the words most probably refer to the Israelites, whose houses or families were built up by an extraordinary in crease of children, notwithstanding the cruel policy of the Egyptian king. Vain is the counsel of man when opposed to the determinations of God! All the means used for the destruction of this people became in his hand instruments of their prosperity and increase. How true is the saying, If God be for us, who can be against us?
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 15-22 - The Egyptians tried to destroy Israel by the murder of their children The enmity that is in the seed of the serpent, against the Seed of the woman, makes men forget all pity. It is plain that the Hebrews were no under an uncommon blessing. And we see that the services done for God' Israel are often repaid in kind. Pharaoh gave orders to drown all the male children of the Hebrews. The enemy who, by Pharaoh, attempted to destroy the church in this its infant state, is busy to stifle the ris of serious reflections in the heart of man. Let those who would escape be afraid of sinning, and cry directly and fervently to the Lord for assistance __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
ויהי 1961 כי 3588 יראו 3372 המילדת 3205 את 853 האלהים 430 ויעשׂ 6213 להם בתים׃ 1004
