Pharaoh Orders the Killing of Hebrew Baby Boys

Pharaoh’s order to kill Hebrew newborn boys escalates Egypt’s oppression from harsh labor to an attempt to prevent the Israelites’ growth through the killing of their sons. When the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah refuse to carry out the command, Pharaoh extends the order to all his people, directing that every Hebrew boy be cast into the river.

From forced labor to population control

The order follows the Israelites’ rapid increase in Egypt after the generation that included Joseph had died. A new king, who did not know Joseph, feared that the growing population might join Egypt’s enemies in wartime and escape the land. Pharaoh first imposed taskmasters and hard service, including work on the store-cities Pithom and Raamses. The more the Israelites were afflicted, however, the more they multiplied, deepening Egyptian fear.

Pharaoh then spoke to the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah. They were to determine the child’s sex at birth and kill each son while allowing daughters to live. The policy targeted newborn boys, joining demographic control to the existing system of forced labor.

The midwives’ refusal and Pharaoh’s escalation

Shiphrah and Puah feared God and did not obey the king; they kept the boys alive. Summoned to account for their actions, they explained that Hebrew women gave birth before a midwife arrived. The account reports that God dealt well with the midwives and that the people continued to multiply and grow strong; it also says that God made houses for the midwives because they feared God.

The midwives’ disobedience did not end Pharaoh’s policy. He charged all his people to cast every Hebrew son into the river while sparing every daughter. The command thus widened the responsibility for carrying out the killing from two midwives to the Egyptian population at large.

Consequences and narrative significance

The wider narrative shows the danger created by the decree: a Levite woman hides her newborn son for three months, then places him in a basket of bulrushes among the river reeds. Pharaoh’s daughter finds the child, takes pity on him, and raises him as her son, naming him Moses. The command meant to eliminate Hebrew boys therefore forms the immediate background to the survival of the future leader of the Israelites.

In Moses’ later address to Israel, the exodus from Egypt is recalled as deliverance from the house of bondage, accomplished through signs, wonders, and a mighty hand. The covenant teaching also recounts that God brought Israel out of Egypt and made the people His own. The decree belongs to the oppression that this memory sets against deliverance, while the survival of Moses links Pharaoh’s policy to the story of Israel’s departure from Egypt.