Exodus 1:16 records a royal command from the king of Egypt that Hebrew midwives kill every newborn boy and let every girl live. The verse matters because it shows the first organized attempt to destroy the Israelite people, and it sets up the rest of the book of Exodus. The speaker is the unnamed king of Egypt, traditionally identified as Pharaoh, and he speaks privately to two midwives, Shiphrah and Puah.
And he said, “When you perform the duty of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stool; if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”
Exodus 1:16 (WEB)
What Exodus 1:16 Means
The king begins by assigning the midwives their normal job of attending Hebrew women during labor. He then describes what they are to do when the child is born, and he makes the sex of the baby the deciding factor. A son is to be killed, and a daughter is to be spared. The verse is a plain statement of policy, not a poem or a vision, and it reveals how far the king was willing to go to control a population he feared.
The verse does not describe what happened next, and it promises nothing to the Hebrews. It tells us the command existed, not that it was carried out. The rest of the chapter shows that the midwives refused to obey. So the verse should be read as the threat that the story must answer, not as a report of success.
The Context of Exodus 1:16
Exodus is traditionally attributed to Moses and tells how God delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt and formed them into a nation at Sinai. The book was written for a people who had lived under oppression and needed to remember how their story began. Verses 13 and 14 describe the harsh labor that the Egyptians placed on the Israelites, so the order in verse 16 is an escalation of that cruelty, moving from forced work to the murder of infants.
Verses 17 through 19 change how the command reads. The midwives “feared God” and disobeyed, and when Pharaoh questions them, they give a reply that protects them from his anger. Reading verse 16 next to these verses shows that the king’s plan met resistance from the very people he had trusted with it, and that God’s people were already being shaped by faithfulness under pressure.
Key Phrases in Exodus 1:16
Exodus 1:17
But the midwives feared God, and didn’t do what the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the baby boys alive.
(WEB)
This verse answers the command directly, showing that the midwives feared God more than Pharaoh and chose to preserve the baby boys. Reading it alongside verse 16 lets you see the decision that the king’s order demanded and the faith that refused it.
Acts 5:29
But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.
(WEB)
Peter’s words to the Jewish council echo the same principle: when human authority commands what God forbids, obedience belongs to God. The New Testament passage gives a later example of God’s people refusing to bow to an earthly order that opposed his will.
A Short Prayer From Exodus 1:16
Lord, you see the people who are threatened by the powerful and the fearful who feel pressured to do what is wrong. Give us the courage of Shiphrah and Puah to refuse harm, even when the cost is high. Help us to fear you more than any human ruler, and to protect life wherever we are able. When we are tempted to bow to fear, remind us that you are faithful to your people. Amen.
