Women of Exodus
Shiprah and Puah, the Pharaoh’s daughter, Jochebed, Miriam, and Zipporah
Would it surprise you that without the obedient, brave actions of six faithful women, the Exodus may not have happened? Of course, God would have brought about his purposes another way, but in the Biblical account, he worked through faithful women at every step. In Sandra Glahn’s book, A Woman’s Place is in the Story, she shares the incredible stories of these women and highlights their integral roles in the early pages of Exodus. She writes, “We should not minimize the role these women are playing in the salvation of an entire silenced people. The midwives, the child’s mother, his sister, and Pharaoh’s subversive daughter function together as saviors of the child who will be the earthly deliverer of Israel. Each of these seemingly powerless females uses what little influence she has, none of which is political or official, to do good.”
Shiprah and Puah
The beginning of Exodus presents an unnamed pharaoh who unjustly oppressed the Hebrew people as slaves and feared they would fill the land and become an opposition to his leadership. The Hebrew people were highly fruitful, fulfilling the creation mandate and blessed by God. Pharaoh’s heart burst with hate as he commanded that all the Hebrew boys be killed at birth and thrown into the Nile. The first act of resistance and rebellion in Exodus comes through the hands of two midwives, Shiprah and Puah. These women are identified by name, while the pharaoh is not, which is significant in the biblical narrative. The Hebrew is not clear on whether they are “Hebrew midwives” or “midwives of the Hebrews.” Regardless, these two women are named in the text as God’s helpers in subverting the king’s evil plan. This oppressive leader is portrayed as a nonentity, while the women are personally identified as key players in the story.
Pharaoh soon realized that his decree to kill the Hebrew baby boys was not being followed by the midwives and interrogated them. They utilized his own twisted hatred and racism as they told him the Hebrew women were strong like animals (he viewed slaves as not fully human) and gave birth on their own before the midwives could arrive. These brave women stood up to power in the face of danger and rescued Israelite baby boys. Pharaoh’s law undermined God’s divine blessing of multiplication for the Hebrew people, so God enabled Shiphrah and Puah to undermine him and further God’s faithfulness to his people.
The Pharaoh’s daughter
In several acts brimming with irony, the daughter of Pharaoh who ordered the deaths of all Hebrew baby boys becomes the very person who saves Moses from the Nile. While bathing at the Nile’s riverbank with her servants, she notices the basket, discovers the baby, and recognizes his Hebrew heritage right away. The text narrates that he was crying and she felt sorry for him. It is rare in the text to disclose someone’s feelings along with their actions, so this detail is significant in contrasting her compassion with her father’s deep hatred of the Hebrews. She immediately claims the baby as her “son,” and due to the advice of his sister hiding in the reeds, hires his birth mother to nurse and care for him (Exodus 2:5-10). The text does not reveal whether Pharaoh knew about this arrangement and royal adoption, but it seems plausible she would have faced pushback if her plan was revealed. It is significant that a member of the king’s own family, a non-Hebrew, would contribute in such a significant way in rescuing and raising the deliverer of the Hebrews. It was Pharaoh’s daughter who named the boy Moses, meaning “the one who draws out of the water” (Exodus 2:10). She was speaking to her actions of pulling him from the Nile, but his name would have a much greater meaning, as the one who drew his people out of Egypt and through the waters to safety.
Jochebed
The mother of Moses remains unnamed at the beginning of the book of Exodus. The only identifying factors until Exodus 6:20 are that she was a Levite woman who married a man from the same tribe. Even Miriam, Moses’s sister, does not get named until Exodus 15. Sandra Glahn writes in A Woman’s Place is in the Story that the tribal reference is significant, as it settles Moses in the tribe that will become designated by God to provide leadership for the Hebrew people. It must have been terrifying to be pregnant under the evil king’s death warrant for Hebrew baby boys. Pharaoh’s command to throw Hebrew baby boys into the Nile was technically what Moses’s mother did. She placed him in a papyrus basket, which in Hebrew is the same word used later for Noah’s ark (Exodus 2:3-4). Both arks were covered with pitch sealant, and both contributed to God’s deliverance of his chosen people. The baby boy was rescued from the waters by an Egyptian, who looked with compassion on him and defied her royal father by raising him as her own. Glahn explains the miracle, “The river intended as Pharaoh’s means of death becomes YHWH’s means of salvation.”
Miriam
When the yet unnamed baby Moses is plucked from the Nile by Pharaoh’s daughter, out of nowhere a young girl appears from the brush and offers to help. She displays another example of female bravery in the early pages of Exodus. The text up to this point never mentions that the baby had older siblings. From the Hebrew wording, this older sister was a preteen, old enough to advise a deal with the princess, but young enough not to be conscripted to work in the fields. When the princess finds the baby, it is Miriam who uses her voice to arrange the wonderful plan, allowing the baby’s own mother to nurse him—and be compensated for it. After this, Miriam fades from the story until much later, and, interestingly, her contributions to the narrative are connected with the Hebrew word shepat, which means “bank or shore.” She first appears at the shepat of the river when the princess draws the baby from the waters (Exodus 2:4), and later she leads the Hebrew people in worship at the shepat of the sea after YHWH delivers the people through the waters in deliverance (Exodus 15:20-21)
In Exodus 15, it seems likely that Miriam composes the song used by the Israelites to celebrate their rescue from the Egyptian army. She leads the people in singing a call and response, “Sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted,” and the people respond with, “I will sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted.” Old Testament scholar Desmond Alexander notes that the placement of Miriam’s contribution to the song after the event creates bookends with the beginning of the story, highlighting the essential role of women in the deliverance of the Hebrew people from oppression. The text assigns her the title of “prophetess” at this point because her song foretells God’s sanctuary in the Promised Land.
Zipporah
Moses fled to the desert of Midian after killing an Egyptian trying to enact justice by his own hands. He encounters the “priest of Midian” who has seven daughters and marries one named Zipporah (Exodus 2:16-18). Once again, God uses another non-Hebrew female in this important deliverance story. The text narrates an event that is not often addressed in sermons about the Exodus. Moses and Zipporah have a son and take him when travelling back to Egypt to free the Hebrew people. They rest for the night, and “the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him” (Exodus 4:24). Zipporah somehow understands the situation and takes immediate action—she grabs a knife and circumcises the boy! Her action saves Moses’s life. Zipporah follows in the pattern we have seen thus far in the early pages of Exodus, God uses women to bravely intervene and save the life of Moses before he ever becomes the savior of his people.
Resources:
- Alexander, T. Desmond. Exodus. InterVarsity Press, 2017.
- Glahn, Sandra L. A Woman’s Place is in the Story: Seeing Women in the Biblical Narrative. IVP Academic, 2026.