Exodus 1:19

Summary

The midwives answer Pharaoh, giving a reason why Hebrew women are not treated the way he ordered: the Hebrew women, unlike the Egyptian women, are described as chayot ("vigorous", H2422) and give birth before a midwife can reach them. The verse closes the exchange with a narrative sequential verb marking the ongoing pattern of births.

Key words

• to.Mar.na ("they said", H0559) — qal narrative verb, feminine plural, marking the midwives as the subject of direct speech.
• m.ya.le.Dot ("midwives", H3205) — piel participle feminine plural, literally "the ones who cause to bear," used as the professional title for the group.
• ki ("for/that", H3588A) — appears twice (items 7 and 15), each introducing a subordinate clause; the doubling creates a two-part justification: first a negative comparison, then a positive reason.
• cha.Yot ("vigorous", H2422) — feminine plural adjective, predicate describing the Hebrew women's physical state as the stated cause of their quick deliveries.
• ya.La.du ("they gave birth", H3205) — qal verb in sequential perfect (vav-consecutive), continuing the narrative chain and indicating a repeated or habitual outcome rather than a single past event.

What the text says

The sentence is built as reported speech introduced by to.Mar.na ("they said", H0559), followed by two coordinated ki clauses (H3588A) that together form the midwives' explanation. The first ki clause is negative: lo' ka-nashim ha-mitzriyot ha-'ivriyot — "not like the [Egyptian] women [are] the Hebrew [women]" — stacking two feminine plural gentilic nouns, mitz.ri.Yot ("Egyptian", H4713) and 'iv.ri.Yot ("Hebrew", H5680), without a linking verb, which is normal for Hebrew nominal clauses using implied "to be." The second ki clause supplies the stated reason: the Hebrew women are cha.Yot ("vigorous", H2422), a feminine plural adjective functioning as predicate to the pronoun He.nah ("they", H2007).

The temporal clause that follows, introduced by Te.rem ("before", H2962) with the imperfect ta.Vo' ("she comes", H0935G), describes the midwife's arrival as not yet completed when birth occurs — an unfinished/future-oriented aspect that imperfect verbs typically carry in Biblical Hebrew narrative. The final verb, ya.La.du ("they gave birth", H3205), uses the vav-consecutive perfect, the standard form for continuing a narrative sequence, here suggesting this happens repeatedly rather than as an isolated occurrence.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew adjective cha.Yot ("vigorous", H2422) is rendered differently across versions. The LXX collapses the two ki clauses into one causal statement using the verb "τίκτουσιν" ("they give birth"), omitting a direct equivalent for "vigorous" and instead describing the timing of birth relative to the midwives' arrival. The Vulgate diverges further, rendering the reason as "ipsae enim obstetricandi habent scientiam" ("for they themselves have knowledge of midwifery"), attributing the outcome to skill rather than to the physical vigor stated in the Hebrew text.