Role Of Women In Exodus

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The Role of Women in Exodus In the first three chapters of Exodus, the role of women was to bear children, while some women were to serve as midwives. The midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, were forced by the Pharaoh to control the slave population of the “people of Israel.” They were to kill all the male children at the time of birth. The midwives feared God alone more than they feared the Pharaoh, so they let all the male children live. They also lied to the Pharaoh explaining why the male children needed to live. Thus, God granted the women with families for their respect to Him and for keeping the children of Israel alive. This alone shows the compassion and strength the women had. They went transformed from the housewives and midwives to the defenders of the front line in the time of crisis (Ex 1:5-22). In the second chapter the role of the women come across as compassionate caretakers (Ex 2:1-10). The women are usually mothers, sisters, daughters, and maidservants. Moses’ mother was the one who casted him off in a basket in the hopes of another person finding him and taking him in as their own, saving him from death (Ex. 2:3). The Pharaoh has some compassion when he lets his daughter adopt the baby as her own, even though she knows that the baby is an Israelite. The nurse that is called to help her take care of the child ends up being his real mother. She takes care of him as if he were still in her arms as her own (Ex 2: 6-10). The role of women here was the “rescuer.” They were the ones who saved a baby from death by law of the Pharaoh. They are looked at, in a way, as the savior and protector of those that they love and care about deeply. It shows that their own personal needs are less important than those that they love. In Exodus 3, there is a significant change in the role of women. They go from being savior and protector
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