Did Egyptians have mid-wives?
Exodus 1:19
NKJV - 19 And the midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.
For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
"Did the Egyptians have midwives?" Here's another question that might help to answer the first question. Were there any poor Egyptians, or were they all slave owners and wealthy agriculturalists?
Of course there were Egyptian midwives! There were Egyptians of every kind of person in a society. The term "Egyptian" doesn't mean privileged, it means they were not under God's care, they were Gentiles. Most of them were poor, needy and common. They either had a midwife during a birth delivery or no one at all.
But to answer the question, Exodus 1:15 states that the king of Egypt spoke to the "Hebrew" midwives, instructing them to put to death the male babies born to the Hebrew women. It states that they were Hebrew.
What I don't understand, is why the king would expect the women to do such a thing! That's not an easy thing to expect that many women will do, if you ask me what I think. What kind of man would ask such a thing from a woman? I believe that to be a major point of that part of the story. The king is being depicted as a dastardly character. Verse 22 of the chapter states that after the midwives didn't do his bidding, he "commanded all his people, saying, every son who is born you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive."
The way I read it, this is saying that he went full madman! He's now willing to kill all the male babies, Hebrew and Egyptian, to try and destroy this promised deliverer.
Satan ain't got nothing on him!