Commentary for Exodus 1:19

כי חיות הנה signifies they are just as skilful as midwives. The Aramaic for מילדות, midwives, is חיתא (hence the term חיות in this verse). Our Rabbis, however, (taking this word in the sense of animals) gave the following explanation (Sotah 11b): they have been compared to the beasts of the field which do not require the help of midwives. And where are they compared to animals? (Genesis 49:9) “Judah is a young lion”; (Genesis 27) “Benjamin is a wolf that leareth”; (Deuteronomy 33:17) “Joseph is the firstling of his ox”; (Genesis 49:21) “Naphtali is a hind sent forth”. As for the ancestors of those tribes about whom such a comparison is not expressly written Scripture implicitly includes them in the several blessings bestowed upon their brothers, (and thus they also are compared, as their brothers, to animals), for Scripture states, (Genesis 49:28) “And he blessed them etc.” (cf. Rashi on these words). Then, again, it is written, (Ezekiel 19:2) “How was thy mother a lioness!” (The prophet is addressing the princes of Israel as the representatives of the people, and by the term “thy mother” means the progenitors of the nation; the chapter proceeds to speak of the mother’s offspring as “whelps”).

כי חיות הנה, “healthy, alert and the birthing process proceeds smoothly and quickly.”

כי חיות הנה, they themselves are expert in the art of midwifery. If we were to attempt to do anything contrary to accepted practice or even to speak to them in a suspicious manner they would notice this immediately and would not ask any of us again to assist when they were due to give birth. They argued that it is not worth the king’s while to have only a few babies killed.

כי לא כנשים המצריות העבריות, "the Hebrew women are unlike the Egyptian women, etc." Why did the midwives use such cumbersome language? All they had to say was לא כמצריות העבריות. Besides, how does their answer address Pharaoh's accusation that they supplied food to keep the babies alive? It appears that Pharaoh was satisfied with their answer! Another difficulty is the word וילדו; why did they not say ויולדות, "and they proceeded to give birth?"

They may be compared to animals of the field. . . [Rashi offers this explanation because of] a difficulty with the first explanation: Even if they were as knowledgeable as midwives, but a midwife also requires a midwife to deliver her. (Re”m)

V. 19. כי חיות הנה, es ist (mehr) Leben in ihnen, von נח ,חיי statt דגש. Wie schon (Jeschurun VIII. S. 436) bemerkt, bezeichnet חיי, unterschieden von חיה, die spezielle physische Lebenstätigkeit, die von innen heraus alles Entsprechende selbständig in sich aufnimmt und alles Fremdartige von sich abstößt. Jeder sich selbst ernährende und selbst verteidigende Punkt ist חי. Unsere Frauen sind nicht wie die ägyptischen, sie sind lebenskräftig, sie brauchen keinen andern. So wie das Tier ausgestattet ist mit der lebendigen Kraft, den Akt der Geburt ohne Beistand zu vollbringen, so auch unsere Frauen.

What a lioness is your mother! In other words, the verse compares the congregation of Israel (“your mother”) to a lioness.

The expression נשים מצריות mentioned by the midwives refers to the elite of the Egyptian women. The midwives explained to Pharaoh that the Hebrew women were superior even to the elite of the Egyptian women in that they either did not need the services of a midwife at all, or were חיות, knowledgeable in that art, and helped each other without reference to outside professionals.

Perhaps the midwives hinted that the Jewish women possessed a) the superior skills with which they were born, b) the skills possessed by the natural born Egyptian women which they had acquired during the years they had lived in Egypt. They combined the best skills of both categories of women. If Pharaoh wanted to know why they had not assisted in the births as emissaries of the king, the Hebrew women had always given birth already before the midwife could arrive; the Hebrew women had misled them concerning when a birth would be due. All of this is part of the meaning of their being חיות. The word וילדו means the birth had already taken place by the time the midwives arrived. If they had visited these expectant women bringing with them food and water it was in order to win these women's confidence so that when the time to give birth arrived they would trust them and let them assist. However, all this had been in vain. If, after finding that these women had already had their babies, the midwives would have taken the food away they would only have aroused suspicion that the food had not been intended as a friendly gift at all. In this manner the midwives satisfied Pharaoh while admitting that what the Egyptian women had reported to him was absolutely true, but the conclusions they had drawn did not fit the facts.