Commento su Esodo 1:21

ויעש להם בתים HE MADE THEM HOUSES — houses (dynasties) of the priesthood and the Levites and of royalty which are all termed בתים, “houses”, as it is said, (1 Kings 9:1) “and Solomon built the house of the Lord and the house of the king”: “the house of the Lord” i. e. a dynasty of priests and Levites — from Jochebed (Shifrah); and “the house of the king”, i. e. a royal dynasty — from Miriam (Puah), just as it is stated in Treatise Sotah 11b.

.ויעש להם בתים. A form of house arrest, to prevent them from attending Jewish women about to give birth.

ויעש להם בתים, He made houses for them.” This means that G’d made these midwives especially fruitful and people would refer to these offspring as “the children of Shifrah and Puah.” [instead of their fathers being mentioned as the progenitors. Ed.] The expression בתים, i.e. plural of בית is used in lieu of the word בנים, children, as for instance in Samuel II 7,11 בית יעשה לך ה' “for He will establish a dynasty for you.” Other commentators understand this as relating to the line ויהי כאשר יראו המילדות את האלוקים ויעש להם בתים, “when, due to the midwives being in awe of G’d, and Pharaoh’s decree therefore becoming futile, Pharaoh placed pregnant Jewish women in houses surrounded by Egyptians so that their neighbours would know when they would be likely to give birth.” These women were forbidden to give birth anywhere else but in these houses. Still a third way of interpreting this verse is that the “houses” were jails in which the midwives would henceforth be kept. The word בית does appear in this sense in Genesis 40,14 Joseph saying to the chief of the cupbearers והוצאתני מן הבית הזה, “so that you will bring me out of this jail (the jail being called a house).”