(12) And it came to pass, that, when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, a dread, even a great darkness, fell upon him. (13) And He said unto Abram: ‘Know of a surety that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; (14) and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge; and afterward shall they come out with great inheritance. (15) But you will go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried in a good old age.
(15) And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah; (16) and he said: ‘When you do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, you shall look upon the birthstool: if it be a son, then you shall kill him; but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.’
The Kehot Chumash here opines that his intention was to kill the males and marry the females to Egyptians.
(17) But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men-children alive. (18) And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them: ‘Why have you done this thing, and have saved the men-children alive?’ (19) And the midwives said unto Pharaoh: ‘Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are like animals, and are delivered before the midwife comes to them.’
Kehot says: "they are skilled like animals, and do not need midwives".
(20) And God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied, and grew very mighty.
(1) ושם השנית פועה. Her name reflected her vocation as mentioned in Sotah 11 פועה לולד, she would encourage the baby to leave its mother’s womb by whispering to it. Nowadays (author’s time) midwives call encouragement into the ears of the mother about to give birth.
The Kehot Chumash points out that "shirah" means beauty, and "puah" means "cooing/whispering one"
(א) למילדות. רב ושמואל ח"א אשה ובתה יוכבד ומרים וח"א כלה וחמותה. יוכבד ואלישבע: ד"א למילדת חסר וי"ו למד שלא היתה כי אם מילדת אחת והיינו יוכבד אבל מרים נערה היתה ולא היתה מילדת אלא פועה לילד ולכך אמרו חז"ל פועה זו מרים מהרב משה כהן. ד"א שפועה לילד בבטן וקוראה לו צא והוא יוצא:
(1) למילדת “to the midwife;” there is a disagreement in the Talmud regarding the identity of these two women. According to one opinion they were Yocheved and her daughter Miriam. According to the second opinion, they were mother-in- law Yocheved, and her daughter-in-law. Elisheva, wife of Aaron. (Talmud Sotah, folio 11) An alternate interpretation: this interpretation takes its cue from the fact that the Torah spelled the word מילדת in the singular mode instead of with the letter ו, seeing that there were two women. According to the spelling there was only a single midwife, Yocheved. Miriam was a teenager not capable yet of acting as a midwife, rather she acted as a bleater, to help the infant cry while still inside its mother’s womb encouraging it to emerge from the womb as fast as possible.
Another, perhaps more reasonable interpretation, is that there were two midwives named Shifrah and Puah!
(לז) (שמות א כא) ויהי כי יראו המילדות את האלהים ויעש להם בתים רב ולוי חד אמר בתי מלכות וחד אמר בתי כהונה ולויה. מ״ד בתי כהונה ולויה אהרן ומשה ומ״ד בתי מלכות נמי ממרים קאתי דכתיב
(37) (Ex. 1, 21) And it came to pass because the midwives feared God that He made them houses. Rab and Levi both explain the above passage: One says that this means kingly houses and the other said it means priestly and Levite houses. The latter interpretation refers to Moses, and the former contends that kings came forth from Miriam who was also one of the midwives
The Daat Zkenim has a radically different interpretation, which it gets from the Rashbam:
(א) ויהי כי יראו המילדות. פי' כשראה פרעה שלא היו מקיימין מצותו ויעש להם בתים אצל עבדיו כדי שיראו אם הולכות אצל העבריות:
(1) ויהי כי יראו המילדות, “as a result of the midwives displaying that they were G’d fearing, etc. instead of obeying Pharaoh’s commands, he established houses where they had to check in and report on their activities.
(ב) וַתַּ֥הַר הָאִשָּׁ֖ה וַתֵּ֣לֶד בֵּ֑ן וַתֵּ֤רֶא אֹתוֹ֙ כִּי־ט֣וֹב ה֔וּא וַֽתִּצְפְּנֵ֖הוּ שְׁלֹשָׁ֥ה יְרָחִֽים׃
(2) And the woman conceived, and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a good, she hid him three months.
(א) כי טוב הוא. כשנלד נתמלא הבית כלו אורה:
(1) She saw that he was good: When he was born the entire house was filled with light.
(א) (ב~ד) ותרא אותו כי טוב הוא ותצפנהו ידוע כי כל הנשים אוהבות את בניהם, יפים ושאינם יפים, וכלנה תצפנינה אותן בכל יכלתן, ואין צורך לטענה כי טוב הוא. אבל פירוש הטובה הזאת, שראתה בו טוב מחודש וחשבה כי יארע בו נס וינצל, ולכן נתנה אל לבה וחשבה מחשבות בענינו, וכאשר ראתה שלא יכלה עוד להצפינו
(1) ותרא SHE SAW THAT HE WAS GOOD AND SHE HID HIM: The explanation that she hid him because of [something special] that she saw in him is false. All babies elicit the compassion of their mothers. Rather one must explain [the verb] SHE SAW (ותרא) like in the verse (Gen. 1:31), "God saw (יארע) all that he had made and found it very good." There the phrase means that [God] looked and examined all His works and His actions that He had done to see whether there was something to correct therein; everything was proper and correct.
The Or HaChaim writes, "some say that "he was good" means the house filled with light or that he was born circumcised (Talmud Sotah). This is excessive midrash. Does it mean that if he had not been so she would have abandoned him? Nonsense. It just means that he was born healthy and well."
(3) And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch; and she put the child therein, and laid it in the flags by the river’s brink. (4) And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him. (5) And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the river; and her maidens walked along by the river-side; and she saw the ark among the flags, and sent her handmaid to fetch it. (6) And she opened it, and saw it, even the child; and behold a boy that wept. And she had compassion on him, and said: ‘This is one of the Hebrews’children.’ (7) Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter: ‘Shall I go and call you a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?’ (8) And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her: ‘Go.’ And the maiden went and called the child’s mother. (9) And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her: ‘Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give you wages.’ And the woman took the child, and nursed it. (10) And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses, and said: ‘Because I drew him out of the water.’
(ל) שבע נביאות נתנבאו להם לישראל מאן נינהו שרה ומרים, דבורה, חנה, אביגיל, חולדה, אסתר. שרה דכתיב (בראשית יא כט) אבי מלכה ואבי יסכה ואמר רבי יצחק יסכה זו שרה ולמה נקרא שמה יסכה [שסכתה] ברוח הקודש והיינו דכתיב (שם כא יב) כל אשר תאמר אליך שרה שמע בקולה. מרים דכתיב (שמות טו כו) ותקח מרים הנביאה אחות אהרן וגומר אחות אהרן ולא אחות משה אמר רב נחמן אמר רב מלמד שהיתה מתנבאה כשהיא אחות אהרן ואומרת עתידה אמי שתלד בן שמושיע את ישראל כיון שנולד משה נתמלא כל הבית כולו אורה עמד אביה ונשקה על ראשה אמרה לה היכן נבואתך והיינו דכתיב (שמות ב ד) ותתצב אחותו מרחוק לדעה מה יעשה לו מה יהא בסוף נבואתה.
(30) And the seven prophetesses that prophecied to Israel, who were they? Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Huldah and Esther. Sarah as it is written (Gen. 11, 29) The father of Milcah and the father of Yiscah. And R. Isaac said: "Yiscah refers to Sarah, but why was she called Yiscah? Because that signifies seeing, and she was a seer through the Holy Spirit and this is derived from the passage (Ib. 21, 12) Whatever Sarah tells you hearken to her voice. Miriam, as it is written (Ex. 15, 26) Then took Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron. Was she then Aaron's and not Moses' sister." "This means," said R. Nachman, in the name of Rab, "that she had prophecied even when she had been only Aaron's sister [before Moses' birth] saying, 'In the future my mother will give birth to a child that will deliver the Israelites.' Finally, when Moses was born, the whole house was filled with light, and her father arose, and kissed her on her head, and saying to her, 'My daughter, thy prophecy is fulfilled.' Afterward, when he was cast into the river, her mother rose, saying to her, 'My daughter, what has become of thy prophecy?' And thus we understand the passage (Ib. 2, 4) And his sister placed herself afar off, to ascertain what would be done to him, to mean to know what would be the outcome of her prophecy."
Vayikra Rabba:
In Divrei Hayamim A (Chronicals 1), it says “And these are the children of Batya the daughter of Paroah that she took from Mered (Rebellion)”. This is talking about Calev, who rebelled against the advice of the spies and Batya who rebelled against her father.