Shemot ~ The midwives resistance, Moses's self-doubt

(12) He answered, “Heave me overboard, and the sea will calm down for you; for I know that this terrible storm came upon you on my account.” (13) Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to regain the shore, but they could not, for the sea was growing more and more stormy about them. (14) Then they cried out to the LORD: “Oh, please, LORD, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life. Do not hold us guilty of killing an innocent person! For You, O LORD, by Your will, have brought this about.” (15) And they heaved Jonah overboard, and the sea stopped raging. (16) The men feared the LORD greatly; they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and they made vows.

(6) Now Joseph was the vizier of the land ... For though Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. (9) Recalling the dreams that he had dreamed about them, Joseph said to them, “You are spies, you have come to see the land in its nakedness.” ... And he confined them in the guardhouse for three days. (18) On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do this and you shall live, for I am a God-fearing man. (19) If you are honest men, let one of you brothers be held in your place of detention, while the rest of you go and take home rations for your starving households; (20) but you must bring me your youngest brother, that your words may be verified and that you may not die.” And they did accordingly.

(16) שפרה SHIPHRAH — This was Jochebed; she bore this additional name because she used to put the babe after its birth into good physical condition (משפרת) by the care she bestowed upon it (Sotah 11b).

(17) פועה PUAH — This was Miriam, and she bore this additional name because she used to Call aloud and speak and croon to the babe just as women do who soothe a child when it is crying (Sotah 11b).

(18) פועה has the meaning of crying aloud, as (Isaiah 42:14) “I will cry (אפעה) like a travailing woman”.

The Miyaldot HaIvriot - the understanding of our sages, of blessed memory, and Onkelos, and Rashbam, and Ramban and Ra"z is that those midwives were from the seed of Israel, and the understanding of the Alexandrian translator, and[Eusebius Sophronius] Hieronymos, and Yosephus Flavius, and Don Itzchak [Abrabanel] is that they were Egyptian, these midvives of the Hebrews. And this is right, since how does it make any sense that [Pharaoh] would order Jewish women to destroy all the children of their own people and believe that they won't reveal such a thing? And [Philiphus] Klericus affirms that if they were not Jewish the text should have read "midwives to the Hebrews". And the Ra"z comes and says that it should read "the midwives that served the Hebrews" - and this has no standing, since the text could have said "the midwives that served the Hebrews" by omitting the word 'et' as it does in (Jer. 31:29) "every man that eats sour grapes". And what is proved by the phrase 'the midwives feared God' is no proof at all, since it is not written here Hashem, rather, E-lohim, and everyone who has a god (a God of truth or a god of falsehood) would fear killing babies that did not sin at all, whatever people they are from. And an example of this is what is said regarding Amalek 'and he attacked you in the rear, and you were tired and exhausted, and he did not fear E-lohim' (Deu. 25:18) and my dear student, R. Yaakov Chay Pardo, may the tzadik's memory bring blessings to us, adds that if they were from another people it made more sense to say they did this out of fear and not of love, since if they were Jewish what need would there be to remind us that they feared God, since all humans love the children of their own people. Also, what they point out that the names Shifra and Puah are not Egyptian, but come from Hebrew roots, this is not relevant, since they would come from the Land of Goshen, that is closer to the land of Israel (see Gen. 46:34), and it is possible that they just spoke a language closer to Hebrew like Cannanite, and so their names would be closer to Hebrew and Cannanite. And another thing that is clear is that for a people that is "many and strong" makes no sense to have only those two midwives, and so Rabbi Ibn Ezra and (and after him the Ra'z) says that those two were the supervisors of the all the midwives; and Rabbi Ovadia Sforno says that Pharaoh talked first to the midwives of his city, and after them not doing his bidding, he did not trust others from other places; and more, this is happening far away from his eyes, since Israel is living in the Land of Goshen and not in Egypt. How else could we explain that the land is full of them, but that "in the land of Goshen, where Israel lived, there was no hail"? And I say that Pharaoh did not want to talk to all the midwives at once, since if all of them would kill all the Israelite babies at one moment, the thing would be known and publicized.And if just two of them were going around killing them - and not all the other midwives, others could say it was an accident, and he thought to order all the midwives in small groups, so that the matter would not be known [if it had worked with those first two].

(11) מי אנכי WHO AM I? — Of what importance am I that I should speak with monarchs?

(12) וכי אוציא את בני ישראל AND THAT I SHOULD BRING FORTH THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL — and even if I am of sufficient importance for this, how has Israel merited that a miracle should be wrought for them and that I should bring them forth from Egypt?