5 min read

Pharaoh Saw a Lamb Outweigh Egypt in a Dream

Before Exodus began, Pharaoh dreamed of a scale. On one side sat all the wealth of Egypt. On the other sat a single lamb. The lamb's side went down.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The New Pharaoh and the Erased Laws
  2. What the Scale Showed
  3. Jannes, Jambres, and the Name of the Threat
  4. The Midwives Who Would Not Comply

The New Pharaoh and the Erased Laws

The Book of Exodus opens with a list of names and a king who "knew not Joseph." Targum Jonathan on Exodus 1, the ancient Aramaic translation from first-century Palestine, gives this forgetfulness a more deliberate shape. The new Pharaoh "took no knowledge of Joseph, and walked not in his laws." Joseph had been a viceroy who had built administrative systems, developed policies, established economic structures during the years of famine management. His tenure had shaped Egypt. The new king did not simply forget him. He looked at what Joseph had built and deliberately turned away from it. The oppression was a conscious reversal of everything the Israelites' ancestor had made possible.

The fear Pharaoh expressed to his court about the Israelite population was specific in the Targum's version: if war came, the Israelites might multiply beyond Egypt's capacity to control them and become a fifth column. The calculation was not purely hateful. It was political, the fear that a large embedded population with its own loyalties would prove ungovernable at a moment of national crisis. That calculation became the justification for slavery.

What the Scale Showed

Before the enslavement began, Pharaoh received a dream. Targum Jonathan's insertion of this prophetic vision before Exodus chapter 1's events unfold gives Pharaoh's subsequent decisions a different quality: he acted against a child he had been warned was coming. He was not simply a ruler responding to a demographic concern. He was a man trying to prevent a specific destiny he had already seen.

The dream Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews preserves from the broader midrashic tradition is vivid. An old man held a balance scale in front of Pharaoh. On one side he placed all the elders, all the nobles, all the great men of Egypt, tied together with their wealth and their status. On the other side he placed a single lamb. A young animal. Small. The lamb's side went down. It outweighed everything Egypt possessed.

Pharaoh woke shaken and summoned his wise men. The Targum names two of them by name that the Hebrew text does not provide: Jannes and Jambres. Their interpretation was immediate and specific. A child would be born among the Israelites whose influence would destroy Egypt and lead the Hebrew nation out of the land. The lamb was the coming liberator. The scale measured the weight of one person against an empire, and the empire was lighter.

Jannes, Jambres, and the Name of the Threat

The identification of Pharaoh's court magicians as Jannes and Jambres by the Targum fills in one of the Hebrew text's deliberate silences. When Moses and Aaron came before Pharaoh and turned their staff into a serpent, the text says only that Pharaoh's "wise men and sorcerers" matched the act. The names were known in oral tradition before the Targum preserved them in writing. They appear in Second Temple Jewish literature and were sufficiently established to be referenced without explanation in later texts.

Their role at the dream interpretation was to turn prophetic vision into practical advice: if a child is coming who will destroy Egypt, prevent the child's birth. This is the logic behind Pharaoh's order to kill the Hebrew male infants. The infanticide decree was not an act of crude cruelty. It was a specific policy response to a specific prophetic reading. Pharaoh was trying to close the future that the scale had shown him.

The Midwives Who Would Not Comply

The Hebrew text of Exodus 1:15 names two midwives: Shifra and Puah. Targum Jonathan identifies them as Jochebed and Miriam, Moses' own mother and sister. If correct, this means the women Pharaoh commanded to kill the Hebrew male infants were the women who would give birth to and help raise the child the dream had shown him on the scale. The particular cruelty of Pharaoh's policy choice was that he delivered his order directly to the family he was most afraid of.

The midwives refused. When Pharaoh summoned them a second time and demanded an explanation, Legends of the Jews records the answer they gave: the Hebrew women are like animals. As animals give birth without midwives, so do the Hebrew women, before any assistance is possible. The answer was designed to make Pharaoh feel the futility of his order rather than the defiance behind it.

The midwives feared God more than Pharaoh, Genesis records, and God rewarded them with households of their own. The child Pharaoh had been warned about was already forming in one of those households, already being carried by one of the women Pharaoh had tried to use as instruments of his policy, already too close to stop.

PharaohMosesDreamsMidwivesMiriamJochebedExodusProphecyMidrash Aggadah
← All myths

From the tradition

Sources

3 sources

The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Legends of the Jews 4:22Legends of the Jews

Pharaoh, you'll remember, had ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill all newborn baby boys. But these women – Shifra and Puah are their names in (Exodus 1:15) – defied him. They feared God more than they feared the king. Pharaoh, understandably, wasn't thrilled.

When he summoned them for a second time, demanding an explanation for their disobedience, they gave him a rather… interesting answer. As Ginzberg recounts, drawing from various Midrashic (rabbinic interpretive commentary) sources, they said, "This nation is compared unto one animal and another, and, in sooth, the Hebrews are like the animals. As little as the animals do they need the offices of midwives." Basically, they claimed the Hebrew women were so fertile and strong, they gave birth without needing assistance! It’s quite a line, isn't it? Bold and clever.

What happened to these brave women? Well, according to tradition, their defiance didn't go unnoticed by the Almighty. They were richly rewarded for their piety. Pharaoh, remarkably, did them no harm. But the blessings didn’t stop there. They became the ancestors of greatness.

Yochebed, identified by some traditions as Shifra, became the mother of Aaron the priest and Moses the Levite. Moses, the liberator, the lawgiver, descended from a woman who stood up to tyranny.

And Miriam, often identified as Puah, also had a remarkable destiny. From her union with Caleb sprang the royal house of David! Can you see the threads connecting these acts of defiance to the very lineage of kingship in Israel?

But the blessings didn't end with ancestry. The hand of God was visible in Miriam’s own life. She suffered a terrible illness, one that seemed certain to claim her. Yet, she recovered. And not only did she recover, but God restored her youth and beauty. It’s said that her husband experienced renewed happiness, a reward for his own piety and faith during her long illness.

There's more! Miriam was also privileged to bring forth Bezalel, the artisan who built the Mishkan (Tabernacle), that portable sanctuary that accompanied the Israelites through the wilderness. He wasn't just any craftsman; he was endowed with chochmah, celestial wisdom, enabling him to create a sacred space for the Divine Presence to dwell. As (Exodus 31:3) says, God filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship.

What's the takeaway here? Perhaps it’s this: even seemingly small acts of courage and faith can have monumental consequences. These midwives, by choosing righteousness over obedience to a cruel decree, became the wellspring of leadership, priesthood, kingship, and artistry. Their story, woven into the fabric of Jewish legend, reminds us that our choices matter, that even in the face of overwhelming power, we have the ability to shape the future. It makes you wonder what kind of legacy we're building with our own choices, doesn’t it?

Full source
Targum Jonathan on Exodus 1Targum Jonathan

The Book of Exodus opens with a list of names and a king who "knew not Joseph." Targum Jonathan transforms this into something far more vivid, adding a prophetic dream, naming Pharaoh's magicians, and revealing the true identities of the Hebrew midwives.

The new Pharaoh is described as one who "took no knowledge of Joseph, and walked not in his laws." This is not mere forgetfulness. The Targum implies Joseph had established laws during his time as viceroy, policies and ordinances that the new king deliberately abandoned. The oppression was a conscious reversal of everything Joseph had built.

Pharaoh's fear of the Israelites is more specific in the Targum. He warns his people: "Let us take counsel against them in these matters, to diminish them that they multiply not, so as that, should war be arrayed against us, they be not added to our adversaries, and destroy us that not one of us be left." The phrase "not one of us be left" is absent from the Torah, the Targum makes Pharaoh's paranoia total, existential.

The treasure cities get specific names. The Torah calls them Pithom and Raamses. The Targum identifies them as Tanis and Pilusin (Pelusium), real Egyptian cities that ancient readers could locate on a map.

Then comes the Targum's most dramatic addition, an entire scene the Torah never mentions. Pharaoh had a dream. "He, being asleep, saw in his dream, and behold, all the land of Egypt was placed in one scale of a balance, and a lamb, the young of a sheep, was in the other scale; and the scale with the lamb in it overweighed." All of Egypt, the mightiest civilization on earth, outweighed by a single lamb. Pharaoh summoned his magicians, and the Targum names them: Jannis and Jambres, the chief sorcerers. They interpreted the dream immediately: "A certain child is about to be born in the congregation of Israel, by whose hand will be destruction to all the land of Egypt."

This dream is what triggers the decree against the Hebrew babies. It was not generic xenophobia, it was a targeted response to a specific prophecy about a specific child. Moses was being hunted before he was born.

The midwives are identified by their real names. Shifra "is Jochebed". Moses' own mother. Puah "is Miriam her daughter". Moses' sister. The two women Pharaoh ordered to kill Hebrew boys were the mother and sister of the very child he was trying to destroy.

When Pharaoh confronts them for disobeying, their answer in the Targum is bolder than the Torah's version. The Hebrew women, they say, "are sturdy and wise-minded. Before the midwife cometh to them they lift up their eyes in prayer, supplicating mercy before their Father who is in heaven, who heareth the voice of their prayer, and at once they are heard, and bring forth, and are delivered in peace." They credited God directly to Pharaoh's face.

Their reward was equally specific. The Targum says they "obtained for themselves a good name unto the ages, and the Word of the Lord built for them a royal house, even the house of the high priesthood." Jochebed and Miriam, a mother and daughter who defied a king, became the ancestresses of Israel's priestly dynasty.

Full source
Legends of the Jews 4:24Legends of the Jews

It all started 130 years after the Israelites went down to Egypt. Pharaoh, in his dream, saw an old man standing before him. This old man held a balance scale. He watched as the old man gathered all the elders, the nobles, the great men of Egypt, tied them together, and placed them in one scale.

Then, he put a tender kid – a young goat – in the other scale.

Can you picture it? The weight of all those powerful Egyptians…and then this tiny, innocent kid. But here’s the thing: the kid’s side went down. It outweighed them all!

Pharaoh woke up shaken. He immediately summoned his servants and wise men. He needed someone to interpret this terrifying vision. They were, understandably, afraid. What did it mean?

That’s when Balaam, son of Beor, stepped forward. Now, Balaam is a fascinating figure in Jewish tradition, often portrayed as a diviner, a prophet of sorts, though not of Israel. He had a reputation, let's just say.

Balaam, in this account, doesn't mince words. "This means nothing but that a great evil will spring up against Egypt," he declared. “For a son will be born unto Israel, who will destroy the whole of our land and all its inhabitants, and he will bring forth the Israelites from Egypt with a mighty hand.”

Talk about a buzzkill.

Balaam’s interpretation? This dream wasn't just some random subconscious burbling. It was a prophecy. A dire prophecy. A Hebrew child would be born who would bring Egypt to its knees and lead the Israelites to freedom.

And his solution? "Now, therefore, O king, take counsel as to this matter, that the hope of Israel be frustrated before this evil arise against Egypt." In other words: nip this problem in the bud. Before this child is even born, find a way to crush the Israelites’ hopes and dreams.

Think about the implications. This dream, and Balaam’s interpretation, set in motion a chain of events, a paranoia that fueled the oppression of the Israelites for generations. It's a powerful reminder of how fear, fueled by prophecy and interpreted through a particular lens, can lead to terrible consequences. But could Pharaoh have chosen a different path? Could he have seen the dream as a warning rather than a threat, an opportunity for reconciliation instead of repression? Maybe, just maybe, history could have been different.

Full source