Puah and Shiphrah
The 11th century Jewish rabbi Rashi's Talmud commentary on the passage from Exodus identifies Shiphrah with Jochebed, the mother of Moses, and Puah with Miriam, Moses' sister, making the two midwives mother and daughter respectively. However, in Midrash Tadshe (on Exodus 1:15), it is assumed that Puah, as well as Shiphrah, was a proselyte, and that she was not identical with Miriam.
The name Puah may be interpreted as an expression of crying out (Isaiah 42:14, for example, translates the Hebrew pa'ah as 'cry out' or 'groan').
Commentators have interpreted Exodus 1:20-21 in various ways. Some scholars argue that the two halves of each verse are parallel, so that it is the Israelites ('who multiplied and grew greatly') for whom God 'made houses'. This fits with the reference in Exodus 1:1 to the chldren of Israel coming down to Egypt, each with his 'house'. However, as Jonathan Magonet notes, the more common view is that the houses are for the midwives - 'houses' here being understood as 'dynasties'. Rabbinic thought has understood these as the houses of kehunah (priesthood), leviyah (assistants to the priests), and royalty - the latter interpreted as coming from Miriam.
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