Puah

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Puah (meaning "splendid") is a name given to two persons in the Bible:

• One of the two midwives who feared God, and helped prevent the genocide of Hebrew male children by the Egyptians, according to Exodus 1:15-21. Her colleague was Shiphrah.

In Midr. Tadshe (on Ex. i. 15) it is assumed that Puah, as well as the other midwife, was a proselyte, and was not identical with Miriam.

• The son of Dodo and a descendant of Issachar. He had a son named Tola, who rose to become a Biblical judge. (Judges 10:1)

Rashi: Jochebed, she is called Shifrah. Rashi sees Shifrah as the mother, and Puah as the daughter. Since the Torah reveals rather than conceals, they must be the mother and daughter mentioned elsewhere in the story, namely, Yochebed and Miriam (Gur Aryeh; Sifsei Chachamim).

The name Puah is an expression of crying out (Isaiah 42:14).

And Hashem did good to the midwives. Shemos (Exodus) 1:20 The verb is the causitive hiphil. He, (Ha Kodesh Baruch Hu) did good to them.

Shemos 1:21 He made houses for them. the houses of kehunah, and leviyah, and royalty. Both Kohanim and Levites live in the Beis HaMigdash. Royalty from Miriam Tractate Sotah 11b; Shemos Rabbah 1:17