A common misinterpretation of Exodus 1:16 is to view it as divine endorsement of gender-selective infanticide or population control, ignoring that it depicts Pharaoh's godless, murderous decree born of fear and hatred, not God's will; others might overlook the midwives' heroic disobedience in the following verses, which highlights obedience to God over human authority, or apply it anachronistically to modern abortion debates without recognizing its historical context of ethnic genocide against the Israelites.
Exodus 1:16
King James Version (1769)
16 And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.
Exodus 1:16 records Pharaoh's sinister command to the Hebrew midwives to kill newborn Israelite boys on the birth stools while allowing girls to live, reflecting his tyrannical strategy to curb the rapidly multiplying Hebrew population through systematic infanticide, which underscores the escalating oppression of God's people in Egypt and sets the stage for their deliverance, emphasizing themes of human evil contrasted against divine protection.