1 Exodus 1–2 is a story of three marginalized groups: slaves, midwives, and wet nurses. The first two groups come readily to mind when considering Exodus 1–2. Slaves are prominent, of course, because the chapter deals with the Egyptian pharaoh who, when threatened by the increasing numbers of Hebrew immigrants, set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. Midwives also are in the forefront of the story, because Exodus 1 is a marvelous nar- rative about the resistance of two midwives named Shiphrah and Puah against pharaoh’s genocidal decree against new- born Hebrew males. However, the social conditions of wet nurses as a mar- ginalized group do not figure immediately in our collective consciousness when considering Exodus 1–2 or the biblical text as a whole. Through the clever deception by Moses’ sister, Miriam, Moses is able to be breastfed by his own mother. The resistance and deception which pushes back against oppression and genocide in this story ironically re- veals that wet nurses generally do not get to nurse their own children. What then were the real conditions of wet nurses in antiquity? Through a socio-historical analysis, this article will examine the story about an Egyptian pharaoh’s daugh- ter and her Hebrew slave wet nurse, to discover the power relations and dynamics in which an empire exploits enslaved foreign women for the products of their bodies. It will then discuss how Exodus 2:1–10 is an example of resistance lit- erature in its subversion of the usual social expectations for wet nurses in antiquity. “Take this Child and Suckle it for Me”: Wet Nurses and Resistance in Ancient Israel” Gale A. Yee Abstract Using Exodus 2 and other references to wet nurses in the Hebrew Bible as a springboard, this article examines the socio-historical conditions of free and enslaved wet nurses in antiquity through a cross-cultural investigation of Graeco-Roman and rabbinic legal and cultural texts. It then analyzes Exodus 2 as an example of resistance litera- ture during the Persian period to support anti-colonial resistance within the Jewish community in Yehud against Persian control. The wet nurse represents the resistance of the enslaved class to oppression and genocide. Key words: wet nurse, Exodus 2, resistance, Egypt, Jochebed, Miriam, Pharaoh’s daughter BIBLICAL T HEOLOGY BULLETIN Volume 39 Number 4 Pages _ _–_ _ Ó The Author(s), 2009. Reprints and Permissions: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/014610790 http://btb.sagepub.com Gale A. Yee, PhD (University of St. Michael’s College, To- ronto) is currently Nancy W. King Professor of Biblical Studies at Episcopal Divinity School, 99 Brattle St., Cambridge, MA 02138-3402 (e-mail: gyee@eds.edu). She is the author of Poor Banished Children of Eve (Fortress); Jewish Feasts and the Gospel of John (Michael Glazier/Wipf & Stock) and “The Book of Ho- sea” commentary in The New Interpreters Bible. Vol. VII (Abing- don), and she is General Editor of Semeia Studies.