11a: Rove's getting it bad

There is a puzzling piece on this amud that lists 3 of Pharoah's advisors as Bilam, Job and Yitro. It is here to further illustrate the concept of mida k'neged mida - but the choice of these people is interesting. According to the Talmud, Bilam told Pharoah to kill the Jewish baby boys - which makes his killing by b'nai Yisrael in Num 31:8 justified. Job was silent - and therefore indifferent to the suffering of b'nai Yisrael in slavery - so he underwent suffering. And Yitro ran away and didn't give any advice - I assume in protest - and therefore he and his descendants are rewarded.

Perhaps the Talmud picked these three because they fit with the mida k'neged mida piece - but there could be another reason. All of them are non-Jews, and putting them in Pharoah's court fills out the attitude towards them in most of rabbinic literature -- that is their advice to Pharoah matches their fates. What else could be the significance of this section?

On another note, there is a beautiful midrash on this amud as well that takes the verse "and his sister stood from afar" - referring to Miriam watching out for baby Moshe in the basket - and shows intertextually why it was really God, and not Miriam who was watching over Moshe. A lovely thought. We could also take a more liberal theological look at this piece and say that Miriam, by watching over Moshe, was like God.