Exodus 1

Exodus 1:1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each man with his house:[1]

Exodus 1:2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,

Exodus 1:3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,

Exodus 1:4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

Exodus 1:5 All the throats[2] coming out of the loins of Jacob were seventy throats; Joseph being already in Egypt.

Exodus 1:6 Joseph eventually died, and all his brothers and all that generation.

Exodus 1:7 But the sons of Israel had been fruitful and greatly crowded Egypt; they multiplied and grew very strong, so that the land[3] was filled with them.

Exodus 1:8 Then a new king – who did not remember Joseph – began reigning over Egypt,

Exodus 1:9 And he said to his people, “Notice,[4] the people of the sons of Israel are too many and too strong for us.

Exodus 1:10 Cooperate! let us deal wisely with them, or else[5] they will keep multiplying, and, when war breaks out, they will join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.”

Exodus 1:11 Therefore they set officials[6] over them to force heavy burdens[7] upon them. They built store cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses.

Exodus 1:12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they permeated the country. And the Egyptians detested the people of Israel.

Exodus 1:13 So they callously made the people of Israel work as slaves

Exodus 1:14 and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they callously made them work as slaves.

Exodus 1:15 Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah,

Exodus 1:16 “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birth stool, if it is a son, you will kill him, but if it is a daughter, she will live.”

Exodus 1:17 But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the boys live.

Exodus 1:18 So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the boys live?”

Exodus 1:19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, because they are strong and give birth before the midwife comes to them.”

Exodus 1:20 So God treated the midwives well. And the people continued to multiply and grew very strong.

Exodus 1:21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them houses.

Exodus 1:22 Then Pharaoh ordered all his people, and this is what he said, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you will throw into the Nile, but you will let every daughter live.”

[1] בַּיִת = house, home, inside. Exodus 1:1, 21; 2:1; 3:22; 6:14; 7:23; 8:3, 9, 11, 13, 21, 24; 9:19, 20; 10:6; 12:3, 4, 7, 13, 15, 19, 22, 23, 27, 29, 30, 46; 13:3, 14; 16:31; 19:3; 20:2, 17; 22:7, 8; 23:19; 25:11, 27; 26:29, 33; 28:26; 30:4; 34:26; 36:34; 37:2, 14, 27; 38:5; 39:19; 40:38.

[2] נֶפֶשׁ = throat. Exodus 1:5; 4:19; 12:4, 15, 16, 19; 15:9; 16:16; 21:23, 30; 23:9; 30:12, 15, 16; 31:14.

[3] אֶרֶץ = land. Exodus 1:7, 10; 2:15, 22; 3:8, 17; 4:3, 20; 5:5, 12; 6:1, 4, 8, 11, 13, 26, 28; 7:2, 3, 4, 19, 21; 8:5, 6, 7, 14, 16, 17, 22, 24, 25; 9:5, 9, 14, 15, 16, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 33; 10:5, 12, 13, 14, 15, 21, 22; 11:3, 5, 6, 9, 10; 12:1, 12, 13, 17, 19, 25, 29, 33, 41, 42, 48, 51; 13:5, 11, 15, 17, 18; 14:3; 15:12; 16:1, 3, 6, 14, 32, 35; 18:3, 27; 19:1, 5; 20:2, 4, 11; 22:21; 23:9, 10, 26, 29, 30, 31, 33; 29:46; 31:17; 32:1, 4, 7, 8, 11, 13, 23; 33:1, 3; 34:8, 10, 12, 15, 24.

[4] הִנֵּה = notice. Exodus 1:9; 2:6, 13; 3:2, 4, 9, 13; 4:6, 7, 14, 23; 5:16; 7:16, 17; 8:2, 21, 29; 9:3, 7, 18; 10:4; 14:10, 17; 16:4, 10, 14; 17:6; 19:9; 23:20; 24:8, 14; 31:6; 32:9, 34; 33:21; 34:10, 11, 30; 39:43.

[5]פֵּן = or else. Exodus 1:10; 5:3; 13:17; 19:21-22, 24; 20:19; 23:33; 33:3; 34:12, 15.

[6] שַׂר = official. Exodus 1:11; 2:14; 18:21, 25.

[7] סִבְלָה = burden. Exodus 1:11; 2:11; 5:4, 5; 6:6, 7.

Exodus 1 quotes:

“In Exodus 1:7 we are told that “the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them”. The language here is reminiscent of Genesis 1:28 where humans are blessed by God and told to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it”. We are being reminded that God’s purpose to bless the whole world is being carried out through the descendants of Abraham.”

Reid, Andrew. Out of Darkness : Exodus 1- 18. Matthias Media, 2005. p. 35.

“The actual situation in Egypt and the implications of the biblical text are in very good agreement, therefore, if we understand the rise of a new king over Egypt in Exodus 1:8 to mean the change to the Nineteenth Dynasty, and if we refer to the time under the early kings of that dynasty the statement of Exodus 1:13: “They made the people of Israel serve with rigor, and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field; in all their work they made them serve with rigor.” It was for this reason that ever afterward when the Israelite people looked back to Egypt they called it “the house of bondage” (Exodus 13:3, etc.).”

Finegan, Jack. Let My People Go; a Journey through Exodus. [1st ed.] ed., Harper & Row, 1963. p. 21.

“The midwives’ courage and fear of the Lord contrast with a powerful, yet paranoid, pharaoh. Although the chapter begins with the patriarchal list, the hope of the Israelites was in the daily life of the Hebrew home and childbirth. Here we see the beginning of the key role women played in God’s deliverance of Israel from crisis in Exodus 1-4 (see also Exod. 2:1-10; 4:24-26).”

Bruckner, James K. Exodus. Hendrickson Publishers ; Paternoster, 2008. p. 22.