Exodus 1:22

22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people: “Every son born to the Hebrews ^[a] you must throw into the Nile, but every daughter you may allow to live.”

Exodus 1:22 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 1:22

And Pharaoh charged all his people
Finding he could not carry his point with the midwives, he gave a general order to all his people everywhere:

saying, every son that is born ye shall cast into the river;
the river Nile; not every son born in his kingdom, for this would have ruined it in time; but that was born to the Jews, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; and it is added in the Septuagint version, to the Hebrews:

and every daughter ye shall save alive;
for the reasons given (See Gill on Exodus 1:16).

Exodus 1:22 In-Context

20 So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became even more numerous.

21 And because the midwives feared God, He gave them families of their own.

22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people: “Every son born to the Hebrews you must throw into the Nile, but every daughter you may allow to live.”

Footnotes

• [a]. SP, LXX, and Targum Yonaton; Hebrew does not include to the Hebrews.