Exodus 1:9-19

9 and said to his people, Lo! the people of the sons of Israel is much, and stronger than we;
10 come ye, wisely oppress we it, lest peradventure it be multiplied; and lest, if battle riseth against us, it be added to our enemies, and go out of the land, when we be overcome. (so come ye, and let us wisely oppress them, lest they be multiplied; and lest, if battle riseth against us, they join our enemies, and when we be overcome, they leave here.)
11 And so he made (the) masters of (the) works (to be the) sovereigns to them, that they should torment them with charges. And they made [the] cities of tabernacles, either of treasures, as it is in Hebrew, to Pharaoh, Pithom, and Raamses. (And so he set the taskmasters to be their rulers, and to torment them with burdens. And they made for Pharaoh the cities of treasures, that is, Pithom, and Raamses.)
12 And by how much they oppressed them, by so much they were multiplied, and increased the more. (But the more that they oppressed them, the more they multiplied, and increased.)
13 And (so) the Egyptians hated the sons of Israel, and tormented, and scorned them;
14 and they brought their life to bitterness, by hard works of clay and of tilestone, and by all servage, by which they were oppressed in the works of [the] earth. (and they made their life bitter, by hard work with clay and bricks, and by all the servitude, or all the slavery, by which they were oppressed with their work in the land.)
15 Forsooth the king of Egypt said to the midwives of (the) Hebrews, of which one was called Shiphrah, [and] the tother Puah;
16 and he commanded to them, When ye shall do the office of midwives to [the] Hebrew women, and the time of child-bearing shall come, if it is a knave child, slay ye him; if it is a woman (child), keep ye it. (and he commanded to them, and said, When ye shall do midwifing for the Hebrew women, and the time of child-bearing shall come, if it is a male child, kill ye him; but if it is a female child, keep ye her.)
17 But the midwives dreaded God, and did not by the commandment of the king of Egypt, but kept the knave children. (But the midwives feared God, and did not comply with the king of Egypt's command, but let the male children live.)
18 To the which (when) called to him, the king said, What is this thing that ye would do, that ye would keep the knave children? (To whom, when called to him, the king said, What is this thing that ye would do, that ye have let the male children live?)
19 The which answered, Hebrew women be not as the women of Egypt, for they have knowing of the craft of midwifing, and childed before that we come to them. (And they answered, Hebrew women be not like the Egyptian women, for they have knowledge of the craft of midwifing, and have given birth before that we come to them.)

Exodus 1:9-19 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS

This book is called by the Jews Veelleh Shemoth, from the first words with which it begins, and sometimes Sepher Shemoth, and sometimes only Shemoth. It is by the Septuagint called Exodus, from whom we have the name of Exodus, which signifies "a going out"; see Lu 9:31, Heb 11:22, because it treats of the going of the children of Israel out of Egypt; and hence in the Alexandrian copy it is called the Exodus of Egypt; and so the Syriac version entitles it the second book of the law, called "the going out"; and to the same purpose the Arabic version. The Jews sometimes give it the name of Nezikin, as Buxtorf {a} observes out of the Masora on Ge 24:8 because in it some account is given of losses, and the restitution of them. That this book is of divine inspiration, and to be reckoned in the canon of the sacred writings, is sufficiently evident to all that believe the New Testament; since there are so many quotations out of it there by Christ, and his apostles; particularly see Mr 12:26 and that it was wrote by Moses is not to be doubted, but when is not certain; it must be after the setting up of the tabernacle in the wilderness; the greatest part of what is contained in it, he was an eye and ear witness of; it plainly points out the accomplishment of the promises and prophecies delivered to Abraham, that his posterity would be very numerous, that they would be afflicted in a land not theirs, and in the fourth generation come out of it with great substance. It treats of the afflictions of the Israelites in Egypt, after the death of Joseph, until their deliverance by Moses; of his birth, calling, and mission to Pharaoh, to demand of him to let the children of Israel go; of the ten plagues upon him and his people, for refusing to dismiss them; of the departure of Israel from Egypt, and the institution of the passover on that account; of their passage through the Red sea into the wilderness, and of the various exercises and afflictions, supplies and supports they met with there; of the giving of a body of laws unto them, moral, ceremonial, and judicial; and of the building of the tabernacle, and all things appertaining to it; and throughout the whole, as there is a figure and representation of the passage of the people of God out of spiritual Egypt, through the wilderness of this world, to the heavenly Canaan, and of various things they must meet with in their passage, so there are many types of Christ, his person, office, and grace, and of his church, his word, and ordinances, which are very edifying and instructing. The book contains a history of about one hundred and forty years, from the death of Joseph, to the erection of the tabernacle.

{a} Lexic. Talmud. col. 1325.

\\INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 1\\

This chapter begins with an account of the names and number of the children of Israel that came into Egypt with Jacob, Ex 1:1-5 and relates that increase of them after the death of Joseph, and the generation that went down to Egypt, Ex 1:6-8 and what methods the Egyptians took to diminish them, but to no purpose, as by obliging to cruel bondage and hard service; and yet the more they were afflicted, the more they increased, Ex 1:9-14 by ordering the midwives of the Hebrew women to slay every son they laid them of; but they fearing God, did not obey the order of the king of Egypt, which when he expostulated with them about, they excused, and so the people multiplied, Ex 1:15-21 and lastly, by ordering every male child to be cast into the river, Ex 1:22 and which is the leading step to the account of the birth of Moses, which follows in the next chapter.

Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.