Exodus 1
Big idea: Genesis ended with seventy people and a promise; Exodus opens with a nation and a problem. The blessing works exactly as spoken — fruitful, increased abundantly, multiplied, exceedingly mighty, the land filled with them — and a new king reads that blessing as a threat. His policy escalates in three stages: forced labour, then a secret order to the midwives, then a public order to drown every Hebrew boy in the Nile. Each stage fails, and the chapter's quiet hinge is two women whose names are recorded when the Pharaoh's is not: Shiphrah and Puah feared God rather than the king, and God gave them families.
Chapter 1 ends with Pharaoh's decree that every son be cast into the river. Chapter 2 opens with one mother who obeys the letter of it — she does put her son in the river — in a basket sealed with pitch.
1:1–7 — Seventy become a multitude
The book opens by naming the sons of Israel who came into Egypt — the seventy of Genesis 46 — and then reports that Joseph and his whole generation died. What follows is the creation blessing in five verbs: the children of Israel were fruitful, increased abundantly, multiplied, grew exceedingly mighty, and the land was filled with them.
1 Now these are the names of the sons of Israel, who came into Egypt (every man and his household came with Jacob): 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5 All the souls who came out of Jacob’s body were seventy souls, and Joseph was in Egypt already. 6 Joseph died, as did all his brothers, and all that generation. 7 The children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.
1:8–14 — A new king who didn't know Joseph
A king arises who does not know Joseph, and he reasons aloud to his people: they are more and mightier than we; let us deal wisely with them, or in a war they will join our enemies and leave. So taskmasters are set over them and they build the store cities Pithom and Rameses. The policy backfires in the narrator's favourite construction — the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied — so the Egyptians drive them ruthlessly and make their lives bitter with mortar, brick, and every kind of field service.
8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who didn’t know Joseph. 9 He said to his people, “Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. 10 Come, let’s deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it happen that when any war breaks out, they also join themselves to our enemies and fight against us, and escape out of the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. They built storage cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out. They started to dread the children of Israel. 13 The Egyptians ruthlessly made the children of Israel serve, 14 and they made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and in brick, and in all kinds of service in the field, all their service, in which they ruthlessly made them serve.
1:15–21 — The midwives feared God
Pharaoh moves to a secret policy, instructing the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah to kill the boys at birth. They do not — the narrator says plainly why: the midwives feared God — and when summoned they answer with an explanation Pharaoh cannot check. God deals well with them, the people multiply and grow very mighty, and because they feared God he gave the midwives families of their own.
15 The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah, 16 and he said, “When you perform the duty of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stool, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” 17 But the midwives feared God, and didn’t do what the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the baby boys alive. 18 The king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said to them, “Why have you done this thing and saved the boys alive?” 19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women aren’t like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” 20 God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied, and grew very mighty. 21 Because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.
1:22 — Cast every son into the river
The secret policy having failed, Pharaoh drops all pretence and commands all his people: every son born to the Hebrews is to be cast into the Nile, and every daughter kept alive.
22 Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “You shall cast every son who is born into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).