Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 1:22
And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.
22. The third measure. As the midwives refused to carry out the Pharaoh’s wishes, a command to the same effect is issued to the whole people: the Egyptians themselves are to throw every male infant of the Hebrews into the Nile. The command, if fully carried out, would have resulted obviously in the extermination of the Hebrews; it is thus inconsistent with the intention expressed by the Pharaoh in v. 10 to retain them as his subjects. Perhaps the thwarted and angry king did not heed the inconsistency: perhaps inconsistent traditions have been combined by the compiler. However that may be, the measure seems calculated for a people numbering far fewer than 2,000,000 souls (among whom the birth-rate would be something like 80,000 a year 1 [97] , i.e. more than 100 males a day), and also all living within near distance of the Nile. It is intimately connected with the narrative following (ch. 2), and indeed supplies the conditions necessary for it.
[97] The birth-rate in Cairo in 1900 was 41 per 1000 of the population.
that is born ] Sam. LXX. add, to the Hebrews: in any case, a correct explanation, and perhaps part of the original text.
the river ( Nile)] Heb. y’r, from the Egyptian yoor, ‘river,’ often used of the Nile, y’r is the regular name of the ‘Nile’ in Hebrew.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The extreme cruelty of the measure does not involve improbability. Hatred of strangers was always a characteristic of the Egyptians (see Gen 43:32), and was likely to be stronger than ever after the expulsion of an alien race.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 22. Ye shall cast into the river] As the Nile, which is here intended, was a sacred river among the Egyptians, it is not unlikely that Pharaoh intended the young Hebrews as an offering to his god, having two objects in view:
1. To increase the fertility of the country by thus procuring, as he might suppose, a proper and sufficient annual inundation; and
2. To prevent an increase of population among the Israelites, and in process of time procure their entire extermination.
It is conjectured, with a great show of probability, that the edict mentioned in this verse was not made till after the birth of Aaron, and that it was revoked soon after the birth of Moses; as, if it had subsisted in its rigour during the eighty-six years which elapsed between this and the deliverance of the Israelites, it is not at all likely that their males would have amounted to six hundred thousand, and those all effective men.
IN the general preface to this work reference has been made to ORIGEN’S method of interpreting the Scriptures, and some specimens promised. On the plain account of a simple matter of fact, related in the preceding chapter, this very eminent man, in his 2d Homily on Exodus, imposes an interpretation of which the following is the substance.
“Pharaoh, king of Egypt, represents the devil; the male and female children of the Hebrews represent the animal and rational faculties of the soul. Pharaoh, the devil, wishes to destroy all the males, i.e., the seeds of rationality and spiritual science through which the soul tends to and seeks heavenly things; but he wishes to preserve the females alive, i.e., all those animal propensities of man, through which he becomes carnal and devilish.
Hence,” says he, “when you see a man living in luxury, banquetings, pleasures, and sensual gratifications, know that there the king of Egypt has slain all the males, and preserved all the females alive. The midwives represent the Old and New Testaments: the one is called Sephora, which signifies a sparrow, and means that sort of instruction by which the soul is led to soar aloft, and contemplate heavenly things; the other is called Phua, which signifies ruddy or bashful, and points out the Gospel, which is ruddy with the blood of Christ, spreading the doctrine of his passion over the earth. By these, as midwives, the souls that are born into the Church, are healed, for the reading of the Scriptures corrects and heals what is amiss in the mind. Pharaoh, the devil, wishes to corrupt those midwives, that all the males – the spiritual propensities, may be destroyed; and this he endeavours to do by bringing in heresies and corrupt opinions. But the foundation of God standeth sure. The midwives feared God, therefore he builded them houses. If this be taken literally, it has little or no meaning, and is of no importance; but it points out that the midwives – the law and the Gospel, by teaching the fear of God, build the houses of the Church, and fill the whole earth with houses of prayer. Therefore these midwives, because they feared God, and taught the fear of God, did not fulfil the command of the king of Egypt – they did not kill the males, and I dare confidently affirm that they did not preserve the females alive; for they do not teach vicious doctrines in the Church, nor preach up luxury, nor foster sin, which are what Pharaoh wishes in keeping the females alive; for by these virtue alone is cultivated and nourished. By Pharaoh’s daughter I suppose the Church to be intended, which is gathered from among the Gentiles; and although she has an impious and iniquitous father, yet the prophet says unto her, Hearken, O daughter, and consider, incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house, so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty, Ps 45:10-11. This therefore is she who is come to the waters to bathe, i.e., to the baptismal font, that she may be washed from the sins which she has contracted in her father’s house. Immediately she receives bowels of commiseration, and pities the infant; that is, the Church, coming from among the Gentiles, finds Moses – the law, lying in the pool, cast out, and exposed by his own people in an ark of bulrushes, daubed over with pitch – deformed and obscured by the carnal and absurd glosses of the Jews, who are ignorant of its spiritual sense; and while it continues with them is as a helpless and destitute infant; but as soon as it enters the doors of the Christian Church it becomes strong and vigorous; and thus Moses – the law, grows up, and becomes, through means of the Christian Church, more respectable even in the eyes of the Jews themselves, according to his own prophecy: I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation, De 32:21. Thus taught by the Christian Church, the synagogue forsakes idolatry; for when it sees the Gentiles worshipping the true God, it is ashamed of its idols, and worships them no more. In like manner, though we have had Pharaoh for our father – though the prince of this world has begotten us by wicked works, yet when we come unto the waters of baptism we take unto us Moses – the law of God, in its true and spiritual meaning; what is low or weak in it we leave, what is strong and perfect we take and place in the royal palace of our heart. Then we have Moses grown up – we no longer consider the law as little or mean; all is magnificent, excellent, elegant, for all is spiritually understood. Let us beseech the Lord Jesus Christ that he may reveal himself to us more and more and show us how great and sublime Moses is; for he by his Holy Spirit reveals these things to whomsoever he will. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever! Amen.
Neither the praise of piety nor the merit of ingenuity can be denied to this eminent man in such interpretations as these. But who at the same time does not see that if such a mode of exposition were to be allowed, the trumpet could no longer give a certain sound? Every passage and fact might then be obliged to say something, any thing, every thing, or nothing, according to the fancy, peculiar creed, or caprice of the interpreter.
I have given this large specimen from one of the ancients, merely to save the moderns, from whose works on the sacred writings I could produce many specimens equally singular and more absurd. Reader, it is possible to trifle with the testimonies of God, and all the while speak serious things; but if all be not done according to the pattern shown in the mount, much evil may be produced, and many stumbling blocks thrown in the way of others, which may turn them totally out of the way of understanding; and then what a dreadful account must such interpreters have to give to that God who has pronounced a curse, not only on those who take away from his word, but also on those who add to it.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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 comments on Ex 1:16].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The failure of his second plan drove the king to acts of open violence. He issued commands to all his subjects to throw every Hebrew boy that was born into the river (i.e., the Nile). The fact, that this command, if carried out, would necessarily have resulted in the extermination of Israel, did not in the least concern the tyrant; and this cannot be adduced as forming any objection to the historical credibility of the narrative, since other cruelties of a similar kind are to be found recorded in the history of the world. Clericus has cited the conduct of the Spartans towards the helots. Nor can the numbers of the Israelites at the time of the exodus be adduced as a proof that no such murderous command can ever have been issued; for nothing more can be inferred from this, than that the command was neither fully executed nor long regarded, as the Egyptians were not all so hostile to the Israelites as to be very zealous in carrying it out, and the Israelites would certainly neglect no means of preventing its execution. Even Pharaoh’s obstinate refusal to let the people go, though it certainly is inconsistent with the intention to destroy them, cannot shake the truth of the narrative, but may be accounted for on psychological grounds, from the very nature of pride and tyranny which often act in the most reckless manner without at all regarding the consequences, or on historical grounds, from the supposition not only that the king who refused the permission to depart was a different man from the one who issued the murderous edicts (cf. Exo 2:23), but that when the oppression had continued for some time the Egyptian government generally discovered the advantage they derived from the slave labour of the Israelites, and hoped through a continuance of that oppression so to crush and break their spirits, as to remove all ground for fearing either rebellion, or alliance with their foes.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
22. And Pharaoh charged. If he had not been transported with wrath and struck with blindness, he would have seen that the hand of God was against him; but when the reprobate are driven to madness by God, they persevere obstinately in their crimes; and not only so, but, like the deranged (25) or frantic, they dash themselves with greater audacity against every obstacle. It is indeed commonly the case that cruelty, having once tasted innocent blood, becomes more thirsty for it; nay, in general, wicked men, as if excited by their course, grow hotter and hotter in crime, so that there is no end nor measure to their iniquity; but here, in this very desperate rage, we must perceive the vengeance of God, when he had given up the tyrant for the devil to destroy him, whilst we also remember his design both to try the patience of his people as well as to set forth his own goodness and power. The tyrant, finding that his snares and deceit availed nothing, now shakes off fear and flies to open violence, commanding the little ones to be torn from the breasts of their mothers and to be cast into the river. Lest there should be any lack of executioners, he gives this charge to all the Egyptians, whom he knew to be more than ready for the work. He spares the daughters, that, being enslaved and allotted to the Egyptians, they might produce slaves for their masters, whilst by them the races and names could not be preserved. Here it may be worth while to meditate on a comparison with our own times. Antichrist, with all his murderous agents, leaves in peace those who by their treacherous silence deny Christ, and are prepared to embrace as slaves every kind of impiety; neither does he exercise his cruelty, insatiable though it be, where he sees no manliness to exist; and he exults and triumphs, as if his end was gained, when he perceives any who had some courage in professing their faith fallen into effeminacy and cowardice. But how much better is it for us to die an hundred times, retaining our manly firmness in death, than to redeem our life for the base service of the devil.
(25) “Vertiginosi, vel phrenetici.” — Lat. “Phrenetiques, ou demoniacles.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Exo. 1:22
THE LAST EDICT OF A TYRANT KING
I. It was public in its proclamation.
1. How men advance from one degree of sin to another. The last murderous intention was only made known to two midwives; it was privateit was subtle. This is public; this is unconcealed; he fearlessly and untremblingly announces himself as the murderer of all the males of Israel.
II. It was cruel in its requirements.
1. It was an edict requiring the death of the young. Why should a tyrant king fear the infant sons of Israel?He knew that they would be his enemies of the future if spared. There is a power in young lifeit is the hope of the Churchthe terror of despots. If the world only gets hold of the young, the Church will soon cease its growth.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSE
Exo. 1:22. A very easy plan, was it not? Whom you fear, destroy; that is a brief and easy creed, surely. This was turning the river to good account; it was a ready-made grave. Pharaoh did not charge the people to cut the sod, and lay the murdered children in the ground; the sight would have been unpleasant, the reminders would have been too numerous; he said, Throw the intruders into the river: there will be but a splash, and the whole thing will be over. The river will carry no markswill tell no storieswill sustain no loadstoneit will roll on as if its waters had never been divided by the hand of the murderer! All bad kings have feared the rise of manhood. Nothing better than murder occurred to the mind of this short-sighted king. He never thought of culture, of kindness, of social and political development; his one idea of power was the shallow and vulgar idea of oppression [City Temple].
An unkingly argument used for an unkingly purpose.
Bloody powers desire to make executioners enough to destroy the Church.
Persecuting kings do not entreat, but command their people to be instruments of cruelty.
God suffers persecutors to go to the utmost of their appointed bounds.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(22) Every son that is born.The LXX. add to the Hebrews, but without any necessity, since the context shows that only Hebrew children are meant.
Ye shall cast into the river.Infanticide, so shocking to Christians, has prevailed widely at different times and places, and been regarded as a trivial matter. In Sparta, the State decided which children should live and which should die. At Athens a law of Solon left the decision to the parent. At Rome, the rule was that infants were made away with, unless the father interposed, and declared it to be his wish that a particular child should be brought up. The Syrians offered unwelcome children in sacrifice to Moloch; the Carthaginians to Melkarth. In China infanticide is said to be a common practice at the present day. Heathen nations do not generally regard human life as sacred. On the contrary, they hold that considerations of expediency justify the sweeping away of any life that inconveniences the State. Hence infanticide is introduced by Plato into his model republic (Rep. v. 9). Almost all ancient nations viewed the massacre of prisoners taken in war as allowable. The Spartan crypteia was a system of licensed murder. The condemnation to death of all male Hebrew children by Pharaoh is thus in no respect improbable. On the other hand, the mode of the death presents difficulties. For, first, the Nile was viewed as a god; and to fill it with corpses would, one might have supposed, have been regarded as a pollution. Secondly, the Nile water was the only water drunk; and sanitary considerations might thus have been expected to have prevented the edict. Perhaps, however, the children were viewed as offerings to the Nile, or to Savak, the crocodile headed god, of whom each crocodile was an emblem. At any rate, as the Nile swarmed with crocodiles throughout its whole course, the bodies were tolerably sure to be devoured before they became putrescent.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
22. Every son ye shall cast into the river The Nile . This third and most sweeping edict is now promulgated, by which all Pharaoh’s subjects are commanded to become executioners of the Hebrew children . The command was so inhuman, and so contrary to the interests of the Egyptians themselves, that it is not likely that it was ever enforced for any length of time; but it gave legal opportunity to any who desired to destroy the children of Hebrew families who seemed for any reason specially dangerous . Hence the fears of the mother of Moses . This massacre has, moreover, historic parallels . When the servile class in Sparta became formidable from numbers, the Spartan youth were sent out with daggers to murder a sufficient number to remove apprehension. Diodorus relates that before the time of Psammetichus that is, all through the Old Testament period simple jealousy often led the Egyptian kings to put foreigners to death. And this cruel edict opened the schools and the palace of the City of the Sun to the saviour of Israel! And how we glance from the massacre of Goshen to that of Beth-lehem; from the bulrush ark to the manger; from prostrate Ra to Satan falling like lightning from heaven; from the saviour of a nation to the Saviour of a world! CONCLUDING NOTES (see book comments) Chronology of the Exodus. (1.) The period of the Israelitish sojourn in Egypt is expressly declared in Exo 12:40 to have been 430 years . This harmonizes with the prediction made to Abraham, Gen 15:13: “Thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them 400 years;” which language is also quoted by Stephen in his discourse in Act 7:6. But the Samaritan and Septuagint text of Exo 12:40, give a different reading, which makes the 430 years cover the whole “sojourn” of the three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in Canaan, as well as that of the Israelites in Egypt, extending thus from the arrival of Abraham in Haran to the Exode . This would make the Egyptian sojourn only two hundred and fifteen years .
Paul follows this Sept. chronology in Gal 3:17. We have, then, what are called a long and a short chronology of the Exodus . The short period is adopted in our chronology, (Usher’s) which sets the Exode at B . C . 1491, two hundred and fifteen years after Jacob went down into Egypt . As yet we have not data for deciding with certainty between the two periods, but the census of the Israelites at the Exode is usually deemed to favour four rather than two centuries of Egyptian sojourn. To balance up authorities on this matter gives little light, and the question would seem to have been doubtful in the time of Josephus, since he expressly commits himself to both sides in the same treatise. Compare Antiq., 2: 15 with Exo 2:9. See notes on Exo 12:40.
Egyptian chronology is at present so wholly unsettled that it is rash to dogmatize, and wise to wait patiently till more light comes from the monuments. The most famous Egyptologists differ from each other by centuries in regard to the date of the Exodus. As mentioned above, Usher’s date, B.C. 1491, stands in our English Bible; Poole fixes it at 1652, (Smith’s Bib. Dict., art. Chronology;) Rawlinson at 1650, ( Ancient Hist., p. 61;) Wilkinson at first made Thothmes III. the Pharaoh of the Exode, about 1460, ( Anc. Egypt, vol. i, pages 76-81, English Edition,) but has since decided for Pthahmen, (Meneptah I.,) of the nineteenth dynasty, who came to the throne about B.C. 1250, (Rawl., Her. App. to book ii, chap. viii;) and so Brugsch, ( Hist. de l’Egypt, 1: 156,) who makes Rameses II., the father of Pthahmen, to be the Pharaoh of Exodus 1. This is the view of Stanley and many others. Lepsius and Bunsen make the Exode to have taken place under the nineteenth dynasty, and Bunsen fixes about 1320 as its date. Ewald, Winer, and Knobel identify the Pharaoh of Exodus i, with Amosis of the eighteenth dynasty, as in our note. This view is learnedly defended by Canon Cook in the Speaker’s Commentary.
The whole story of the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, though so generally accepted, rests solely on the confused and contradictory account of the priest Manetho, who lived more than a thousand years after the alleged events, and fragments of whose work have been handed to us by Josephus and Syncellus, and hopelessly confused with fragments from another Manetho of uncertain date and authority. No trace of the Hyksos is found in the monuments so far, in Herodotus, Diodorus, or the books of Moses. Hengstenberg, Havernik, and many others, consider the whole story as a confused Egyptian legend of the Exode. Blackie, in his Homer, well sets forth this view. ( Homer and the Iliad, 1: 36.) (2.) , (Exo 1:16. ) The word occurs in only one other place, Jer 18:3, where it is rendered the (two) wheels, (of the potter,) in the margin, frames or seats . Five different interpretations are suggested, not noticing proposed alterations of the text, as by Furst, etc .
1. Gesenius, in Hebrews Lex., makes it the midwife’s chair, on which she sat before the woman in labour.
2. Gesenius elsewhere makes it the bath tub or trough ( badewanne) in which the child was washed. So De Wette.
3. Smith’s Dict. quotes Lane’s Modern Egyptians to show that it means the chair used in aiding delivery, showing that the modern Egyptians have the same custom, and such a chair is said to be represented on the monuments of the eighteenth dynasty. Auf dem Geburts-stuhle, Van Ess. But neither of these interpretations explain the dual form.
4. Ewald interprets the word adverbially as meaning instantly, like the German, flugs; English, “ on the fly.”
5. Fagius ( Crit. Sacr.) follows the interpretation of J. Kimchi and others, who refer the word to the vagina, the labia uteri. Thus La Haye, ( Bib. Max.,) who renders cum in ostiis vulvae prolem videritis. So Keil and Knobel, who seem to settle the question.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Exo 1:22. Pharaoh charged all his people This was, most probably, enjoined under severe penalties; and that, as it appears from the next chapter, not only upon the Egyptians, who were to see the order executed; but also upon the Israelites, who were to execute it themselves. The Lacedemonians, Calmet observes, used to destroy the children of their slaves, lest they should increase too much. This cruel order of the king was not published till after the birth of Aaron, and it was probably revoked soon after the birth of Moses: for if it had subsisted in its rigour, during the whole eighty-six years servitude, the number of Israelites capable of bearing arms would not have been so great as Moses mentions, Numbers 2. There would have been none but old men among them.
REFLECTIONS.1. When God’s people are the objects of enmity, persecutors often divest themselves not only of pity, but humanity. 2. From the midwives’ disobedience we may observe, that where we must disobey God or man, there can be no hesitation. He that fears God, as these midwives, will rather risk the loss of man’s favour, nay, of life too, than of his own soul by sin. 3. From God’s kindness to them we see, that none who serve his people shall do it without wages, especially in suffering seasons. 4. From the bloody edicts of the king, we may learn, (1.) That disappointed rage usually makes men more furious. (2.) That the patience of the saints must be proved by trial upon trial.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Such in all ages hath been the malice of the world against the faithful. See Dan 7:23 .
REFLECTIONS
WHAT a decided character is here drawn between the men of the world and the saints of God. And what an everlasting enmity we perceive running through all ages, between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Gracious God! Be it my portion rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. My soul! Learn from this chapter a lesson of grace and patience. How slow soever the promises of God appear to his people in fulfilling, it is but in appearance, for they are all yea and amen in Christ Jesus. Though the seed of Abraham did not seem to increase immediately after the promise given, equal to what the haste of natural desires might expect, yet the Lord is not slack as some men count slackness. The vision is for an appointed time; it shall come, it will not tarry. May all faithful believers learn from hence how certain God’s purposes are! Hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 1:22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.
Ver. 22. And Pharaoh charged. ] Imperio non tam duro quam diro. This was a most bloody edict: therefore, when God came to make inquisition for blood, he gave them blood again to drink, for they were worthy. The like he did to Nero – qui orientem fidem primus Romae cruentavit – to a Julian, Valens, Valerian, Attilas, Girzerichus, Charles IX of France, and many other bloody persecutors. See Trapp on “ Rev 16:6 “
a Tertullian.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
born. Samaritan Pentateuch, Targum of Onkelos, The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, and Vulgate add “to the Hebrews. “
save alive = suffer to live.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Let’s turn now to Exodus, chapter one, as we begin the book of Exodus.
The word “Now” could very well read, “And”, as far as the Hebrew is concerned, for the book of Exodus is just a continuation of Genesis. The last verse of Genesis, “So Joseph died being a hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and put him in a coffin in Egypt.”
Now these are names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household that came with Jacob. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. And all of the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already. And Joseph died, and all his brethren, in that generation ( Exo 1:1-6 ).
So we can see how the first part of chapter one of Exodus is really just the continuation of the book of Genesis, again, written by Moses. It is interesting that the five books of Moses comprise almost one seventh of the entire Bible, that they comprise almost as much as two-thirds of the New Testament. Now if God devotes one seventh of the book to one particular period of history and study, it evidently is basic and foundational and God wants us to really know it and understand it.
So we have now the names of the sons of Jacob who came down with Jacob. They came down with their families into Egypt, “seventy souls”, for Joseph was already there with his two sons.
And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them ( Exo 1:7 ).
Probably an understatement. Children of Israel, “fruitful, increased abundantly, multiplied, waxed exceeding mighty; the land was filled with them.” In other words, they’re trying to tell you there was a population explosion among the Jews at that time. Indeed there must have been, for the seventy souls that were there, about three hundred years after Joseph’s death when they made the Exodus out of Israel, at that time there were six hundred thousand adult males over the age of twenty-one. So, you see when it says, “multiplied exceedingly” and all that’s exactly what they were doing. They were doubling their population about every twenty-five years.
Now, that’s just about what’s happening in the world’s population today. The world’s population has begun to double just about every twenty-five years now. So they were at a state of population explosion about what we’re experiencing now, doubling about every twenty-five years.
Now there rose up a new king over Egypt, and he knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falls out another war, they will join out also with our enemies, and fight against us, and then get out of the land ( Exo 1:8-10 ).
Now the Pharaoh actually was fearful of them leaving the land. He felt that if another war would take place that they would take advantage of it, fight with the enemies and then leave the land. So in order to thwart this,
The Pharaoh set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for the Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour ( Exo 1:11-14 ).
Really began to afflict them, to oppress them, to lay upon them heavy burdens to make life rather hard and miserable for them by inflicting heavy slave labor upon them. Everything they did, they had to do it with rigour.
Now it is interesting that under these conditions, the children of Israel continued to multiply and grow. Probably one of the greatest weakening things that can happen to a nation is prosperity. Nations seem to become strong and grow under adversity. The same seems to be true of the church. In the early history of the church, the church was going through such severe persecution by the Roman government; the church was growing by leaps and bounds, tremendous growth in the early church.
But when the church began to be prosperous, Christianity began to be an accepted religion, almost a state religion. In fact in many areas it did become the state religion, and in all of those areas the church became weak. Prosperity has a tendency of softening people, whereas adversity has a tendency of doing the opposite, making the people strong. So the Pharaoh in his endeavor to weaken them by the heavy labor and the rigorous labor, working with bricks, and stones, and really putting heavy burdens upon them did not have the desired effect of weakening them, but actually made them just so much stronger. They really all got in just tremendous condition.
And the king of Egypt spake with the Hebrew midwives, the name of one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other was Puah: And he said, When you do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and you see them upon the stools; if it’s a son, kill him: but if it’s a daughter, then let her live. But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive. And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have you done this thing, and have saved the men children alive? And the midwives said unto the Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they’re lively, and they deliver before we ever got to them. Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty. And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses. And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast him into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive ( Exo 1:15-22 ).
So the Pharaoh, first of all, sought to cut off the male children by ordering the midwives to kill them the moment they were born. When that failed then he gave a general order to just take the male babies and cast them into the river, save the girl babies; they of course might be servants and slaves.
There is a problem here of the obvious lie of the midwives. When the Pharaoh called them on the carpet, “How come you haven’t fulfilled my order?” “Well, these women are just so lively. Before we can get to them, the babies are already born. They’re not like the Egyptian women who have a life of ease and leisure. Now this of course could be true.
It seems that where women are forced into hard labor and all, their body condition becomes such that they can have a baby and go back to work. Out in New Guinea where the ladies do so much of the farming, and so much of the work, they’ll have their baby and they’ll go right-they’ll strap it on their back, and go back out and work again in the fields. So I know that some of you women think, “Oh no.” You remember how it was when you had your baby, but you’re just softies; that’s all. We like you that way. That’s nothing against you at all. I wouldn’t want you to be muscular and all like those women in New Guinea.
So it is very possible that this was not a lie, but some look upon it as a lie. Whether or not it was, I don’t know. But if it were a lie that they were telling to the Pharaoh, then indeed how is it that God blessed them? I don’t have any answer. Sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t know everything. And those are, you know, that’s one of those difficult things. I don’t understand it, I don’t know. All I know is that’s what it says, “God blessed them.” So God dealt well with them. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
am 2431, bc 1573
Every son: Exo 1:16, Exo 7:19-21, Psa 105:25, Pro 1:16, Pro 4:16, Pro 27:4, Act 7:19, Rev 16:4-6
Reciprocal: Gen 41:1 – the river Exo 2:3 – could not Exo 3:9 – and I have Exo 4:9 – blood Exo 7:17 – and they Exo 14:26 – the waters Exo 18:11 – in the thing Num 16:13 – out of a Num 20:15 – vexed us Deu 26:6 – General 2Sa 7:10 – as beforetime Psa 129:1 – have they Pro 14:28 – General Pro 28:15 – so Ecc 4:1 – and considered Jer 31:2 – The people Eze 16:5 – but thou Dan 3:10 – hast made Hab 3:14 – their Mat 2:13 – for Rom 5:14 – even Heb 11:23 – the king’s
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
The Birth and Youth of Moses
Exo 1:1-14, Exo 1:22
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
By way of introduction, we wish to discuss the meaning of the word, “Exodus.” The first Book of the Bible is Genesis; it is the Book of the Beginnings. It is, however, more than a Book of Beginnings. It is the Book of Entrance-of entrance into sin, and into shame, into all of those deep and dismal details of iniquity. As we come into the Book of Exodus, we have set before us in clear and graphic language not only the way out of Egypt and out of bondage, but the way out of death and out of human iniquity.
You have seen over many a door the word “Exit,” which seemed to be saying, “This way out.” As you see the word, Exodus, therefore, it also seems to say, “This way out.”
1. The exodus out of Egypt. The first chapter of Exodus gives itself to telling us of the bondage which befell the Children of Israel in the land of their exile. The second chapter tells us of the birth of Moses, the deliverer. It also relates Moses’ first failure in seeking to help the Children of Israel. The chapters which follow begin and conclude the story of Israel’s exodus.
2. The exodus out of all the nations of the earth. There is a verse of Scripture which tells Israel that the time will come when it shall no longer be said, “The Lord liveth, which brought up the Children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but the Lord liveth which brought up and which led the seed of the House of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them.” Thus it is that there yet awaits Israel’s greatest exodus. A wonderful exodus awaits them, and a wonderful entrance will be theirs.
3. The saved sinner and his exodus. The unregenerate are in bondage. Jesus Christ came to set them free. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, * * to preach deliverance to the captives, * * to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
4. The Church and its Exodus. The very word “Church” is a form of the word “exodus.” The Church is an “Ecclesia,” that is, a called-out people. We are called out of the world, out of our former walk and way. We are a people separated unto the Lord. The time is coming, also, when we will be called out of the physical earth, and called up to meet our Lord in the air. We, too, shall have our exodus.
5. Christ and His Exodus. There is a little verse in Luk 9:30-31, which describes the transfiguration of Christ. This verse tells us that there appeared with Him Moses and Elias, and they talked of His decease. The Greek word is “exodus.” They talked of His going out, of His exodus from a body that had held Him captive, into a body risen and glorified.
I. ISRAEL IN EGYPT (Exo 1:5)
Our minds go back to the time when Joseph was carried captive into Egypt, and to the time when Jacob and his eleven sons came to Joseph. When we think of the Children of Israel dwelling for so many years in Egypt, several lessons come before our minds.
1. We are in the world. We may marvel at the fact that God permitted the Children of Israel to be in Egypt, but He permits us to be placed in a world which is under the sway and power of the wicked one. There is not a true and separated believer anywhere but who must realize that he is surrounded by much of evil and sin.
2. We are not of the world. Israel was in Egypt, but Israel was not of Egypt. Pharaoh himself recognized this. He knew that the Hebrews were a different people from the Egyptians, that they were a peculiar people. Satan is never more contented than when he causes saints to forget their stranger and pilgrimage attitude. The earth is not our home. It is but an abiding place.
3. We are sent to the world. There is no doubt in our mind whatsoever but that Israel in Egypt carried a testimony from God to Egypt. Joseph meant a great deal in his day to the Egyptians. Through him they learned of his God. We who are saved are not only in the world, but we are there that the world may know of God, and that, knowing, they may come into His salvation.
4. We are hated by the world. In it, and not of it, and sent to it, does not tell the whole story of the believer in his attitude toward the world. Christ said, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me.” It was not long until the Children of Israel were hated by the Egyptians, and it will not be long until we are hated by the world which knows not God.
II. A MIGHTY NATION AT ITS BEGINNING (Exo 1:7)
The Jewish race has been a race which began under the eye of Jehovah. It grew and developed under His blessing. It has been kept through all the vicissitudes of history in His hand, and it will finally be led out into a marvelous world-wide benefaction by His power.
The nation of Israel was composed of twelve tribes. Each tribe was the outgrowth of one of the twelve sons of Jacob. The names of the tribes bear the names of Jacob’s sons. These shall yet be united again in Palestine.
We remember there was a division in Israel following the death of Solomon. Jeroboam and Rehoboam headed the two divisions. For the first time in history the twelve tribes will be united when Christ returns as their King.
It was in the land of Egypt that the children of Jacob’s sons began to multiply, and in the day of their Exodus they numbered six hundred thousand men, and much more than a million all told. What great things come from small beginnings! Away back God had said to Abraham, “Get thee out.” He promised that from him should come a multitude of people. Abraham begat Isaac. Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat the twelve sons, which formed the twelve tribes. Those tribes today number, so far as human reckoning is concerned, more than fifteen million Jews.
III. GOD’S BLESSINGS UPON ISRAEL (Exo 1:7)
Our key text tells us that “the Children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.” Let us look at these words.
1. They were fruitful. This expression had to do more with their numerical increase. Many sons and daughters were added unto them. There is, however, a spiritual message. The Lord wants us to bear fruit. We read, “Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.” God grant that we may not be a vine without any grapes, or a fig tree without any figs. It became true of Israel in her later history that God looked upon His vineyard to see if there was any fruit, and He found none.
2. They increased. As the decades passed the Children of Israel increased. We think of the days of the early Church. The Bible tells us of the small beginning, the twelve whom the Lord called. It also tells us how at Pentecost there were added unto them about three thousand souls. A little later we are told that the number of disciples multiplied greatly. What right do we have to be saved unless we are going to bring others to the Lord Jesus Christ? We are called to increase.
3. They were mighty. They were not only many in number, but they waxed great in influence and power. They filled the land. God grant that we, too, may be filled with the Holy Ghost and power, and that our testimony may grip men.
IV. THE KING WHO KNEW NOT JOSEPH (Exo 1:8)
1. Pharaoh knew not what Joseph had done. It was under God and by Joseph’s wisdom and skill that Egypt had been greatly enriched through seven years of plenty, and the following seven years of famine. All the people of the earth had come to Joseph for bread.
How easy it is to forget the Lord and to imagine that the blessings which He gives through His people were begotten through our own power. There were ten lepers cleansed, but only one returned to give thanks unto God. There are multiplied millions who are recipients of God’s graciousness. How many are there who thank Him for what He has done?
2. Pharaoh refused the Lord whom Joseph loved. The gods of Egypt were gods of wood and stone which see not, neither hear, nor know. The God of Joseph was Jehovah, the Lord. The gods of this present age are the gods of human intellect, brain and personality. The gods of accomplishment by human prowess and skill.
At this very moment the world is in a turmoil of difficulty. Never has there been such a world-wide S O S call, and yet our own government, and the other governments, are not turning their faces toward the Lord.
In the expression, “He knew not Joseph” there lies hidden the whole story of this present-hour depression. Had we known the Lord, obeyed His voice, and sought His will, we would not be in our present plight.
V. THE KING’S STRATEGY (Exo 1:10)
1. An Acknowledgment. Pharaoh recognized Israel’s growth and said, “Behold, the people of the Children of Israel are more and mightier than we.” The men of the world cannot but see that God is with His own. They are compelled to recognize the superiority morally, intellectually, and every other way, of real God-led and God-filled saints to the common run of the unregenerate. He who walks with God walks in touch with the power and wisdom that is beyond man. He partakes of the might of his Lord.
2. Trusting human strategy. Pharaoh said, “Let us deal wisely with them.” His conception of wisdom was some human manipulation by which he might deplete the number and the power of the people of God. He confessed his fear lest the Children of Israel should join in war against him, and against his people, possessing their land.
The Bible tells us that the wisdom of men is foolishness with God. Pharaoh proved utterly helpless and unwise in his dealings. Beloved, it is time for the Church to consider these things. If we are going forth to war, or to work for the Lord in our own wisdom and strength we will utterly fail; when the churches try to raise money, or to conduct their ministrations upon humanly conceived and humanly planned lines of activity, they are certain to fail.
Our power is in prayer. Our power is in our contact with Christ, the Head of the Church. The Holy Spirit is the One who must lead us on to victory.
VI. THE KING’S PLAN (Exo 1:11-14)
We spoke of the king’s strategy, based solely upon his human wisdom.
We now speak of the king’s plan. This plan was the outgrowth of his own strategy and wisdom. The king sought to afflict the Children of Israel. He “set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens.” This expression carries with it a great weight because it has been tried out frequently against God’s people down through the ages.
Some one, however, has truly written that “the blood of the martyrs has proved to be the seed of the Church.”
Far back in the beginning Satan sought by affliction to rid the earth of a man who knew God. He entered into Cain, and Cain rose up and slew his brother. This spirit of persecution was used against Israel during the wars of David, and in subsequent wars. It was used against the Church in its earliest history.
Remember how it was written, “And at that time there was a great persecution against the Church.” The Apostles, Peter and John, were cast into prison. Stephen was stoned. James was killed. Paul was driven from city to city.
We remember reading as a boy, the story of the early martyrs written by Fox. We know, however, that persecution and even martyrdom never stopped the increase of the Church. It seems that the more they were persecuted, the faster they multiplied.
At this moment in Russia multiplied thousands of Christians have been murdered or exiled, and yet, in spite of it all, Christians still multiply in the land where atheism and Bolshevism rule.
Thus it was that Pharaoh’s plan utterly failed. We read in verse twelve: “The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.” Pharaoh sought to make their lives bitter with hard bondage, but God kept His eye upon His people.
VII. PHARAOH’S CLIMACTIC STROKE (Exo 1:22)
1. In this slaughter of Israel’s sons. we see Satan’s effort to stay the numerical increase of God’s people. If the sons were slain there could be no multiplication among the Children of Israel. This was the objective of the king.
2. In this slaughter of the sons we see a Satanic background. an effort on Satan’s part to make impossible the birth of THE Son. God promised that through Abraham the Seed of the woman was to come, the. Seed which was to bruise the serpent’s head. Satan, therefore, was one with Pharaoh in this slaughter, thinking, perhaps, that the people of Israel would be annihilated, and that, therefore, the Son of God could never come.
3. In this slaughter the natural result would be the amalgamation of the race with the Egyptians. With the male children slain, Israel’s daughters would be taken as wives to the Egyptians. In that way the identity of Israel, as a separate people, would be entirely lost, and within the course of years, partaking the nature of their fathers, Israel would be Egyptianized. Satan still seeks to swallow up the saints by causing them to mingle with the world until their peculiar power as a separated people is entirely lost.
4. In this slaughter against the sons we see, in anticipation, the final strategy of Satan against the Son. There is a verse of Scripture which tells us the dragon sought to slay the Son as soon as it was born. Jesus Christ was scarcely born when an edict of Herod went forth that all the male children in Judea should be slain, God, however, shielded His Son and protected Him from the wrath of the king.
AN ILLUSTRATION
CHOKING THE WEEDS
“The way to destroy ill weeds is to plant good herbs that are contrary.” We have all heard of weeds choking the wheat; if we were wise we should learn from our enemy, and endeavor to choke the weeds by the wheat. Pre-occupation of mind is a great safeguard from temptation. Fill a bushel with corn, and you will keep out the chaff: have the heart stored with holy things, and the vanities of the world will not so readily obtain a lodging-place.
Herein is wisdom in the training of children. Plant the mind early with the truths of God’s Word, and error and folly will, in a measure, be forestalled. The false will soon spring up if we do not early occupy the mind with the true. He who said that he did not wish to prejudice his boy’s mind by teaching him to pray, soon discovered that the devil was not so scrupulous, for his boy soon learned to swear. It is well to prejudice a field in favor of wheat at the first opportunity.
In the matter of amusements for the young, it is much better to provide than to prohibit. If we find the lads and lasses interesting employments they will not be so hungry after the gaities and ensnarements of this wicked world. If we are afraid that the children will eat unwholesome food abroad, let us as much as possible take the edge from their appetites by keeping a good table at home.-Chas. H. Spurgeon.
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
1:22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall {i} cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.
(i) When tyrants cannot prevail by deceit, they burst into open rage.