Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 1:11
Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Rameses.
11. They were consequently brought into a condition of virtual slavery and compelled to do forced labour. The corve was an institution common in the despotisms of antiquity, and resorted to whenever an Oriental monarch had stone to be quarried, palaces or temples to be built, &c. Aristotle ( Pol. viii. (v.) 11, p. 1313 b 18 ff., cited by Knob.) mentions it as a measure adopted by tyrants to curb the spirit of their subjects, and cites as an example the Egyptian pyramids. Solomon introduced it into Judah for the purpose of carrying out his great buildings (1Ki 5:13-14; 1Ki 9:15): how unpopular it was, may be judged from the fact that Adoniram, the superintendent of the corve, was stoned to death by the people (1Ki 12:18).
gang – masters ] Lit. captains (i.e. overseers) of labour-gangs, the word mas being the technical term for a body of men employed on forced labour: cf. 1Ki 5:13-14; 1Ki 9:15 (where it is rendered ‘levy’).
burdens ] The word regularly used of heavy burdens, carried under compulsion: see Exo 2:11, Exo 5:4-5, Exo 6:6-7; and cf. cognate words in 1Ki Exo 5:15 ; 1Ki 11:28 (RVm.), Psa 81:6.
Pharaoh ] The official, not the personal, designation of the Egyptian king. The word is the Egyptian Per-‘o, which means properly the Great House, and in inscriptions of the ‘Old Kingdom’ (1 11 dynasties) denotes simply the royal house or estate; but afterwards (somewhat in the manner of the expression, ‘Sublime Porte’) it gradually became a title of the monarch himself, and finally (in the 22nd and following dynasties) it was prefixed to the king’s personal name (see F. LI. Griffith’s luminous art. Pharaoh in DB.).
store cities ] For provisions, materials for war, &c., perhaps also as trade emporia: cf. 1Ki 9:19 (= 2Ch 8:6); 2Ch 8:4 ; 2Ch 16:4; 2Ch 17:12.
Pithom ] the of Hdt. ii. 158, described by him as being on the canal made partially by Necho (b.c. 610 594) for the purpose of connecting the Nile with the Red Sea [96] . The site was discovered in 1883 by M. Naville. Excavating at a spot about 60 miles NE. of Cairo, called, from a red granite monolith of Rameses II, seated between the gods Ra and Etm, which has long existed there, Tell el-Maskhua, the ‘Mound of the statue,’ M. Naville soon met with inscriptions shewing that the ancient name of the place was P-etm, the ‘Abode of Etm’ (the sun-god of Heliopolis). Proceeding further he found that Pithom was a city forming a square of about 220 yds. each way, enclosed by enormous brick-walls, some 6 yds. thick, containing a Temple, and also a number of rectangular chambers, with walls 2 or 3 yds. thick, not communicating with one another, but, like the granaries depicted on the monuments, filled from above, shewing that they were store-chambers (see DB. iii. 887 b , EB. iii. 3784). Inscriptions found on the spot shewed moreover that it had been founded by Rameses II, partly, it is probable, as a store-house for supplying provisions to Egyptian armies about to cross the desert, and partly as a fortress for the protection of the exposed Eastern frontier of Egypt. P-etm was the civil name of the capital of the 8th ‘nome,’ or administrative district, of lower Egypt (Naville, Pithom, ed. 4, 1903, p. 6): and the ancient geographical lists describe it as being ‘on the Eastern frontier of Egypt’ ( EB. s.v. Pithom). No notice however was found of the Israelites as its builders.
[96] The canal started from a little above Bubastis (Pi-beseth) on the Tanitic branch of the Nile: it went Eastwards through the Wdy umlt (p. 67), till it reached the N. end of Lake Tims; it then turned to the S., and utilising the waters of Lake Tims and the Bitter Lakes (see p. 126 f.), reached the Red Sea at Klysma (a little N. of the modern Suez). It was really the reopening and extension of a canal which had been begun long before by Rameses II. Necho did not complete the canal, as he was warned by an oracle that he was ‘labouring for the foreigner.’ It was completed afterwards by Darius (Hdt. l.c.), three of whose stelae have been found between Lake Tims and Suez, one during Napoleon’s expedition in Egypt, and the two others when the present Suez canal was being constructed (cf. Rawl. Hist. of Eg. ii. 316, 473 f.).
Raamses ] in Exo 12:37 Ram e ses (the difference is only in the Mass. vocalization); LXX. (cf. the Eg. Ramesse). Not certainly identified. P e -Ramessu is a name often given in the Papyri to Zoan (Tanis), about 30 miles NNW. of Pithom, a city which, though built much earlier, was so greatly added to by Rameses (Ramesse) II that he is called by M. Naville its ‘second founder’; and Brugsch, Ebers, and Budge ( Hist. of Eg. v. 123 5) consider that Zoan is the place here meant. Zoan is, however, mentioned elsewhere in the OT. (e.g. Num 13:22) under its proper name; and as Rameses II built at many different places in the Eastern Delta, and in fact more places than one bearing his name are known ( EB. ii. 1760 f., 4013), it may well have been one of these. To judge from Exo 12:37 the Rameses of the Hebrews will have been W. of Succoth, rather than, like Zoan, N. of it. W. M. Mller ( EB. ii. 1436, iv. 4013) remarks that a site such as Tell Abu-Suleimn at the W. end of the Wdy umlt (p. 67) would be suitable; and Petrie ( The Hyksos and Israelite cities, 1906, pp. 28, 31) argues in favour of Tell er-Rebeh, about 10 m. W. of Pithom, where a temple and stelae of Rameses II, and other monuments, have been excavated by him (so also Garrow Duncan, Exploration of Egypt and the O.T., 1908, p. 172 ff.). It is very probable that this was Rameses, though the arguments hitherto adduced do not prove definitely that it was.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Taskmasters – The Egyptian Chiefs of tributes. They were men of rank, superintendents of the public works, such as are often represented on Egyptian monuments, and carefully distinguished from the subordinate overseers. The Israelites were employed in forced labor, probably in detachments, but they were not reduced to slavery, properly speaking, nor treated as captives of war. Amosis had special need of such laborers, as proved by the inscriptions.
Treasure cities – Magazines, depots of ammunition and provisions 1Ki 9:19; 2Ch 8:4; 2Ch 32:28.
Pithom and Raamses – Both cities were situated on the canal which was dug or enlarged in the 12th Dynasty. The former is known to have existed under the 18th Dynasty. Both were in existence at the beginning of the reign of Rameses II, by whom they were fortified and enlarged. The name Pithom means House or temple of Tum, the Sun God of Heliopolis (see Exo 13:20). The name of Raamses, or Rameses, is generally assumed to have been derived from Rameses II, the Sesostris of the Greeks, but it was previously known as the name of the district. See Gen 45:10; Gen 47:11.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 11. Set over them task-masters] sarey missim, chiefs or princes of burdens, works, or tribute; , Sept. overseers of the works. The persons who appointed them their work, and exacted the performance of it. The work itself being oppressive, and the manner in which it was exacted still more so, there is some room to think that they not only worked them unmercifully, but also obliged them to pay an exorbitant tribute at the same time.
Treasure cities] arey miscenoth, store cities – public granaries. Calmet supposes this to be the name of a city, and translates the verse thus: “They built cities, viz., Miscenoth, Pithom, and Rameses.” Pithom is supposed to be that which Herodotus calls Patumos. Raamses, or rather Rameses, (for it is the same Hebrew word as in Ge 47:11, and should be written the same way here as there,) is supposed to have been the capital of the land of Goshen, mentioned in the book of Genesis by anticipation; for it was probably not erected till after the days of Joseph, when the Israelites were brought under that severe oppression described in the book of Exodus. The Septuagint add here, , and ON, which is Heliopolis; i.e., the city of the Sun. The same reading is found also in the Coptic version.
Some writers suppose that beside these cities the Israelites built the pyramids. If this conjecture be well founded, perhaps they are intended in the word miscenoth, which, from sachan, to lay up in store, might be intended to signify places where Pharaoh laid up his treasures; and from their structure they appear to have been designed for something of this kind. If the history of the pyramids be not found in the book of Exodus, it is nowhere else extant; their origin, if not alluded to here, being lost in their very remote antiquity. Diodorus Siculus, who has given the best traditions he could find relative to them, says that there was no agreement either among the inhabitants or the historians concerning the building of the pyramids. – Bib. Hist., lib. 1., cap. lxiv.
Josephus expressly says that one part of the oppression suffered by the Israelites in Egypt was occasioned by building pyramids. See Clarke on Ex 1:14.
In the book of Genesis, and in this book, the word Pharaoh frequently occurs, which, though many suppose it to be a proper name peculiar to one person, and by this supposition confound the acts of several Egyptian kings, yet is to be understood only as a name of office.
It may be necessary to observe that all the Egyptian kings, whatever their own name was, took the surname of Pharaoh when they came to the throne; a name which, in its general acceptation, signified the same as king or monarch, but in its literal meaning, as Bochart has amply proved, it signifies a crocodile, which being a sacred animal among the Egyptians, the word might be added to their kings in order to procure them the greater reverence and respect.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Taskmasters, Heb. masters of tribute, who were to exact from them the tribute required, which was both money and labour; that their purses might be exhausted by the one, their strength by the other, and their spirits by both. To afflict, or, oppress, or humble; to spend their strength by excessive labours, and so disenable them for the procreation of children.
Treasure cities, where they laid the kings money or corn, which is reckoned among treasures, 2Ch 17:12; 32:27, and wherein a great part of the riches of Egypt consisted; for they had corn enough, not only for themselves, but to sell to other countries; so that Egypt was accounted the granary of the Roman empire. Or,
defenced cities, in which garrisons were to be placed, which seems best to agree with the place and use of them. For they were in the borders of the land, and among the Israelites, which appears concerning the one from Gen 47:11, (where the land in which they were placed is called Ramases, which in Hebrew consists of the same letters with this
Raamses, and seems to be so called then by anticipation from the city of that name now built in it,) and may be reasonably presumed concerning the other; and therefore it is most probable that they were built to keep the Israelites in subjection, and to hinder them from going out of the land.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. Therefore they did set over themtaskmastersHaving first obliged them, it is thought, to pay aruinous rent and involved them in difficulties, that new government,in pursuance of its oppressive policy, degraded them to the conditionof serfsemploying them exactly as the laboring people are in thepresent day (driven in companies or bands), in rearing the publicworks, with taskmasters, who anciently had sticksnow whipstopunish the indolent, or spur on the too languid. All public or royalbuildings, in ancient Egypt, were built by captives; and on some ofthem was placed an inscription that no free citizen had been engagedin this servile employment.
they built for Pharaohtreasure citiesThese two store-places were in the land ofGoshen; and being situated near a border liable to invasion, theywere fortified cities (compare 2Ch11:1-12:16). Pithom (Greek, Patumos), lay on the easternPelusiac branch of the Nile, about twelve Roman miles fromHeliopolis; and Raamses, called by the Septuagint Heroopolis,lay between the same branch of the Nile and the Bitter Lakes. Thesetwo fortified cities were situated, therefore, in the same valley;and the fortifications, which Pharaoh commanded to be built aroundboth, had probably the same common object, of obstructing theentrance into Egypt, which this valley furnished the enemy from Asia[HENGSTENBERG].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore they did set taskmasters over them, to afflict them with their burdens,…. This was the first scheme proposed and agreed on, and was carried into execution, to appoint taskmasters over them; or “princes”, or “masters of tribute” r, commissioners of taxes, who had power to lay heavy taxes upon them, and oblige them to pay them, which were very burdensome, and so afflictive to their minds, and tended to diminish their wealth and riches, and obliged them to harder labour in order to pay them, and so every way contributed to distress them:
and they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses; these might be built with the money they collected from them by way of tribute, and so said to be built by them, since it was chiefly in husbandry, and in keeping flocks and herds, that the Israelites were employed; or they might be concerned in building these cities, some of them understanding architecture, or however the poorer or meaner sort might be made use of in the more laborious and servile part of the work; those two cities are, in the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem, called Tanis and Pelusium; but Tanis was the same with Zoan, and that was built but seven years after Hebron, an ancient city, in being long before this time, see Nu 13:22. Pelusium indeed may be one of them, but then it is not that which is here called Raamses, but Pithom, as Sir John Marsham s and others think: Pithom is by Junius thought to be the same with the Pathumus of Herodotus t, a town in Arabia Petraes, upon the borders of Egypt, where a ditch was dug from the Nile to the Red sea, and supposed to be the work of the Israelites: Raamses is a place different from Ramesses, Ge 47:11 and had its name from the then reigning Pharaoh, Ramesses Miamun, as Pithom is thought by some to be so called from his queen: Pliny u makes mention of some people called Ramisi and Patami, who probably were the inhabitants of these cities, whom he joins to the Arabians as bordering on Egypt: the Septuagint version adds a third city, “On”, which is Hellopolls: and a learned writer w is of opinion that Raamses and Heliopolis are the same, and observes, that Raamses, in the Egyptian tongue, signifies the field of the sun, being consecrated to it, as Heliopolis is the city of the sun, the same with Bethshemesh, the house of the sun, Jer 43:13 and he thinks these cities were not properly built by the Israelites, but repaired, ornamented, and fortified, being by them banked up against the force of the Nile, that the granaries might be safe from it, as Strabo x writes, particularly of Heliopolis; and the Septuagint version here calls them fortified cities; and with this agrees what Benjamin of Tudela says y, that he came to the fountain of “Al-shemesh”, or the sun, which is Raamses; and there are remains of the building of our fathers (the Jew says) even towers built of bricks, and Fium, he says z, (which was in Goshen, [See comments on Ge 47:11]) is the same with Pithom; and there, he says, are to be seen some of the buildings of our fathers. Here these cities are said to be built for treasure cities, either to lay up the riches of the kings of Egypt in, or as granaries and storehouses for corn, or magazines for warlike stores, or for all of these: some think the “pyramids” were built by the Israelites, and there is a passage in Herodotus a which seems to favour it; he says, the kings that built them, the Egyptians, through hatred, name them not, but call them the pyramids of the shepherd Philitis, who at that time kept sheep in those parts; which seems to point at the Israelites, the beloved people of God, who were shepherds.
r “principes tributorum”, Pagninus, Montanus, Fagius, Drusius, Cartwright; so Tigurine version. s Ut supra. (Canon Chron. Sec. 8. p. 107.) t Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 158. u Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 28. w Jablonski de Terra Goshen, dissert. 4. sect. 8. x Geograph. l. 17. p. 553. y Itinerar. p. 120. z Ib. p. 114. a Ut supra, (t) c. 128.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
11. Therefore they did set over them. The Egyptians devised this remedy for gradually diminishing the children of Israel. Since they are subjects, they may afflict them with burdens, to depress them; and this slavery will weaken and decrease them. But their power over them as subjects should not have been carried so far as to impose upon inoffensive persons, to whom they had granted free permission to reside among them, these new tributes; for they ought first to have considered upon what conditions they had been admitted. The exaction, then, by which Pharaoh broke faith with them, was in itself unjust; but the crime to which he proceeded was still greater, because he did not simply seek for pecuniary advantage, but desired to afflict the wretched people by the heaviness of their burdens. For the Israelites were not only compelled to pay tribute, but were put to servile labor, as Moses immediately adds. As to the two cities, it is doubtful in what sense they were called miscenoth (15) This word is sometimes taken for cellars and granaries, or repositories of all things necessary as provision; but, as it sometimes signifies “fortresses,” it will not be an unsuitable meaning, that they were commanded to build with their own hands the prisons, which might prevent them from departing. For it is clear from many passages (Gen 47:11; Exo 12:37; Num 33:3) that Rhameses was situated in that part of the country, and we shall presently see that the children of Israel went out from Rhameses.
(15) מסכנות, miscenoth The LXX. alone gives some countenance to C. ’s last interpretation of this word, by rendering it πόλεις ὀχυρὰς. — W
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(11) Task-masters.Heb., chiefs of tributes. The Egyptian system of forced labour, which it was now resolved to extend to the Israelites, involved the appointment of two sets of officersa lower class, who personally overlooked the labourers, and forced them to perform their tasks, and a higher class of superintendents, who directed the distribution of the labour, and assigned to all the tasks which they were to execute. The task-masters of the present passage are these high officials.
To afflict them.This was the object of the whole proceeding. It was hoped that severe labour under the lash would produce so much suffering that the number of the Israelites would be thinned, and their multiplication stopped. Humanly speaking, the scheme was a wise onei.e., one likely to be successful.
They built for Pharaoh treasure-cities.By treasure-cities we are to understand magazinesi.e., strongholds, where munitions of war could be laid up for use in case of an invasion. (In 1Ki. 9:19, and 2Ch. 8:4, the same expression is translated cities of store.) The Pharaohs of the nineteenth dynasty gave great attention to the guarding of the north-eastern frontier in this way.
Pithom.This city is reasonably identified with the Patumus of Herodotus (ii. 158), which was in Lower Egypt, not far from Bubastis (Tel Basta). It is mentioned in the inscriptions of the nineteenth dynasty under the name of Pi-Tum (Brugsch, History of Egypt, vol. ii. p. 128). It was, as the name implies, a city of the sun-god, and was probably not very far from Heliopolis, the main seat of the sun-gods worship.
Raamses.Pi-Ramesu, the city of Rameses, was the ordinary seat of the Court during the earlier part of the nineteenth dynasty. It appears to have been a new name for Tanis, or for a suburb of Tanis, which overshadowed the old city. Rameses II. claims to have built the greater part of it; but it was probably commenced by his father, Seti, who made the defence of the north-eastern frontier one of his main cares. The name must be considered as a mere variant rendering of the Egyptian Ramessu or Ramesu. The site is marked by the mounds at San.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. Taskmasters Chiefs of tribute . The words are noteworthy, since they are found designating the same officers both in Hebrew and Egyptian . The Hebrew word , Sar, is an exact transcription of the Egyptian title applied in the Theban monuments to the officer appointed by the kings of the eighteenth dynasty to superintend captives employed in making bricks . This rank is there denoted by a long staff and by the giraffe symbol . These “taskmasters” were men of rank, carefully distinguished in the monuments from the subordinate overseers, as they are by the sacred writer . Exo 5:6. The Hebrews were not reduced to slavery, since they still had their houses, flocks, and herds; but were employed in forced labours on the public works . By this oppression the king hoped to break the spirit of the people, and also their physical power .
Built treasure-cities Magazines or depots for provisions and ammunition . The monuments represent captives in great numbers employed in such work . Pithom and
Raamses These are Egyptian names, and are often found upon the monuments. Pithom, Brugsch makes the Egyptian Pa-Tum, House of Tum, the sun-god of Heliopolis; while Rameses or Raamses means Son of Ra, or the Sun, and was the name of many Egyptian kings. These cities were about twenty-four miles apart, in the Wady Tumeylat, on the line of the canal that once connected the Nile with the Red Sea. Like the name Pharaoh, (Ph-Ra, the Sun,) both of these names set forth the sun-worship of the Egyptians, and the reigning king was regarded as the representative of Ra, the Sun, upon the earth.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Exo 1:11. Task-masters The original words signify, properly, tax-gatherers: so that the result of this counsel was, to exact a tribute to lessen their wealth, and to lay heavy burdens on them to weaken their bodies, and thereby prevent their populating and increasing. Philo tells us, that they were made to carry burdens above their strength, and to work night and day; that they were forced to be workers and servers; that they were employed in brick-making, digging, and building; and that if any of them dropped dead under their burdens, their friends were not permitted to bury them. Josephus tells us, moreover, that they were made to dig trenches and ditches, to drain rivers into channels, to wall whole towns, and, among other laborious works, to raise the useless and fantastical pyramids: but, without troubling ourselves further than with what Moses tells us in the subsequent verses, we shall find their work hard and bitter enough. Some observe, that the Israelites about this time began to corrupt their religion, and to worship the idols of Egypt, and were therefore, in the just judgment of God, thus oppressed and punished, as the prophet Ezekiel intimates, ch. Exo 23:8. See also Eze 20:7-8. Jos 24:14.
Treasure-cities Store-cities, as the word is rendered, 2Ch 16:4; 2Ch 17:12 and in ch. Exo 32:28. Storehouses, which Hezekiah built for the increase of corn, and wine, and oil; so that here it must mean magazines for preserving the royal stores of corn as well as treasures. The first of these, called Pithom, Marsham thinks to be the same with Pelusium, which was seated near the sea, at the mouth of one of the streams of the Nile; but Bochart and others take it for that city on the borders of Arabia, which Herodotus calls Patumos, of which opinion also is Dr. Shaw. See his Travels, p. 306.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
It is more than probable that those sharp trials were sanctified to some, and proved a savour of death unto others. Let the Reader consult Jos 24:14 . with Eze 20:8 ; Psa 106:35 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 1:11 Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.
Ver. 11. To afflict them. ] Because they would not “serve God with gladness of heart.” Deu 28:47-48 For now they began to go awhoring after the idols of Egypt. Eze 23:8 ; Eze 20:5 ; Eze 20:7-8
And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities.
a Bucholcer.
b Turk. Hist., fol. 544.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
taskmasters. Hebrew. sarei missim is Egyptian for chiefs of tribute, allotters and exactors of labour.
treasure cities = store cities. All now known and named.
Pithom is the Egyptian Pa-Tum, the abode of the god Tuna = the Greek Heroopolis = city of the store-houses.
Raamses. Said to be so called because built by Ramases II, but not certain.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
to afflict: Exo 3:7, Exo 5:15, Gen 15:13, Num 20:15, Deu 26:6
burdens: Exo 2:11, Exo 5:4, Exo 5:5, Psa 68:13, Psa 81:6, Psa 105:13
Raamses: Gen 47:11, Pro 27:4
Reciprocal: Gen 48:4 – Behold I Exo 3:9 – and I have Exo 5:6 – taskmasters Exo 5:10 – taskmasters Exo 12:37 – Rameses Num 16:13 – out of a Num 33:3 – they departed 1Ki 9:19 – the cities of store 1Ch 27:25 – the storehouses Psa 105:25 – to hate Lam 5:13 – fell Eze 16:4 – for