Exodus 1:7

And the children of Israel were fruitful,.... In their offspring; became like fruitful trees, as the word signifies: and increased abundantly; like creeping things, or rather like fishes, which

And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them. The children of Israel. The ethnic name of the descendants of Jacob was Hebrews.

Here are many words, and some very emphatical, to express their incredible multiplication. They waxed exceeding mighty; which may relate either to their numbers, which greatly added to their strength, or to their constitution, to note that their offspring was strong as well as numerous. Atheistical wits cavil at this story, and pretend it impossible that out of seventy persons should come above six hundred thousand men within two hundred and fifteen years; wherein they betray no less ignorance than impiety. For, to say nothing of the extraordinary fruitfulness of the women in Egypt who oft bring forth four or five children at one birth, as Aristotle notes, Hist. Animal. 7.4, nor of the long lives of the men of that age, nor of the plurality of wives then much in use, nor of the singular blessing of God upon the Hebrews in giving them conceptions and births without abortion, all which are but very reasonable suppositions, the probability of it may plainly appear thus: Suppose there were only two hundred years reckoned, and only fifty persons who did beget children, and these begin not to beget before they he twenty years old, and then each of them beget only three children. Divide this time now into ten times twenty years. In the first time, of 50 come 150. In the second, of 150 come 450. Of them in the third, come 1350. Of them in the fourth, 4050. Of these in the fifth, 12150. Of these in the sixth, 36450. Of them in the seventh, 109350. Of them in the eighth, 328050. Of these in the ninth, 984150. And of them in the tenth, 2952450. If it be objected, that we read nothing of their great multiplication till after Joseph’ s death, which some say was not above fifty years before their going out of Egypt, it may be easily replied: 1. This is a great mistake, for there were above one hundred and forty, years between Joseph’ s death and their going out of Egypt, as may appear thus: It is granted that the Israelites were in Egypt about two hundred and ten or two hundred and fifteen years in all. They came not thither till Joseph was near forty years old, as is evident by comparing with . So there rests only seventy years of Joseph’ s life, which are the first part of the time of Israel’ s dwelling in Egypt, and there remain one hundred and forty-five years, being the other part of the two hundred and fifteen years. 2. That the Israelites did multiply much before Joseph’ s death, though Scripture be silent in it, as it is of many other passages confessedly true, cannot be reasonably doubted. But if there was any defect in the numbers proposed in the first fifty-five years, it might be abundantly compensated in the one hundred and forty-five years succeeding. And so the computation remains good.

Exodus 1:7 And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.Ver. 7. Increased abundantly.] Heb., Spawned, and bred swiftly, as fishes. Trogus author a firmat in Aegypto septenos uno utero simul gigni. Egypt is a fruitful country: it is ordinary there, saith Trogus, to have seven children at a birth. Solinus gives the reason, quod faetifero potu Nilus, non tantum terrarum, sed etiam hominum faecundat arva; - the river Nile, whereof they drink, makes men as well as fields fruitful. But this increase of the Israelites was also by the extraordinary blessing of God, that they might "become a mighty and populous nation."

(7) The children of Israel were fruitful.—A great multiplication is evidently intended. Egypt was a particularly healthy country, and both men and animals were abnormally prolific there. Grain was so plentiful that want, which is the ordinary check on population, was almost unknown. The Egyptian kings for many years would look favourably on the growth of the Hebrew people, which strengthened their eastern frontier, the quarter on which they were most open to attack. God’s blessing was, moreover, upon the people, which he had promised to make “as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore, for multitude” (see Genesis 22:17). On the actual extent of the multiplication and the time that it occupied, see the comment on Exodus 12:37-41. The land—i.e., where they dwelt—Goshen (Genesis 47:4-6)—which seems to have been the more eastern portion of the Delta.

Verse 7. The children of Israel were fruitful] פרו paru, a general term, signifying that they were like healthy trees, bringing forth an abundance of fruit. And increased] ישרץ yishretsu, they increased like fishes, as the original word implies. See Genesis 1:20, and the note there. See Clarke on Genesis 1:20. Abundantly] ירבו yirbu, they multiplied; this is a separate term, and should not have been used as an adverb by our translators. And waxed exceeding mighty] ויעצמו במאד מאד vaiyaatsmu bimod meod, and they became strong beyond measure - superlatively, superlatively-so that the land (Goshen) was filled with them. This astonishing increase was, under the providence of God, chiefly owing to two causes: 1. The Hebrew women were exceedingly fruitful, suffered very little in parturition, and probably often brought forth twins. 2. There appear to have been no premature deaths among them. Thus in about two hundred and fifteen years they were multiplied to upwards of 600,000, independently of old men, women, and children.

7. The continuation in P of v. 5. [P] were fruitful, and swarmed, [J] and multiplied, and waxed mighty, [P] exceedingly] To ‘be fruitful,’ as Genesis 1:28; Genesis 9:1; Genesis 9:7, &c., and in the promises to Abraham and Jacob of an abundant progeny, Genesis 17:6; Genesis 35:11 (Genesis 48:4), cf. Exodus 28:3 (all P). ‘Swarmed,’ as Genesis 1:20-21; Genesis 7:21; Genesis 8:17 (all P); used here of men, as Genesis 9:7 (P). ‘Multiplied and waxed mighty’ (the last expression not elsewhere in P), as v. 20: cf. the corresponding adjectives in v. 9. ‘Exceedingly,’—here, in the Heb., an expression peculiar to P and Ezek., lit. with muchness, muchness,—qualifies all the preceding verbs. Hebrew tradition loved to tell of the wonderful increase of their ancestors in Egypt: cf., of an earlier stage of their residence there, Genesis 47:27 (P) ‘were fruitful, and multiplied greatly.’ the land] viz. of Rameses, Genesis 47:11 (P), or of Goshen, Genesis 47:4 (J).

In no province does the population increase so rapidly as in that which was occupied by the Israelites. See the note at Genesis 47:6.

AND OF ISRAEL, Exodus 1:7-22. 7. Here is an accumulation of figures to express the vast increase of the children of Israel. Were fruitful — A figure from the seed which multiplies a hundred or a thousand fold.