Exodus 1

Exodus opens with Jacob’s family in Egypt, now grown into a great people. A new king fears them and crushes them with slavery, then with a plan to kill their baby boys. Yet God’s promise of fruitfulness cannot be stopped, and two brave midwives show that fear of God is stronger than fear of Pharaoh.

Exodus 1:1

The book begins by linking back to Genesis. It names the sons of Israel who came into Egypt with Jacob, each with his household. The story that follows is about a real family, a chosen people, and God’s faithfulness to the promises he made to them.

BSA: family (“household, relatives, every man and his household”): Each man came with his whole household, so the whole clan was carried into Egypt together.

See also: Genesis 46:8.

Exodus 1:2-4

Eleven sons are listed here, grouped by their mothers. The names are a roll call of the family God would make into a nation. Joseph is left out because he was already in Egypt. The twelve tribes of Israel would later descend from these men.

BSA: Judah (“praise, one who offers praise”): His name means praise, and from this tribe the kings of Israel would later come.

Exodus 1:5

Seventy people came from Jacob’s line, a full and complete number in Scripture. Joseph is counted too, since he had gone ahead into Egypt. It was a small family, which makes the growth that follows all the more striking.

BSA: seventy (“seventy souls, a total of 70”): The count is of persons, not just men, showing how small the family was when it arrived.

See also: Genesis 46:27; Deuteronomy 10:22.

Exodus 1:6

Joseph, his brothers, and their whole generation died. The people who had known the good days of Egypt were gone. Only the promise of God remained, and the family was left without its human protectors.

See also: Genesis 50:26.

Exodus 1:7

In spite of the deaths, the people grew enormously. This echoes God’s first command to humanity and his promise to Abraham. The heaping up of words shows how the blessing overflowed. God was keeping his word even in a foreign land.

BSA: multiplied (“grew in number, became numerous”): The word stresses steady, abundant growth, as if the people were teeming like swarms. filled (“made full, completed”): The land of Goshen was packed with them, a sign of the promise being fulfilled.

See also: Genesis 1:28; Genesis 12:2.

Exodus 1:8

A new king rose who had no regard for Joseph and what he had done to save Egypt. Past kindness was forgotten. Some of the worst troubles of God’s people begin when those in power no longer remember what they owe.

BSA: know (“lacking knowledge of, unaware”): It suggests more than ignorance: he did not acknowledge or honor Joseph’s memory.

Exodus 1:9-10

Pharaoh speaks of the Israelites as a danger. His fear of their numbers is turned into a plan for control. He worries that they might side with an enemy and leave. His cleverness is really fear, and he is working against what God has promised.

BSA: shrewdly (“with cunning, outsmarting them”): Pharaoh dresses oppression up as wise planning, but it is cunning aimed at harming the innocent.

Exodus 1:11

Pharaoh set overseers over Israel and forced them to build his supply cities. Free guests became slaves. Their work enriched the very king who feared them. The cities Pithom and Rameses were storehouses for grain and goods.

BSA: taskmasters (“rulers, princes of tribute”): These were officers who collected forced labor, like tax collectors of human strength. oppress (“to afflict them, oppress them”): The word means to humble and crush, bringing a people low.

Exodus 1:12

Oppression had the opposite effect from what Pharaoh wanted. The harder the Egyptians pressed, the more Israel grew. No human power could stop God’s blessing. The Egyptians became afraid and disgusted, which only made them more cruel.

BSA: flourished (“spread out, broke through”): The picture is of a people bursting through every barrier placed around them. dread (“loathe, be grieved because of”): Their fear had turned into a deep revulsion toward Israel.

Exodus 1:13-14

The slavery became harsher. The Israelites made bricks and mortar and worked in the fields, with no rest and no mercy. Their lives were made bitter. Later Israel would remember this bitterness each year at Passover.

BSA: bitter (“with intense emotion”): The bitterness was not just physical hardship but a deep grief of soul. ruthlessly (“with severity, rigor, and brutality”): The work was done without any mercy, to break their spirit.

See also: Exodus 12:8.

Exodus 1:15-16

When forced labor did not reduce Israel, Pharaoh ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill the baby boys at birth. Two are named, Shiphrah and Puah, though Pharaoh’s name is not given. God notices the humble, and Scripture remembers them by name.

BSA: midwives (“women who assist in childbirth”): These women were trusted with life itself, yet Pharaoh asked them to deal death.

Exodus 1:17

The midwives feared God more than the king and so refused to murder the children. Fear of God here means reverent awe that shapes right action. Their quiet disobedience protected life when the most powerful man in the land demanded death.

BSA: feared (“stood in awe of”): Their awe of God was greater than their terror of Pharaoh, and that settled what they did.

See also: Proverbs 29:25; Acts 5:29.

Exodus 1:18-19

Pharaoh called the midwives to account. They gave an answer about the Hebrew women giving birth quickly. Christians read this in different ways, but the text stresses that God protected the women and the children, and the king could not answer them.

BSA: vigorous (“full of life, strong”): The word is related to life itself, hinting at the vitality God had placed in his people.

Exodus 1:20-21

God honored the midwives and gave them families of their own. The people kept increasing. Faithfulness at a cost is not forgotten by God. He turns the quiet courage of ordinary people into blessing for them and for his people.

BSA: families (“households, descendants”): The Hebrew speaks of houses, so God built up their homes as they had protected others.

See also: Hebrews 6:10.

Exodus 1:22

When secret murder failed, Pharaoh made it public law. Every Hebrew baby boy was to be thrown into the Nile. The river that gave Egypt life became an instrument of death. The darkness is deep, but the next chapter shows a child saved in that same river.

BSA: throw (“to cast away, to discard”): Pharaoh treats the children as something to be discarded, showing how little he valued human life.

See also: Exodus 2:3; Matthew 2:16.