Exodus 1
VERSES 1-7
1 And these [are] the names of the sons of Israel
who are coming into Egypt
with Jacob;
a man and his household have they come;
Levi,
and Judah,
and Benjamin,
Dan,
and Naphtali,
Gad,
and Asher.
And all the persons coming out of the thigh of Jacob
are seventy persons //came into the land//;
as to Joseph,
he was in Egypt.
And Joseph dieth,
and all his brethren, //died//
and all that generation; //died//
and the sons of Israel
have been fruitful,
and they teem,
and multiply,
and are very very mighty,
and the land is filled with them.
Genesis 1:26 Be Fruitful, multiply, fill, subdue the earth. In this scene, the subduing is being done to a human, not the earth.
VERSES 8-16
And there riseth a new king
over Egypt,
who hath not known Joseph,
and he saith unto his people,
`Lo, the people of the sons of Israel
[is] more numerous and mighty than we;
give help!
let us act wisely concerning it, //Genesis 11:3-4//
lest it multiply,
and it hath come to pass,
when war happeneth,
that it hath been joined,
even it, unto those hating us,
and hath fought against us,
and hath gone out up of the land.'
And they set over it princes of tribute,
so as to afflict it with their burdens,
and it buildeth store-cities for Pharaoh
and Raamses;
and as they afflict it,
so it multiplieth,
and so it breaketh forth,
and they are vexed because of the sons of Israel;
and the Egyptians cause the sons of Israel
to serve with rigour,
and make their lives bitter in hard service,
in clay,
and in brick,
and in every [kind] of service in the field;
all their service
in which they have served [is] with rigour.
Store-cities = miskanot mirros the building of the miskan (Tabernacle) in Exodus 25-40. Most likely warehouses for Pharoah’s funerary cult, ensuring the Egypitians would worship him long after his death. YHWH calls the people to build a tabernacle to worship him instead.
ALL Egyptians reisdents had to work for Pharoah, not just the Israelites. However there was a disgust and fear against the Israelites.
Dennis Prager: "You can't have freedom from Pharaoh if you don't have freedom from you. So Sinai is the second freedom. You have to be liberated from external tyranny, now the liberation from internal tyranny is the Ten Commandments."
VERSES 15-22
And the king of Egypt speaketh
to the midwives,
the Hebrewesses,
(of whom the name of the one [is] Shiphrah,
and the name of the second Puah),
and saith,
`When ye cause the Hebrew women to bear,
and have looked on the children;
if it [is] a son
-- then ye have put him to death;
and if it [is] a daughter
-- then she hath lived.'
And the midwives fear God,
and have not done
as the king of Egypt hath spoken unto them,
and keep the lads alive;
Boys could grow up to create an army - the root of the fear the king had was them joining forces with an enemy and fight against the Egyptians
But its the women who oppose him at this point. Original Hebrew text does not indicate whether the midwives were Hebrew or Egyptian.
In Hebrew: When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live”
Delivery Stole: abnayim = two stones
and the king of Egypt calleth for the midwives,
and saith to them,
`Wherefore have ye done this thing,
and keep the lads alive?'
And the midwives say unto Pharaoh,
`Because the Hebrew women [are] not as the Egyptian women,
for they [are] lively;
before the midwife cometh in unto them
-- they have borne!'
And God doth good to the midwives,
and the people multiply,
and are very mighty;
and it cometh to pass,
because the midwives have feared God //Elohim//,
that He maketh for them households;
and Pharaoh layeth a charge on all his people, saying,
`Every son who is born
-- into the River ye do cast him,
and every daughter ye do keep alive.'
TLV
NOTES:
Pharoah plays the role of the snake from Genesis.
However, the woman (midwives) are seeing and NOT taking as Pharoah wants them to
"The tyrant is empowering the women to kill their men. He's doing it to feminize the Hebrews. The reason they won't do it is because they fear God to see beyond the power the Pharaoh is handing them at this moment. And when you think that couldn't happen again in people, look around you. We are seeing it happen before our very eyes." Jonathan Pageau. (Christian thinker and artist)
"It also implies that its in the best interest of the tyrant to dispense with those figures who might pose a threat to the tyrant because those would be tough men." Dr. Jordan B. Peterson
SOURCES
Bible project classroom
Exodus with Jordan Peterson - Daily Wire
