Exodus 1: Verse-by-Verse Commentary (with Videos)

¹These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family:

²Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;

³Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;

⁴Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.

⁵The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all, including Joseph, who was already in Egypt.

⁶Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died,

⁷but the Israelites were fruitful and increased rapidly; they multiplied and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.

⁸Then a new king, who did not know Joseph, came to power in Egypt.

⁹“Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become too numerous and too powerful for us.

¹⁰Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase even more; and if a war breaks out, they may join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”

¹¹So the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. As a result, they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.

¹²But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and flourished; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.

¹³They worked the Israelites ruthlessly

¹⁴and made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar, and with all kinds of work in the fields. Every service they imposed was harsh.

¹⁵Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah,

¹⁶“When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them on the birthstools. If the child is a son, kill him; but if it is a daughter, let her live.”

¹⁷The midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had instructed; they let the boys live.

¹⁸So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”

¹⁹The midwives answered Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before a midwife arrives.”

²⁰So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became even more numerous.

²¹And because the midwives feared God, He gave them families of their own.

²²Then Pharaoh commanded all his people: “Every son born to the Hebrews you must throw into the Nile, but every daughter you may allow to live.”