Acts 7:19

Acts 7:19. The same dealt subtilely with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live. Meyer and Hackett understand the language of this verse as setting forth the cruel policy of Pharaoh towards the children of Israel; in other words, they dealt so cruelly with these Hebrews, they made their lives so unendurable, that these unhappy ones destroyed their children, that they might not grow up to experience the wretched fate of their fathers. But this construction of the passage, which introduces a new feature into the history, is grammatically unnecessary. The verse simply tells us that, among other cruel acts, Pharaoh, with the hope of checking the increase of this strange tribe, gave a general command to his officials to cast the newborn sons of the Israelites into the Nile.