Exodus 1:14

Service in the field] This refers to the construction of irrigation canals and embankments, as well as to the making of bricks for building. With what rigour the system of forced labour was employed may be judged from the fact recorded by Herodotus that 120,000 workmen lost their lives in the construction of a canal connecting the Nile and the Red Sea in the time of Pharaoh Necho. In modern times Mohammed Ali's canal from the Nile to Alexandria cost 20,000 lives.

15-22. Failing to weaken or diminish the Israelites by such severe labour, the Egyptian king has recourse to a more direct method, that of infanticide. He orders the slaughter of all the Hebrew male children at birth. This also fails, Pharaoh's own daughter becoming one of the links in the chain of deliverance.

With Pharaoh's edict may be compared that of Herod ordering the Massacre of the Innocents of Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16;).