Exodus 1:11

_THEREFORE THEY DID SET OVER THEM TASKMASTERS TO AFFLICT THEM WITH THEIR BURDENS. AND THEY BUILT FOR PHARAOH TREASURE CITIES, PITHOM AND RAAMSES._ They did set over them taskmasters ..., х_ SAAREEY_ (H8269) _ MICIYM_ (H4522)] - masters of tribute service, service masters; or [taking _ MAC_ (H4522) in the concrete, for a levy of men, as 1 Kings 5:13; 1 Kings 9:15], it may be masters of labourers. It has been the practice of Eastern despots from time immemorial, particularly in Egypt, to draft workmen in gangs of tens and hundreds to labour in public works, marshalled under the inspection of overseers armed with sticks to bastinado the lazy or diso

11._Therefore they did set over them. _The Egyptians devised this remedy for gradually diminishing the children of Israel. Since they are subjects, they may afflict them with burdens, to depress them; and this slavery will weaken and decrease them. But their power over them as subjects should not have been carried so far as to impose upon inoffensive persons, to whom they had granted free permission to reside among them, these new tributes; for they ought first to have considered upon what conditions they had been admitted. The exaction, then, by which Pharaoh broke faith with them, was in itself unjust; but the crime to which he proceeded was still greater, because he did not simply seek for pecuniary advantage, but desired to afflict the wretched people by the heaviness of their burdens. For the Israelites were not only compelled to pay tribute, but were put to servile labor, as Moses...

8-14 The land of Egypt became to Israel a house of bondage. The place where we have been happy, may soon become the place of our affliction; and that may prove the greatest cross to us, of which we said, This same shall comfort us. Cease from man, and say not of any place on this side heaven, This is my rest. All that knew Joseph, loved him, and were kind to his brethren for his sake; but the best and most useful services a man does to others, are soon forgotten after his death. Our great care should be, to serve God, and to please him who is not unrighteous, whatever men are, to forget our work and labour of love. The offence of Israel is, that he prospers. There is no sight more hateful to a wicked man than the prosperity of the righteous. The Egyptians feared lest the children of Israel should join their enemies, and get them up out of the land. Wickedness is ever cowardly and unjust...

Verse Exodus 1:11. _SET OVER THEM TASK-MASTERS_] שרי מסים _sarey_ _missim, chiefs_ or _princes_ of _burdens, works_, or _tribute_; επιστατας των εργων, Sept. _overseers of the works_. The persons who appointed them their work, and exacted the performance of it. The _work_ itself being oppressive, and the _manner_ in which it was _exacted_ still more so, there is some room to think that they not only worked them unmercifully, but also obliged them to pay an exorbitant tribute at the same time. _TREASURE CITIES_] ערי מסכנות _arey miscenoth, store_ _cities - public granaries_. Calmet supposes this to be the name of a city, and translates the verse thus: "They built cities, viz., Miscenoth, Pithom, and Rameses." Pithom is supposed to be that which Herodotus calls _Patumos_. _Raamses_, or rather R

TASKMASTERS - The Egyptian “Chiefs of tributes.” They were men of rank, superintendents of the public works, such as are often represented on Egyptian monuments, and carefully distinguished from the subordinate overseers. The Israelites were employed in forced labor, probably in detachments, but they were not reduced to slavery, properly speaking, nor treated as captives of war. Amosis had special need of such laborers, as proved by the inscriptions. TREASURE CITIES - “Magazines,” depots of ammunition and provisions 1 Kings 9:19; 2 Chronicles 8:4; 2 Chronicles 32:28. PITHOM AND RAAMSES - Bo

EXPOSITION EXODUS 1:7-2 Here the real narrative of Exodus begins. The history of the Israelites from and after the death of Joseph is entered on. The first point touched is THEIR RAPID MULTIPLICATION. The next their falling under the dominion of a NEW KING. The third, HIS MODE OF ACTION UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES. It is remarkable that the narrative contains no notes of time. How long the increase continued before the new king arose, how long it went on before he noticed it, how long the attempt was made to cheek it by mere severity of labour, we are not told. Some considerable duration of time is implied, both for the multiplication (verse 7) and for the oppression (verse 11-14); but the narrator is so absorbed in the matters which he has to communicate that the question what time these matters occupied does

THEREFORE THEY DID SET TASKMASTERS OVER THEM, TO AFFLICT THEM WITH THEIR BURDENS,.... This was the first scheme proposed and agreed on, and was carried into execution, to appoint taskmasters over them; or "princes", or "masters of tribute" r, commissioners of taxes, who had power to lay heavy taxes upon them, and oblige them to pay them, which were very burdensome, and so afflictive to their minds, and tended to diminish their wealth and riches, and obliged them to harder labour in order to pay them, and so every way contributed to distress them: AND THEY BUILT FOR PHARAOH TREASURE CITIES, PITHOM AND RAAMSES; these might be built with the money they collected from them by way of tribute, and so said to be built by them, since it was chiefly in husbandry, and in keeping flocks and herds, that the Israelites were employed; or they might be concerned in building these cities, some of them...

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS I. ISRAEL'S DELIVERANCE OUT OF THE HANDS OF THE EGYPTIANS 1. The House of Bondage CHAPTER 1 _ 1. The names of the children of Israel; their increase (Exodus 1:1)_ 2. The new king and his policy (Exodus 1:8) 3. The continued increase (Exodus 1:12) 4. Their hard bondage (Exodus 1:13) 5. The midwives commanded (Exodus 1:15) 6. Their disobedience and God's reward (Exodus 1:17) 7. Pharaoh's charg

EXODUS 1:8 J, EXODUS 1:13 P, EXODUS 1:14 A ( TO FIELD) J, EXODUS 1:14 B P. REPRESSION OF ISRAEL. Forced labour was the first device for checking Hebrew increase. The new king is probably Rameses II (1300- 1221 B.C., pp. 56, 63, so Petrie). The phrase has no reference to a change of dynasty, as some have supposed, but to the beginning of an epoch affecting Israel. In Exodus 1:9 read _mg.;_ to represent Israel as stronger than the Egyptians would have been absurd, but such a people might easily grow too strong for their dependent position and clo

III. ISRAEL IN BONDAGE. 11. THEY DID SET OVER THEM TASKMASTERS The writer uses the proper Egyptian designation for these officers, viz, Chiefs of tribute. They were men of rank, superintendents of the public works, such as are often represented on Egyptian monuments and are carefully distinguished from the subordinate overseers. The Israelite's were employed in forced labors, probably in detachments, each under an Egyptian "taskmaster;" but they were not reduced to slavery, properly speaking, nor treated as captives of war; they continued to occupy and cultivate their own district, and they retained possession of their houses, flocks, herds, and other property until they emigrated from Egypt.--_ Canon Cook._ By hard feudal labor (burdens, burdensome toil) Pharaoh hoped, according to the ordinary maxims of tyrants, to break down the physical strength of Israel and lessen its increase, si...