Exodus 1:14

_AND THEY MADE THEIR LIVES BITTER WITH HARD BONDAGE, IN MORTER, AND IN BRICK, AND IN ALL MANNER OF SERVICE IN THE FIELD: ALL THEIR SERVICE, WHEREIN THEY MADE THEM SERVE, WAS WITH RIGOUR._ They made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. It has been adduced as a proof of the unhistorical character of the Pentateuch, that the author mentions brickmaking-a species of manufacture which, it is alleged, was common in Babylonia, but not in Egypt. This objection, however, is utterly groundless, as there is abundant evidence that bricks were in extensive use among the ancient Egyptians. Ruins of great brick buildings are found in all parts of the country. The use of crude brick baked in the sun, was universal in Upper and Lower Egypt both for public and private buildings-all but the temples themselves were of crude brick. The usu...

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 1:14. _THEY MADE THEIR LIVES BITTER_] So that they became weary of life, through the severity of their servitude. _WITH HARD BONDAGE_] בעבדה קשה _baabodah kashah, with grievous_ _servitude_. This was the general character of their life in Egypt; it was a life of the most painful servitude, oppressive enough in itself, but made much more so by the cruel manner of their treatment while performing their tasks. _IN MORTAR, AND IN BRICK_] First, in digging the clay, kneading, and preparing it, and secondly, forming it into _bricks_, drying them in the sun, c. _SERVICE IN THE FIELD_] Carrying these materials to the places where they were to be formed into buildings, and serving the builders while employed in those public works. Josephus says "The Egyptians contrived a variety of

The use of brick, at all times common in Egypt, was especially so under the 18th Dynasty. An exact representation of the whole process of brickmaking is given in a small temple at Thebes, erected by Tothmosis III, the fourth in descent from Amosis. Immense masses of brick are found at Belbeis, the modern capital of Sharkiya, i. e. Goshen, and in the adjoining district. ALL MANNER OF SERVICE IN THE FIELD - Not merely agricultural labor, but probably the digging of canals and processes of irrigation which are peculiarly onerous and unhealthy....

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

AND THEY MADE THEIR LIVES BITTER WITH HARD BONDAGE,.... So that they had no ease of body nor peace of mind; they had no comfort of life, their lives and mercies were embittered to them: IN MORTAR AND IN BRICK, AND IN ALL MANNER OF SERVICE OF THE FIELD; if Pelusium was one of the cities they built, that had its name from clay, the soil about it being clayish, and where the Israelites might be employed in making brick for the building of that and other cities: Josephus d says, they were ordered to part the river (Nile) into many canals, to build walls about cities, and raise up mounds, lest the water overflowing the banks should stagnate; and to build pyramids, obliging them to learn various arts, and inure themselves to labour: so Philo the Jew says e, some worked in the clay, forming it into bricks, and others in carrying straw: some were appointed to build private houses, others the wa...

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

BITTER WITH HARD BONDAGE. And it is to be feared that the oppression they were under had this bad effect upon them, that it brought over many of them to join with the Egyptians in their idolatrous worship: for we read (Joshua 24:14) that they served other gods in Egypt; and though it is not mentioned here in this history, yet we find (Ezekiel 20:8.) that God had threatened to destroy them for it even while they were in the land of Egypt.--_ M. Henry._ IN BRICK. Brick was in very common use in Egypt, and especially in lower Egypt where stone was lacking. PRACTICAL AND SUGGESTIVE. The fate of the Israelites in Egypt is. type of sin. They came into the best part of Egypt; first pleasant, then doubtful, then oppressed, then finally enslaved. (1) Sin yields bitter f

THE TEXT OF EXODUS TRANSLATION 1 Now these are the names of the sons of Is-ra-el, who came into E-gypt (every man and his household came with Jacob): (2) Reu-ben, Sim-e-on, Le-vi, and Ju-dah, (3) Is-sa-char, Zeb-u-Iun, and Ben-ja-min, (4) Dan and Naph-ta-li, Gad and Asher. (5) And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: and Joseph was in E-gypt already. (6) And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. (7) And the children of Is-ra-el were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them. (8) Now there arose a new king over E-gypt, who knew not Joseph. (9) And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Is-ra-el are more and mightier than we: (10) come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any...