Exodus 1:18

_AND THE KING OF EGYPT CALLED FOR THE MIDWIVES, AND SAID UNTO THEM, WHY HAVE YE DONE THIS THING, AND HAVE SAVED THE MEN CHILDREN ALIVE?_ No JFB commentary on this verse....

18._And the king of Egypt called for the midwives. _He was not reduced to a more moderate course by equity or mercy; but because he dared not openly expose to slaughter the wretched and harmless infants at their birth, lest such atrocity should arouse the wrath of the Israelites to vengeance, He therefore secretly sends for the midwives, and inquires why they have not executed his murderous command? I doubt not, however, that he was restrained rather by the fear of rebellion than by shame. (20) In the answer of the midwives two vices are to be observed, since they neither confessed their piety with proper ingenuity, and what is worse, escaped by falsehood. For the fabulous story which the Rabbins invent to cover their fault, must be rejected, viz., that they did not come in time to the Hebrew women, because they had warned them of the wicked design of the king; and so it came to pass tha...

15-22 The Egyptians tried to destroy Israel by the murder of their children. The enmity that is in the seed of the serpent, against the Seed of the woman, makes men forget all pity. It is plain that the Hebrews were now under an uncommon blessing. And we see that the services done for God's Israel are often repaid in kind. Pharaoh gave orders to drown all the male children of the Hebrews. The enemy who, by Pharaoh, attempted to destroy the church in this its infant state, is busy to stifle the rise of serious reflections in the heart of man. Let those who would escape, be afraid of sinning, and cry directly and fervently to the Lord for assistance....

EXPOSITION EXODUS 1:15-2 Some time—say five or six years—having elapsed and the Pharaoh's first plan having manifestly failed, it was necessary for him either to give up his purpose, or to devise something else. Persevering and tenacious, he preferred the latter course. He bethought himself that a stop might be put to the multiplication of the Israelites by means of infanticide on a large scale. Infanticide was no doubt a crime in Egypt, as in most countries except Rome; but the royal command would legitimate almost any action, since the king was recognised as a god; and the wrongs of a foreign and subject race would not sensibly move the Egyptian people, or be likely to provoke remonstrance. On looking about for suitable instruments to carry out his design, it struck the monarch that something, at any rate, might be done by means of the midwives who at

AND THE KING CALLED FOR THE MIDWIVES,.... Perceiving, by the increase of the Israelites, that they did not obey his commands: AND SAID UNTO THEM, WHY HAVE YE DONE THIS THING, AND HAVE SAVED THE MEN CHILDREN ALIVE? not only did not kill them, but did everything for them that was necessary for their future preservation and health; see Ezekiel 16:4....

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 1:15 E ( EXODUS 1:20 B J). ATTEMPT TO DESTROY MALE CHILDREN. From another source we learn of two more ineffectual measures to restrict population. The two midwives, whose names tradition loved to recall for their heroism (while careless about the Pharaoh's name!), were, according to Josephus, Egyptian. Though commentators differ, the tone of the passage confirms that view, which requires the rendering, the midwives of the Hebrew women (lit. those women who help the Hebrew women to bring forth). Humanity and natural religion (they feared God, _cf._ Genesis 20:11; Genesis 42:18) outweighed the royal command. The proce

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...

OPPRESSION OF THE ISRAELITES 5. Seventy souls] Jacob himself is included in the number: cp. Genesis 46:8. Of the seventy, sixty-eight were males. If to the direct descendants of Jacob we add the wives of his sons and grandsons, and the husbands of his daughters and grand-daughters, and all their servants with their families, it appears that the total number of those who entered Egypt was very considerable, several hundreds if not thousands. This fact, as well as the acknowlodged prolificness of the Hebrew nation, serves to account for their rapid increase in Egypt. At the time of the exodus they must have numbered about three millions: see on Exodus 12:37....

EXODUS: ISRAEL BECOMES A NATION THE *ISRAELITES LEAVE EGYPT EXODUS CHAPTER S 1 TO 18 _HILDA BRIGHT AND KITTY PRIDE_ ABOUT THE BOOK OF EXODUS Exodus is one of the first 5 books of the *Old Testament. We speak about these 5 books together as ‘the Pentateuch’. The *Greek translation gave this book its name ‘Exodus’. It means ‘to go out’. God helped the *Israelites ‘to go out’ from *Egypt. The book is in two parts: Chapter s 1-18: the first part of Moses’ life; the *Israelites’ troubles in Egypt; the events and the *plagues that led the *Israelites to leave Egypt. Chapter s 19-40: how God gave the Law to Moses; how they built the special holy tent (*Tabernacle); the rules for *worship. Moses was the most important person in all these events. He was the main person who recorded the events....