Exodus 1:22

_AND PHARAOH CHARGED ALL HIS PEOPLE, SAYING, EVERY SON THAT IS BORN YE SHALL CAST INTO THE RIVER, AND EVERY DAUGHTER YE SHALL SAVE ALIVE._ Pharaoh charged all his people - most probably the order was confined to his officers and guards, who, on hearing of a birth having taken place, or of the rite of circumcision being performed in any house, were to enter it, seize the male infants, and drown them. х_ HAYª'ORAAH_ (H2975), the river; Septuagint, ton potamon (kat' exocheen, the Nile.] It has been objected, that there is a glaring contradiction between this edict to destroy all the male children and the king's unwillingness to part with the services of the Hebrew people. But there is no contradiction; because it is evident that, although a universal term is used in this passage, the order did not extend to every Hebrew boy born, as well in the extensive inland plains of Goshen as in the c...

22._And Pharaoh charged. _If he had not been transported with wrath and struck with blindness, he would have seen that the hand of God was against him; but when the reprobate are driven to madness by God, they persevere obstinately in their crimes; and not only so, but, like the deranged (25) or frantic, they dash themselves with greater audacity against every obstacle. It is indeed commonly the case that cruelty, having once tasted innocent blood, becomes more thirsty for it; nay, in general, wicked men, as if excited by their course, grow hotter and hotter in crime, so that there is no end nor measure to their iniquity; but here, in this very desperate rage, we must perceive the vengeance of God, when he had given up the tyrant for the devil to destroy him, whilst we also remember his design both to try the patience of his people as well as to set forth his own goodness and power. The...

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....

Verse Exodus 1:22. _YE SHALL CAST INTO THE RIVER_] As the _Nile_, which is here intended, was a sacred river among the Egyptians, it is not unlikely that Pharaoh intended the young Hebrews as an offering to his god, having two objects in view: 1. To increase the fertility of the country by thus procuring, as he might suppose, a proper and sufficient annual inundation; and 2. To prevent an increase of population among the Israelites, and in process of time procure their entire extermination. It is conjectured, with a great show of probability, that the edict mentioned in this verse was not made till after the birth of Aaron, and that it was revoked soon after the birth of Moses; as, if it had subsisted in its rigour during the _eighty-six_ years which elapsed between this and the deliverance of the Israelites, it is not at all likely that their

The extreme cruelty of the measure does not involve improbability. Hatred of strangers was always a characteristic of the Egyptians (see Genesis 43:32), and was likely to be stronger than ever after the expulsion of an alien race....

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 PHARAOH CHARGED ALL HIS PEOPLE,.... Finding he could not carry his point with the midwives, he gave a general order to all his people everywhere: SAYING, EVERY SON THAT IS BORN YE SHALL CAST INTO THE RIVER; the river Nile; not every son born in his kingdom, for this would have ruined it in time; but that was born to the Jews, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; and it is added in the Septuagint version, to the Hebrews: AND EVERY DAUGHTER YE SHALL SAVE ALIVE; for the reasons given Exodus 1:16....

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

BORN. Samaritan Pentateuch, Targum of Onkelos, The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, and Vulgate add "to the Hebrews. " SAVE ALIVE. suffer to live....