Exodus 1:14 Komentář

We have here, I. God's kindness to Israel, in multiplying them exceedingly (Exo 1:1-7). II. The Egyptians' wickedness to them, 1. Oppressing and enslaving them (Exo 1:8-14). 2. Murdering their children (Exo 1:15-22). Thus whom the court of heaven blessed the country of Egypt cursed, and for that reason.

This chapter begins with an account of the names and number of the children of Israel that came into Egypt with Jacob, Exo 1:1 and relates that increase of them after the death of Joseph, and the generation that went down to Egypt, Exo 1:6 and what methods the Egyptians took to diminish them, but to no purpose, as by obliging to cruel bondage and hard service; and yet the more they were afflicted, the more they increased, Exo 1:9 by ordering the midwives of the Hebrew women to slay every son they laid them of; but they fearing God, did not obey the order of the king of Egypt, which when he expostulated with them about, they excused, and so the people multiplied, Exo 1:15 and lastly, by ordering every male child to be cast into the river, Exo 1:22 and which is the leading step to the account of the birth of Moses, which follows in the next chapter.

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 walls of cities, and to cut ditches and canals in the river, and obliged day and night to carry burdens, so that they had no rest, nor were they suffered to refresh themselves with sleep; and some say that they were not only employed in the fields in ploughing and sowing and the like, but in carrying of dung thither, and all manner of uncleanness: of their being employed in building of pyramids and canals; see Gill on Gen 47:11. all their service wherein they made them serve was with rigour; they not only put them to hard work, but used them in a very churlish and barbarous manner, abusing them with their tongues, and beating them with their hands: Philo in the above place says, the king not only compelled them to servile works, but commanded them heavier things than they could bear, heaping labours one upon another; and if any, through weakness, withdrew himself, it was judged a capital crime, and the most merciless and cruel were set over them as taskmasters. (d) Antiqu. l. 2. c. 9. sect. 1. (e) De Vita Mosis, l. 1. p. 608.

Perhaps it is in this sense that God is said to have hardened the heart of Pharaoh, because the substance of his heart was obviously such as to elicit from the Sun of justice not his illumination but his power to harden and to scorch. That no doubt was the reason why this same Pharaoh afflicted the life of the Hebrews with hard work and wore them out with clay and bricks. And certainly the works that he devised came from a heart as miry and muddy! And as the visible sun contracts and hardens the substance of clay, so with the same rays by which he enlightened the people of Israel and by means of those rays’ same properties the Sun of justice hardened the heart of Pharaoh that harbored muddy devices.

When the children of Israel were in Egypt, they were afflicted with mortar and brick for the works of Pharaoh the king until they cried out in their groaning to the Lord. And he heard their cry and sent his word to them by Moses and led them out of Egypt. When we were also in Egypt, I mean in the errors of this world and in the darkness of ignorance, we then did the works of the devil in lusts and desires of the flesh. But the Lord had pity on our affliction and sent the Word, his only begotten Son, to deliver us from ignorance of our error and to lead us to the light of divine law.

I have already lived through many paschs, which was the fruit of a long life. But now I desire a purer pasch: to depart from this Egypt, the heavy and dark Egypt of this life, and to be freed from the clay and bricks that held us in bondage and to pass over to the land of promise.

We have been led out of Egypt where we were serving the devil as a pharaoh, where we were doing works of clay amid earthly desires, and we were laboring much in them. For Christ cried out to us, as if we were making bricks, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened.” Led out of here, we were led over through baptism as through the Red Sea—red for this reason, because consecrated by the blood of Christ—when all our enemies who were assailing us were dead, that is, when our sins have been wiped out.

The names and number of the children of Israel that went down into Egypt, Exo 1:1-5. Joseph and all his brethren of that generation die, Exo 1:6. The great increase of their posterity, Exo 1:7. The cruel policy of the king of Egypt to destroy them, Exo 1:8-11. They increase greatly, notwithstanding their affliction, Exo 1:12. Account of their hard bondage, Exo 1:13, Exo 1:14. Pharaoh's command to the Hebrew midwives to kill all the male children, Exo 1:15, Exo 1:16. The midwives disobey the king's command, and, on being questioned, vindicate themselves, Exo 1:17-19. God is pleased with their conduct, blesses them, and increases the people, Exo 1:20, Exo 1:21. Pharaoh gives a general command to the Egyptians to drown all the male children of the Hebrews, Exo 1:22.

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, etc. 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 ways to afflict the Israelites; for they enjoined them to cut a great number of channels for the river, and to build walls for their cities and ramparts, that they might restrain the river, and hinder its waters from stagnating upon its overrunning its own banks; they set them also to build pyramids, (πυραμιδας τε ανοικοδομουντες), and wore them out, and forced them to learn all sorts of mechanic arts, and to accustom themselves to hard labor." - Antiq., lib. ii., cap. ix., sec. 1. Philo bears nearly the same testimony, p. 86, Edit. Mangey.

Exodus 1:1 INCREASE OF THE ISRAELITES. (Exo. 1:1-22) Now these are the names--(See Gen. 46:8-26).

Increase in the Number of the IsraelitesTheir Bondage in Egypt - Exodus 1 The promise which God gave to Jacob in his departure from Canaan (Gen 46:3) was perfectly fulfilled. The children of Israel settled down in the most fruitful province of the fertile land of Egypt, and grew there into a great nation (Exo 1:1-7). But the words which the Lord had spoken to Abram (Gen 15:13) were also fulfilled in relation to his seed in Egypt. The children of Israel were oppressed in a strange land, were compelled to serve the Egyptians (Exo 1:8-14), and were in great danger of being entirely crushed by them (Exo 1:15-22).