EXODUS
CHAPTER 1
The children of Israel multiply—They are placed in bondage by Egyptians—Pharaoh seeks to destroy sons born to Hebrew women.
[ Why does the Lord deal with Egypt and Israel in such a
manner as He does in these chapters? Why is he striking Egypt
with plagues, and working to get Israel out in such a circuitous
manner. Why didn't he just do the last plague first and be done
with it? And, why free Israel without imposing any conditions
upon them at all? All through the Book of Mormon, the release
from captivity is always presented as conditional upon their
righteousness, what is different here?
First, why free Israel? Throughout these chapters the Lord
doesn't require anything of Israel in exchange for their freedom.
No conditions are imposed upon them at all. He never says, "If
you are righteous and you worship Me, then I will set you free
from Egypt" as is so common in the Book of Mormon. He simply
goes about doing it. The reason He does it in this manner is
because of the Abrahamic Covenant (cf. 3:17, 6:4-5). The Lord
had already promised Abraham long before that He would deliver
them from bondage (Gen. 15:13-14), so the Lord is simply keeping
His word. It is not until they are in the wilderness at Sinai
that God forces Israel into a covenant relationship where things
become conditional. Up until that point, everything occurring is
simply the Lord keeping his word to Abraham, and after that point
everything becomes conditional.
Next, why is the Lord striking Egypt in such a manner? To
answer this question a review of the Joseph in Egypt account is
necessary. There the reader is informed the Egyptians are
cultural elitists. They disdain foreigners in general as they
are considered unclean, and Hebrews are particularly abhorrent
(cf. Gen. 43:32). They are disgusted by shepherds in specific
because they eat sheep, which the Egyptians considered taboo (cf.
Gen. 46:34). The pride of Egypt is so infamous it becomes a
rhetorical figure epitomizing human pride used extensively by the
Prophets (cf. Isa. 19, Isa. 51:9-11, Ezek. 29-32). We also know
from history the Egyptians considered Pharaoh to be a god (cp.
12:12), no mere mortal. We see this incredible arrogance
manifested when Moses confronts Pharaoh for the first time and he
spouts, "Who is the Lord that I should know him?" (cf. 5:2).
What Pharaoh is saying is "Everyone knows who I am, but your god
does not exist, so why should I bother with your request?"
Everett Fox, in the Schocken Bible, offers a colloquial rendering
of the phrase to mean "I care not one whit for YHWH!" In
retaliation for this kind of defamation the Lord strikes this
prideful nation to show that He is the true God (cf. 14:4, Ezek.
29:6) and Pharaoh is nothing but an arrogant fool. The repeated
miracles are designed to overtly prove the Lord is God, and not
Pharaoh, in the eyes of all of Israel as well as Egypt. The
final plague is especially humbling because the firstborn of the
1.1
Egyptians is treated the same as the firstborn of the cattle,
while the Israelites are spared altogether. This is a blatant
attack on the Egyptian superiority complex.
Also, consider the whole slavery and rebellion issue
revolves around bricks. The Israelites are commanded to build
bricks for the Egyptians. What are bricks symbols of according
to Gen. 11:1-9? They are symbols of man's hubris. And the
Egyptians are even worse than the Babylonians because they are
enslaving others to make their bricks and do their construction.
And finally, why these series of miracles and plagues
culminating in the Passover? In 4:29-31 we see Moses working
miracles in the eyes of the elders of Israel. They are initially
impressed and have confidence in them, but their confidence wanes
quickly enough when the going gets bad. Their belief in signs is
transient, fleeting in the face of opposition. The same sort of
thing happens with Pharaoh. He witnesses numerous miracles and
is somewhat persuaded, but he refuses to grant Moses' complete
request. Rather, he attempts to make incremental concessions,
all of which Moses rejects. It is not until the Passover, a
massive sign with broad lethal and humiliating effects, that both
Pharaoh and the Egyptians in general are sufficiently humbled
such that they permit the Israelites to depart.
The series of signs presented are designed to show mankind
positive or relatively harmless signs are of no efficacy in
promoting substantive faith. Only overwhelming and devastating
signs are the kind that force people into humility and therefore
to have any kind of lasting faith. Consider Alma 32, where the
discussion suggests some few will have faith regardless of
circumstances (i.e., signs or no), but some must be compelled to
be humble (i.e., signs with serious adversity), and some even
despite being compelled still neglect the belief growing in them
when adversity ceases.]
1 N
OW these
are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.
2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
4 Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
5 And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were
seventy souls:
[ See Gen 46:8-27. ] for Joseph was in Egypt already.
[ He was sold there by his brothers. ]
6
And Joseph died, and all his brethren, [ Joseph is dead, all of his brother's have passed on so it is the next genration that is in charge now. ] and all that generation.
7 ¶
And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly,
[ This was part of the Abrahamic covenant promised them being fulfilled. ] and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.
[ The twelve son's of Israel (Jacob) are named. 11 plus Joseph who was already there. ]
8 Now there arose up a new king over Egypt,
which knew not Joseph.
[ The new King does not care what Joseph did or did not do for the Egyptians he is dealing with the fear that is here and nnow - they are being taken over so to speak and that is a major problem to them. If we go back to Gen 15 we see that Abraham was speaking of the covenant and was told that for 400 years his people would be strangers in a strange land. Then in the 4th generation that they would finally be able to return to the land of promise. We get a glimpse here again of the hand of God in all of this. This new Pharaoh was not one that would have appreciated Joseph or his kind or beliefs. So Joseph was placed in the timeline when it was possible for him to do what he could do. God did not violate any agency, but he knew how men would act and used that to fulfill his purposes. ]
9 And he said unto his people,
Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we:
[ Why would this be of concern? Well a couple of things start to happen when youbecome the minority. The laws start to change away from you being the protected class; certainly in the case of division of the people (an internal war) you would be at a disadvantage. So seeing this trend they need to do something right away. See vs 11. ]
10
Come on, l [ Come on man, why are we letting these Hebrew's infest our land in the first place. ] let us deal wisely with them;
lest they multiply, [ If we are not careful they will take over and we will be working for them. They will control the government. This Pharaoh has forgotten that there would have been no Egypt if not for one of these named Joseph. ] and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war,
they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, [ well do you think there is a way around that? Maybe treat them good, treat them like real citizens and they will be loyal. However he takes another approach one that becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. The Pharaoh had a choice he did not choose wisely. By making them enemies already. ] and
so get them up out of the land.
11
Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens.
[ Need to show them who is boss sooner rather than later as later may be too late. Note that there is not even a hint of inter racial marring with them, so that they become one people. This in a way is a direct result that the leaders of the government do not know the Israelite God. So they make assumptions that will later cause them trouble. ] And they
built for Pharaoh treasure cities, [ One Pharaoh works toward feeding them the other to police and control them for their man power. ] Pithom and Raamses. [ Pithom is one of the cities which, was built for the Pharaoh of the oppression by the forced labor of the Israelites. The other city was Ramses; and the Septuagint adds a third, "On, which is Heliopolis." These cities are called by a Hebrew term rendered in the Authorized Version "treasure cities" and in the Revised Version "store cities." The Septuagint renders it πόλεις ὀχυραί "strong [or "fortified"] cities." The same term is used of certain cities of King solomon in I Kings 9:19 (comp. also II Chronicles 16:4). ]
12
But the more they [ The Egyptians. ] afflicted them,
[ The Israelites. Affiction only makes people want to rebell by nature. The heavier the burden it only makes people stronger. ] the more they multiplied and grew.
[ Adversity makes us strong. This because the Lord promised to prosper them. At this time there were no conditions of righteousiness associated with blessings from the Lord. The covenat was with Abraham that he would just bless and prosper them - period - it was not based on any condition. ] And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.
[ This has to put more fear into the Egyptians - no matter what we do they continue to grow at a faster rate than we do. ]
13 And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to
serve with rigour:
[ This will only strengthen them. ]
14
And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage,
[ As predicted in Gen 15:14. ] in morter,
and in brick,
[ Consider the whole slavery and rebellion issue revolves around bricks. The Israelites are commanded to build bricks for the Egyptians. What are bricks symbols of according to Gen. 11:1-9? They are symbols of man's pride and arrogance. And the Egyptians are even worse than the Babylonians because they are enslaving others to make their bricks and do their construction. ] and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve,
was with rigour.
15 ¶ And
the king of Egypt [ Look, he is un-named. The most powerful king of Egypt, the one that drives the children of Israel to leave we are not even told his name. Kind of symbolic. However; we are taught the names of these two Hebrew women. ] spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one
was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah:
16 And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see
them upon the stools; [ Giving birth. ] if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.
[ So since we cannot stop how fast they are growing in numbers let us take action into our own hands - kill all of the first born sons. ]
17 But
the midwives feared God, [ They reverenced God more than they were afraid of the King. ] and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.
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?
19 And the midwives said unto
Pharaoh, [ The word Pharaoh is an Egyptian word Pharaoh, which literally means great house, signifying the royal palace. It's the great house where the great man lives in. So that's the connection between the Egyptian word and Pharaoh himself. ] Because the Hebrew women
are not as the Egyptian women;
for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them.
[ The midwifes fear God more than the Pharaoh so they tell little lies which are that the children are born before they get there. Their excuse is that they cannot get there in time, the Hebrew women are different. So why did the Pharaoh not just kill all of the mid-wives for not obeying at any cost? Could it be that because the Egyptians have become the upper class elites of this society, with the Hebrews performing all of the menial labor and mundane services. This would include the midwives as v. 19 suggests they service both the Hebrews and the Egyptians. so, if Pharaoh were to execute the Hebrew midwives there wouldn't be anyone to assist the Egyptian women.
This kind of social scheme would explain why the Egyptians were disgusted with the Hebrews and found them repellant, but still wanted them around. The Egyptians had them doing all of their dirty work. It also explains why Pharaoh didn't just expel the Hebrews when they became a political and military threat to him. No, he would rather keep only the women around, whom he can easily subject to labors through physical coercion and who would not pose a serious internal military threat. ]
20
Therefore God [ Who again is in control. ] dealt well with the midwives:
and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty.
[ Again the covenant blessings being fulfilled. ]
21 And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.
22
And Pharaoh charged all his people, [ The Pharaoh calls on everyone since the midwives seem to be foiling his plans. ] saying,
Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.
[ This verse explains how Moses ended up floating down the Nile river. The basket that he was placed in was his Mothers way of keeping the command to cast him into the river, all while disobeying it in principle and giving her son a chance to live. We learn of the names of Moses parents in Ex 6:20. ]