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Israel
New American Standard Bible
Exodus 1:1
Now these are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; they came each one with his household:
Exodus 1:2
Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah;
Exodus 1:3
Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin;
Exodus 1:4
Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
Exodus 1:5
All the persons who came from the loins of Jacob were seventy in number, but Joseph was already in Egypt.
Exodus 1:6
Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation.
Exodus 1:7
But the sons of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly, and multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty, so that the land was filled with them.
Exodus 1:8
Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
Exodus 1:9
He said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we.
Exodus 1:10
Come, let us deal wisely with them, or else they will multiply and in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land.”
Exodus 1:11
So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor. And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses.
Exodus 1:12
But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel.
Exodus 1:13
The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously;
Exodus 1:14
and they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them.
Exodus 1:15
Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other was named Puah;
Exodus 1:16
and he said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”
Exodus 1:17
But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live.
Exodus 1:18
So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and let the boys live?”
Exodus 1:19
The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.”
Exodus 1:20
So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied, and became very mighty.
Exodus 1:21
Because the midwives feared God, He established households for them.
Exodus 1:22
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive.”
Cross References
Exodus 1:1: Genesis 46:8-27; Exodus 1:5: Genesis 46:26, 27; Deuteronomy 10:22; Exodus 1:6: Genesis 50:26; Exodus 1:7: Genesis 12:2; 28:3; 35:11; 46:3; 47:27; 48:4; Deuteronomy 26:5; Psalm 105:24; Acts 7:17; Exodus 1:8: Acts 7:18, 19; Exodus 1:9: Psalm 105:24, 25; Exodus 1:10: Acts 7:19; Exodus 1:11: Genesis 15:13; Exodus 3:7; 5:6; Exodus 1:14; 2:11; 5:4-9; 6:6; 1 Kings 9:19; 2 Chronicles 8:4; Genesis 47:11; Exodus 1:12: Exodus 1:7; Exodus 1:13: Genesis 15:13; Deuteronomy 4:20; Exodus 1:14: Exodus 2:23; 6:9; Numbers 20:15; Acts 7:19; Exodus 1:16: Acts 7:19; Exodus 1:17: Exodus 1:21; Proverbs 16:6; Acts 4:18-20; 5:29; Exodus 1:20: Proverbs 11:18; Ecclesiastes 8:12; Hebrews 6:10; Exodus 1:12; Isaiah 3:10; Exodus 1:21: Exodus 1:17; 1 Samuel 2:35; 2 Samuel 7:11, 27; 1 Kings 2:24; 11:38; Exodus 1:22: Acts 7:19; Genesis 41:1
Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Asher
Jacob's eight son; his mother was Zilpah, Leah's handmaid. Of the tribe founded by him nothing is recorded beyond its holding a place in the list of the tribes. It increased in numbers 29 percent during the 38 years of wanderings.
The place of this tribe during the march through the desert was between Dan and Naphtali. The boundaries of the inheritance given to it, which contained some of the richest soil in Palestine and the names of its towns.
Asher and Simeon were the only tribes west of the Jordan that furnished no hero or judge for the nation. Anna the prophetess was of this tribe.
Bitter
Bitterness is symbolical of affliction, misery, and servitude. The Chaldeans are called the bitter and hasty nation. The gall of bitterness expresses a state of great wickedness. A root of bitterness is a wicked person or a dangerous sin.
The Passover was to be eaten with "bitter herbs". The kind of herbs so designated is not known. Probably they were any bitter herbs obtainable at the place and time when the Passover was celebrated.
They represented the severity of the servitude under which the people groaned; and have been regarded also as typical of the sufferings of Christ.
Bricks
Making of, formed the chief labor of the Israelites in Egypt. Those found among the ruins of Babylon and Nineveh are about a foot square and four inches thick. They were usually dried in the sun, though also sometimes in kilns.
City
The earliest mention of city building is that of Enoch was built by Cain. After the confusion of tongues, the descendants of Nimrod founded several cities.
The earliest description of a city is that of Sodom. Damascus is said to be the oldest existing city in the world. Before the time of Abraham there were cities in Egypt.
The Israelites in Egypt were employed in building the treasure cities but it does not seem that they had any cities of their own in Goshen.
In the kingdom of Og in Bashan there were 60 great cities with walls and 23 cities rebuilt by the tribes on the east of Jordan. On the west of Jordan were 31 royal cities besides many others spoken of in the history of Israel.
A fenced city was a city surrounded by fortifications and high walls with watchtowers upon them. There was also within the city generally a tower to which the citizens might flee when danger threatened them.
A city with suburbs was a city surrounded with open pasture-grounds, such as the 48 cities that were given to the Levites. There were six cities of refuge, three on each side of Jordan. The cities on each side of the river were nearly opposite each other.
When David reduced the fortress of the Jebusites that stood on Mount Zion he built on the site of it a palace and a city. He called by his own name the city of David.
Bethlehem is also so called as being David's native town. Jerusalem is called the Holy City, the holiness of the temple being regarded as extending in some measure over the whole city.
Built by the Israelites as treasure cities were not places where royal treasures were kept but were fortified towns where merchants might store their goods and transact their business in safety or cities in which ammunitions of war were stored.
Egypt
Land of the Nile and the pyramids is the oldest kingdom of which we have any record holds a place of great significance in Scripture.
The Egyptians belonged to the white race and their original home is still a matter of dispute. Many scholars believe that it was in Southern Arabia and recent excavations have shown the valley of the Nile originally inhabited by a low class population before the Egyptians of history entered it.
The ancient Egyptian language of which the latest form is Coptic distantly connected with the Semitic family of speech.
Egypt consists geographically of two halves, the northern being the Delta and the southern Upper Egypt between Cairo and the First Cataract.
In the Old Testament, Northern or Lower Egypt is the fortified land while Southern or Upper Egypt is the land of the south.
The civilization of Egypt goes back to a very remote antiquity. North and south kingdoms united by the founder of the first historical dynasty of kings. The first six dynasties constitute what is known as the Old Empire had its capital at Memphis, south of Cairo. The native name was the good place.
The Pyramids were tombs of the monarchs of the Old Empire being erected in the time of the Fourth Dynasty. After the fall of the Old Empire came decline and obscurity.
The Middle Empire followed and the most powerful dynasty of which was the 12th. Rescued for agriculture by the kings of the 12th Dynasty and two obelisks were erected in front of the temple of the sun god at On. The capital of the Middle Empire was in Upper Egypt.
Exodus
The great deliverance wrought for the children of Israel when they were brought out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, about 1490 BC, and 480 years before the building of Solomon's temple.
The time of their sojourning in Egypt was the space of 430 years. The sojourning of the children of Israel which they sojourned in Egypt and in the land of Canaan was 430 years; and the Samaritan version reads the sojourning of the children of Israel and of their fathers which they sojourned in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt was 430 years.
The period is prophetically given as 400 years. This passage is quoted by Stephen in his defense before the council. The chronology of the sojourning is variously estimated. Those who adopt the longer term reckon in years.
From the descent of Jacob into Egypt to the death of Joseph was 71 years. From the death of Joseph to the birth of Moses was 278 years.
From the birth of Moses to his flight into Midian was 40 years. From the flight of Moses to his return into Egypt was 40 years. From the return of Moses to the Exodus 1 was 430 years.
Others contend for the shorter period of 215 years, holding that the period of four hundred and thirty years comprehends the years from the entrance of Abraham into Canaan to the descent of Jacob into Egypt. They reckon this in years.
From Abraham's arrival in Canaan to Isaac's birth was 25. From Isaac's birth to that of his twin sons Esau and Jacob was 60 years. From Jacob's birth to the going down into Egypt 130 was 215 years.
From Jacob's going down into Egypt to the death of Joseph was 71 years. From death of Joseph to the birth of Moses was 64 years. From birth of Moses to the Exodus was 80 years.
During the 40 years of Moses' sojourn in the land of Midian, the Hebrews in Egypt were being gradually prepared for the great national crisis which was approaching.
The plagues that successively fell upon the land loosened the bonds by which Pharaoh held them in slavery, and at length he was eager that they should depart. But the Hebrews must now also be ready to go. They were poor; for generations they had laboured for the Egyptians without wages.
They asked gifts from their neighbors around them, and these were readily bestowed. And then, as the first step towards their independent national organization, they observed the feast of the Passover, which was now instituted as a perpetual memorial.
The blood of the paschal lamb was duly sprinkled on the door-posts and lintels of all their houses, and they were all within, waiting the next movement in the working out of God's plan. At length the last stroke fell on the land of Egypt. It came to pass, that at midnight Jehovah smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt.
Pharaoh rose up in the night, and called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve Jehovah, as ye have said.
Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also." Thus was Pharaoh completely humbled and broken down.
These words he spoke to Moses and Aaron seem to gleam through the tears of the humbled king, as he lamented his son snatched from him by so sudden a death, and tremble with a sense of the helplessness which his proud soul at last felt when the avenging hand of God had visited even his palace. The terror stricken Egyptians now urged the instant departure of the Hebrews.
In the midst of the Passover feast, before the dawn of the 15th day of the month Abib, which was to be to them henceforth the beginning of the year, as it was the commencement of a new epoch in their history, every family, with all that appertained to it, was ready for the march, which instantly began under the leadership of the heads of tribes with their various sub-divisions.
They moved onward, increasing as they went forward from all the districts of Goshen, over the whole of which they were scattered, to the common centre. Three or four days perhaps elapsed before the whole body of the people were assembled at Rameses, and ready to set out under their leader Moses.
This city was at that time the residence of the Egyptian court, and here the interviews between Moses and Pharaoh had taken place. From Rameses they journeyed to Succoth, identified with Tel-el-Maskhuta, about 12 miles west of Ismailia.
Governor
Hebrew nagid, a prominent, conspicuous person, whatever his capacity: as, chief of the royal palace, chief of the temple, the leader of the Aaronites, keeper of the sacred treasury, captain of the army, the king, the Messiah. Hebrew nasi, raised; exalted. Used to denote the chiefs of families; also of tribes.
These dignities appear to have been elective, not hereditary. Hebrew pakid, an officer or magistrate. It is used of the delegate of the high priest, the Levites, a military commander, Joseph's officers in Egypt.
Hebrew shallit, one who has power, who rules. Hebrew aluph, literally one put over a thousand, a clan or a subdivision of a tribe. Used of the dukes of Edom, and of the Jewish chiefs.
Hebrew moshel, one who rules, holds dominion. Used of many classes of rulers; of the Messiah; of God. Hebrew sar, a ruler or chief; a word of very general use. It is used of the chief baker of Pharaoh; of the chief butler. It is used also of angels, guardian angels.
Pehah, friend of the king; adjutant; governor of a province, or a perfect. This is a foreign word, Assyrian, which was early adopted into the Hebrew idiom. The Chaldean word is applied to the governors of the Babylonian satrapies; the prefects over the Magi.
The corresponding Hebrew word is used of provincial rulers; also of chiefs and rulers of the people of Jerusalem. Meaning an ethnarch, which was an office distinct from military command, with considerable latitude of application.
The procurator of Judea under the Romans. Steward. Governor of the feast, who appears here to have been merely an intimate friend of the bridegroom, and to have presided at the marriage banquet in his stead. A director, helmsman; Latin gubernator.
Hebrew
A name applied to the Israelites in Scripture only by one who is a foreigner or by the Israelites when they speak of themselves to foreigners or when spoken of an contrasted with other peoples. In the New Testament there is the same contrast between Hebrews and foreigners.
The name is derived from Eber the ancestor of Abraham. The Hebrew are sons of Eber. Others trace the name of a Hebrew root word signifying to pass over and regard it as meaning the man who passed over the Euphrates or to the Hebrew word meaning the region or country beyond the land of Chaldea.
It is the more probable origin of the designation given to Abraham coming among the Canaanites as a man from beyond the Euphrates. Hebrew word to pass over in the sense of a sojourner or passer through as distinct from a settler in the land and applies to the condition of Abraham .
Jacob
One who follows on another's heels the second born of the twin sons of Isaac by Rebekah. He was born probably at when his father was 59 and Abraham was 159 years old.
Like his father he was of a quiet and gentle disposition and when he grew up followed the life of a shepherd while his brother Esau became an enterprising hunter. His dealing with Esau means selfishness and cunning.
When Isaac was about 160 years of age Jacob and his mother conspired to deceive the aged patriarch with the view of procuring the transfer of the birthright to himself.
The birthright secured to him who possessed it superior rank in his family a double portion of the paternal inheritance the priestly office in the family and the promise of the Seed in which all nations of the earth were to be blessed.
Soon after his acquisition of his father's blessing Jacob became conscious of his guilt and afraid of the anger of Esau, Isaac sent him away, 400 miles or more, to find a wife among his cousins. Laban would not consent to give him his daughter in marriage till he had served seven years; but to Jacob these years "seemed but a few days, for the love he had to her.
But when the seven years were expired, Laban craftily deceived Jacob and gave him his daughter Leah. Other seven years of service had to be completed probably before he obtained the beloved Rachel. But lifelong sorrow disgrace, and trials in the retributive providence of God, followed as a consequence of this double union.
At the close of the fourteen years of service Jacob desired to return to his parents but at the entreaty of Laban he tarried yet six years with him tending his flocks. He then set out with his family and property to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.
Laban was angry when he heard that Jacob had set out on his journey and pursued after him overtaking him in seven days. The meeting was of a painful kind.
After much recrimination and reproach directed against Jacob, Laban is at length pacified and taking an affectionate farewell of his daughters returns to his home in and now all connection of the Israelites with Mesopotamia.
Tribe of Judah
Judah and his three surviving sons went down with Jacob into Egypt. At the time of the Exodus when we meet with the family of Judah again they have increased to the number of 74,000 males. Its number increased in the wilderness.
Caleb represented the tribe as one of the spies. This tribe marched at the van on the east of the tabernacle. Under Caleb during the wars of conquest they conquered the portion that assigned to them as their inheritance. This was the only case in which any tribe had its inheritance thus determined.
The inheritance of the tribe of Judah was at first fully one third of the whole country west of Jordan about 2,300 square miles But there was a second distribution when Simeon received an allotment about 1,000 square miles out of the portion of Judah. That which remained to Judah was still very large in proportion to the inheritance of the other tribes.
Lie
It’s the intentional violation of the truth. Lies are emphatically condemned in Scripture. Mention is made of the lies told by good men as by Abraham, Jacob, Hebrew midwives, and David.
Mason
An artisan with stone specially skilled in architecture. This art the Hebrews no doubt learned in Egypt where ruins of temples and palaces.
Midwife
The two midwives were probably the superintendents of the whole class.
Mortar
Cement of lime and sand is also potter's clay. Dust clay or mud used for cement in building. Pulverizing grain or other substances by a pestle instead of a mill. Mortars were used in the wilderness for pounding the manna. It is commonly used in Palestine at the present day to pound wheat from which the Arabs make a favorite dish called kibby.
Moses
On the invitation of Pharaoh, Jacob and his sons went down into Egypt. This immigration took place probably about 350 years before the birth of Moses. Some centuries before Joseph, Egypt was conquered by a pastoral Semitic race from Asia.
They brought into cruel subjection the native Egyptians who were an African race. Jacob was accustomed to a shepherd's life and on their arrival in Egypt were received with favor by the king who assigned them the best of the land.
The shepherd king who showed favor to Joseph and his family was the Pharaoh. Thus favored the Israelites began to multiply exceedingly and extended to the west and south. The descendants of Jacob were allowed to retain their possession of Goshen undisturbed but after the death of Joseph their position was not so favorable.
The Egyptians began to despise them and the period of their affliction commenced and they were sorely oppressed. They continued to increase in numbers and the land was filled with them. The native Egyptians regarded them with suspicion so that they felt all the hardship of a struggle for existence. In the process of time a king arose who knew not Joseph.
Nile
Dark blue and not found in Scripture but frequently referred to in the Old Testament under the name of Sihor the black stream or simply the river and the flood of Egypt. It consists of two rivers, the white Nile and blue Nile. These unite and pursue a course for 1,800 miles and falls into the Mediterranean through its two branches into which it is divided a few miles north of Cairo.
Pithom
Egyptian, Pa-Tum, house of Tum, the sun god, one of the treasure cities built for Pharaoh Rameses II. by the Israelites. It was probably the Patumos of the Greek historian Herodotus. It has now been satisfactorily identified with Tell-el-Maskhuta, about 12 miles west of Ismailia, and 20 east of Tel-el-Kebir, on the southern bank of the present Suez Canal. Here have recently been discovered the ruins of supposed grain chambers, and other evidences to show that this was a great store city.
Its immense ruin-heaps show that it was built of bricks, and partly also of bricks without straw. Succoth is supposed by some to be the secular name of this city, Pithom being its sacred name. This was the first halting place of the Israelites in their exodus.
It has been argued that these store cities were residence cities, royal dwellings, such as the Pharaohs of old, the Kings of Israel, and our modern Khedives have ever loved to build, thus giving employment to the superabundant muscle of their enslaved peoples, and making a name for themselves.
Puah
Splendid. One of the two midwives who feared God, and refused to kill the Hebrew male children at their birth. A descendant of Issachar.
Rameses
The land of, was probably the land of Goshen. After the Hebrews had built Rameses, one of the treasure cities, it came to be known as the land in which that city was built. The city bearing this name was probably identical with Zoan, which Rameses II rebuilt. It became his special residence, and ranked next in importance and magnificence to Thebes.
Huge masses of bricks, made of Nile mud, sun dried, some of them mixed with stubble, possibly moulded by Jewish hands, still mark the site of Rameses. This was the general rendezvous of the Israelites before they began their march out of Egypt. Called also Raamses.
Shiphrah
Beauty, one of the Egyptian midwives.
Solomon's Temple
Before his death David had with all his might provided materials in great abundance for the building of the temple on the summit of Mount Moriah on the east of the city on the spot where Abraham had offered up Isaac. In the beginning of his reign Solomon set about giving effect to the desire that had been so earnestly cherished by his father and prepared additional materials for the building. From subterranean quarries at Jerusalem he obtained huge blocks of stone for the foundations and walls of the temple. These stones were prepared for their places in the building under the eye of master builders.
Treasure Cities
Store cities which the Israelites built for the Egyptians.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
During more than 200 years while Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived at liberty the Hebrews increased slowly only about seventy persons went down into Egypt. In about the same number of years though under cruel bondage they became a large nation.
This wonderful increase was according to the promise long before made to the fathers. The performance of God's promises is sometimes slow but sure. 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 and 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 labor of love. The offense 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. It makes a man fear where no fear is.
Flee when no one pursues him and human wisdom often is foolishness and very sinful. God's people had taskmasters set over them not only to burden them but also afflict them with their burdens. They not only made them serve for Pharaoh's profit but so that lives became bitter but the Israelites wonderfully increased.
Christianity spread most when it was persecuted when the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church. They that take counsel against the Lord and his Israel do but imagine a vain thing and create greater vexation to themselves. 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 Hebrew was now under an uncommon blessing. 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.
Exodus 1:1
Now these are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; they came each one with his household:
Exodus 1:2
Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah;
Exodus 1:3
Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin;
Exodus 1:4
Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
Exodus 1:5
All the persons who came from the loins of Jacob were seventy in number, but Joseph was already in Egypt.
Exodus 1:6
Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation.
Exodus 1:7
But the sons of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly, and multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty, so that the land was filled with them.
Exodus 1:8
Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
Exodus 1:9
He said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we.
Exodus 1:10
Come, let us deal wisely with them, or else they will multiply and in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land.”
Exodus 1:11
So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor. And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses.
Exodus 1:12
But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel.
Exodus 1:13
The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously;
Exodus 1:14
and they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them.
Exodus 1:15
Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other was named Puah;
Exodus 1:16
and he said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”
Exodus 1:17
But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live.
Exodus 1:18
So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and let the boys live?”
Exodus 1:19
The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.”
Exodus 1:20
So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied, and became very mighty.
Exodus 1:21
Because the midwives feared God, He established households for them.
Exodus 1:22
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive.”
Cross References
Exodus 1:1: Genesis 46:8-27; Exodus 1:5: Genesis 46:26, 27; Deuteronomy 10:22; Exodus 1:6: Genesis 50:26; Exodus 1:7: Genesis 12:2; 28:3; 35:11; 46:3; 47:27; 48:4; Deuteronomy 26:5; Psalm 105:24; Acts 7:17; Exodus 1:8: Acts 7:18, 19; Exodus 1:9: Psalm 105:24, 25; Exodus 1:10: Acts 7:19; Exodus 1:11: Genesis 15:13; Exodus 3:7; 5:6; Exodus 1:14; 2:11; 5:4-9; 6:6; 1 Kings 9:19; 2 Chronicles 8:4; Genesis 47:11; Exodus 1:12: Exodus 1:7; Exodus 1:13: Genesis 15:13; Deuteronomy 4:20; Exodus 1:14: Exodus 2:23; 6:9; Numbers 20:15; Acts 7:19; Exodus 1:16: Acts 7:19; Exodus 1:17: Exodus 1:21; Proverbs 16:6; Acts 4:18-20; 5:29; Exodus 1:20: Proverbs 11:18; Ecclesiastes 8:12; Hebrews 6:10; Exodus 1:12; Isaiah 3:10; Exodus 1:21: Exodus 1:17; 1 Samuel 2:35; 2 Samuel 7:11, 27; 1 Kings 2:24; 11:38; Exodus 1:22: Acts 7:19; Genesis 41:1
Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Asher
Jacob's eight son; his mother was Zilpah, Leah's handmaid. Of the tribe founded by him nothing is recorded beyond its holding a place in the list of the tribes. It increased in numbers 29 percent during the 38 years of wanderings.
The place of this tribe during the march through the desert was between Dan and Naphtali. The boundaries of the inheritance given to it, which contained some of the richest soil in Palestine and the names of its towns.
Asher and Simeon were the only tribes west of the Jordan that furnished no hero or judge for the nation. Anna the prophetess was of this tribe.
Bitter
Bitterness is symbolical of affliction, misery, and servitude. The Chaldeans are called the bitter and hasty nation. The gall of bitterness expresses a state of great wickedness. A root of bitterness is a wicked person or a dangerous sin.
The Passover was to be eaten with "bitter herbs". The kind of herbs so designated is not known. Probably they were any bitter herbs obtainable at the place and time when the Passover was celebrated.
They represented the severity of the servitude under which the people groaned; and have been regarded also as typical of the sufferings of Christ.
Bricks
Making of, formed the chief labor of the Israelites in Egypt. Those found among the ruins of Babylon and Nineveh are about a foot square and four inches thick. They were usually dried in the sun, though also sometimes in kilns.
City
The earliest mention of city building is that of Enoch was built by Cain. After the confusion of tongues, the descendants of Nimrod founded several cities.
The earliest description of a city is that of Sodom. Damascus is said to be the oldest existing city in the world. Before the time of Abraham there were cities in Egypt.
The Israelites in Egypt were employed in building the treasure cities but it does not seem that they had any cities of their own in Goshen.
In the kingdom of Og in Bashan there were 60 great cities with walls and 23 cities rebuilt by the tribes on the east of Jordan. On the west of Jordan were 31 royal cities besides many others spoken of in the history of Israel.
A fenced city was a city surrounded by fortifications and high walls with watchtowers upon them. There was also within the city generally a tower to which the citizens might flee when danger threatened them.
A city with suburbs was a city surrounded with open pasture-grounds, such as the 48 cities that were given to the Levites. There were six cities of refuge, three on each side of Jordan. The cities on each side of the river were nearly opposite each other.
When David reduced the fortress of the Jebusites that stood on Mount Zion he built on the site of it a palace and a city. He called by his own name the city of David.
Bethlehem is also so called as being David's native town. Jerusalem is called the Holy City, the holiness of the temple being regarded as extending in some measure over the whole city.
Built by the Israelites as treasure cities were not places where royal treasures were kept but were fortified towns where merchants might store their goods and transact their business in safety or cities in which ammunitions of war were stored.
Egypt
Land of the Nile and the pyramids is the oldest kingdom of which we have any record holds a place of great significance in Scripture.
The Egyptians belonged to the white race and their original home is still a matter of dispute. Many scholars believe that it was in Southern Arabia and recent excavations have shown the valley of the Nile originally inhabited by a low class population before the Egyptians of history entered it.
The ancient Egyptian language of which the latest form is Coptic distantly connected with the Semitic family of speech.
Egypt consists geographically of two halves, the northern being the Delta and the southern Upper Egypt between Cairo and the First Cataract.
In the Old Testament, Northern or Lower Egypt is the fortified land while Southern or Upper Egypt is the land of the south.
The civilization of Egypt goes back to a very remote antiquity. North and south kingdoms united by the founder of the first historical dynasty of kings. The first six dynasties constitute what is known as the Old Empire had its capital at Memphis, south of Cairo. The native name was the good place.
The Pyramids were tombs of the monarchs of the Old Empire being erected in the time of the Fourth Dynasty. After the fall of the Old Empire came decline and obscurity.
The Middle Empire followed and the most powerful dynasty of which was the 12th. Rescued for agriculture by the kings of the 12th Dynasty and two obelisks were erected in front of the temple of the sun god at On. The capital of the Middle Empire was in Upper Egypt.
Exodus
The great deliverance wrought for the children of Israel when they were brought out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, about 1490 BC, and 480 years before the building of Solomon's temple.
The time of their sojourning in Egypt was the space of 430 years. The sojourning of the children of Israel which they sojourned in Egypt and in the land of Canaan was 430 years; and the Samaritan version reads the sojourning of the children of Israel and of their fathers which they sojourned in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt was 430 years.
The period is prophetically given as 400 years. This passage is quoted by Stephen in his defense before the council. The chronology of the sojourning is variously estimated. Those who adopt the longer term reckon in years.
From the descent of Jacob into Egypt to the death of Joseph was 71 years. From the death of Joseph to the birth of Moses was 278 years.
From the birth of Moses to his flight into Midian was 40 years. From the flight of Moses to his return into Egypt was 40 years. From the return of Moses to the Exodus 1 was 430 years.
Others contend for the shorter period of 215 years, holding that the period of four hundred and thirty years comprehends the years from the entrance of Abraham into Canaan to the descent of Jacob into Egypt. They reckon this in years.
From Abraham's arrival in Canaan to Isaac's birth was 25. From Isaac's birth to that of his twin sons Esau and Jacob was 60 years. From Jacob's birth to the going down into Egypt 130 was 215 years.
From Jacob's going down into Egypt to the death of Joseph was 71 years. From death of Joseph to the birth of Moses was 64 years. From birth of Moses to the Exodus was 80 years.
During the 40 years of Moses' sojourn in the land of Midian, the Hebrews in Egypt were being gradually prepared for the great national crisis which was approaching.
The plagues that successively fell upon the land loosened the bonds by which Pharaoh held them in slavery, and at length he was eager that they should depart. But the Hebrews must now also be ready to go. They were poor; for generations they had laboured for the Egyptians without wages.
They asked gifts from their neighbors around them, and these were readily bestowed. And then, as the first step towards their independent national organization, they observed the feast of the Passover, which was now instituted as a perpetual memorial.
The blood of the paschal lamb was duly sprinkled on the door-posts and lintels of all their houses, and they were all within, waiting the next movement in the working out of God's plan. At length the last stroke fell on the land of Egypt. It came to pass, that at midnight Jehovah smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt.
Pharaoh rose up in the night, and called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve Jehovah, as ye have said.
Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also." Thus was Pharaoh completely humbled and broken down.
These words he spoke to Moses and Aaron seem to gleam through the tears of the humbled king, as he lamented his son snatched from him by so sudden a death, and tremble with a sense of the helplessness which his proud soul at last felt when the avenging hand of God had visited even his palace. The terror stricken Egyptians now urged the instant departure of the Hebrews.
In the midst of the Passover feast, before the dawn of the 15th day of the month Abib, which was to be to them henceforth the beginning of the year, as it was the commencement of a new epoch in their history, every family, with all that appertained to it, was ready for the march, which instantly began under the leadership of the heads of tribes with their various sub-divisions.
They moved onward, increasing as they went forward from all the districts of Goshen, over the whole of which they were scattered, to the common centre. Three or four days perhaps elapsed before the whole body of the people were assembled at Rameses, and ready to set out under their leader Moses.
This city was at that time the residence of the Egyptian court, and here the interviews between Moses and Pharaoh had taken place. From Rameses they journeyed to Succoth, identified with Tel-el-Maskhuta, about 12 miles west of Ismailia.
Governor
Hebrew nagid, a prominent, conspicuous person, whatever his capacity: as, chief of the royal palace, chief of the temple, the leader of the Aaronites, keeper of the sacred treasury, captain of the army, the king, the Messiah. Hebrew nasi, raised; exalted. Used to denote the chiefs of families; also of tribes.
These dignities appear to have been elective, not hereditary. Hebrew pakid, an officer or magistrate. It is used of the delegate of the high priest, the Levites, a military commander, Joseph's officers in Egypt.
Hebrew shallit, one who has power, who rules. Hebrew aluph, literally one put over a thousand, a clan or a subdivision of a tribe. Used of the dukes of Edom, and of the Jewish chiefs.
Hebrew moshel, one who rules, holds dominion. Used of many classes of rulers; of the Messiah; of God. Hebrew sar, a ruler or chief; a word of very general use. It is used of the chief baker of Pharaoh; of the chief butler. It is used also of angels, guardian angels.
Pehah, friend of the king; adjutant; governor of a province, or a perfect. This is a foreign word, Assyrian, which was early adopted into the Hebrew idiom. The Chaldean word is applied to the governors of the Babylonian satrapies; the prefects over the Magi.
The corresponding Hebrew word is used of provincial rulers; also of chiefs and rulers of the people of Jerusalem. Meaning an ethnarch, which was an office distinct from military command, with considerable latitude of application.
The procurator of Judea under the Romans. Steward. Governor of the feast, who appears here to have been merely an intimate friend of the bridegroom, and to have presided at the marriage banquet in his stead. A director, helmsman; Latin gubernator.
Hebrew
A name applied to the Israelites in Scripture only by one who is a foreigner or by the Israelites when they speak of themselves to foreigners or when spoken of an contrasted with other peoples. In the New Testament there is the same contrast between Hebrews and foreigners.
The name is derived from Eber the ancestor of Abraham. The Hebrew are sons of Eber. Others trace the name of a Hebrew root word signifying to pass over and regard it as meaning the man who passed over the Euphrates or to the Hebrew word meaning the region or country beyond the land of Chaldea.
It is the more probable origin of the designation given to Abraham coming among the Canaanites as a man from beyond the Euphrates. Hebrew word to pass over in the sense of a sojourner or passer through as distinct from a settler in the land and applies to the condition of Abraham .
Jacob
One who follows on another's heels the second born of the twin sons of Isaac by Rebekah. He was born probably at when his father was 59 and Abraham was 159 years old.
Like his father he was of a quiet and gentle disposition and when he grew up followed the life of a shepherd while his brother Esau became an enterprising hunter. His dealing with Esau means selfishness and cunning.
When Isaac was about 160 years of age Jacob and his mother conspired to deceive the aged patriarch with the view of procuring the transfer of the birthright to himself.
The birthright secured to him who possessed it superior rank in his family a double portion of the paternal inheritance the priestly office in the family and the promise of the Seed in which all nations of the earth were to be blessed.
Soon after his acquisition of his father's blessing Jacob became conscious of his guilt and afraid of the anger of Esau, Isaac sent him away, 400 miles or more, to find a wife among his cousins. Laban would not consent to give him his daughter in marriage till he had served seven years; but to Jacob these years "seemed but a few days, for the love he had to her.
But when the seven years were expired, Laban craftily deceived Jacob and gave him his daughter Leah. Other seven years of service had to be completed probably before he obtained the beloved Rachel. But lifelong sorrow disgrace, and trials in the retributive providence of God, followed as a consequence of this double union.
At the close of the fourteen years of service Jacob desired to return to his parents but at the entreaty of Laban he tarried yet six years with him tending his flocks. He then set out with his family and property to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.
Laban was angry when he heard that Jacob had set out on his journey and pursued after him overtaking him in seven days. The meeting was of a painful kind.
After much recrimination and reproach directed against Jacob, Laban is at length pacified and taking an affectionate farewell of his daughters returns to his home in and now all connection of the Israelites with Mesopotamia.
Tribe of Judah
Judah and his three surviving sons went down with Jacob into Egypt. At the time of the Exodus when we meet with the family of Judah again they have increased to the number of 74,000 males. Its number increased in the wilderness.
Caleb represented the tribe as one of the spies. This tribe marched at the van on the east of the tabernacle. Under Caleb during the wars of conquest they conquered the portion that assigned to them as their inheritance. This was the only case in which any tribe had its inheritance thus determined.
The inheritance of the tribe of Judah was at first fully one third of the whole country west of Jordan about 2,300 square miles But there was a second distribution when Simeon received an allotment about 1,000 square miles out of the portion of Judah. That which remained to Judah was still very large in proportion to the inheritance of the other tribes.
Lie
It’s the intentional violation of the truth. Lies are emphatically condemned in Scripture. Mention is made of the lies told by good men as by Abraham, Jacob, Hebrew midwives, and David.
Mason
An artisan with stone specially skilled in architecture. This art the Hebrews no doubt learned in Egypt where ruins of temples and palaces.
Midwife
The two midwives were probably the superintendents of the whole class.
Mortar
Cement of lime and sand is also potter's clay. Dust clay or mud used for cement in building. Pulverizing grain or other substances by a pestle instead of a mill. Mortars were used in the wilderness for pounding the manna. It is commonly used in Palestine at the present day to pound wheat from which the Arabs make a favorite dish called kibby.
Moses
On the invitation of Pharaoh, Jacob and his sons went down into Egypt. This immigration took place probably about 350 years before the birth of Moses. Some centuries before Joseph, Egypt was conquered by a pastoral Semitic race from Asia.
They brought into cruel subjection the native Egyptians who were an African race. Jacob was accustomed to a shepherd's life and on their arrival in Egypt were received with favor by the king who assigned them the best of the land.
The shepherd king who showed favor to Joseph and his family was the Pharaoh. Thus favored the Israelites began to multiply exceedingly and extended to the west and south. The descendants of Jacob were allowed to retain their possession of Goshen undisturbed but after the death of Joseph their position was not so favorable.
The Egyptians began to despise them and the period of their affliction commenced and they were sorely oppressed. They continued to increase in numbers and the land was filled with them. The native Egyptians regarded them with suspicion so that they felt all the hardship of a struggle for existence. In the process of time a king arose who knew not Joseph.
Nile
Dark blue and not found in Scripture but frequently referred to in the Old Testament under the name of Sihor the black stream or simply the river and the flood of Egypt. It consists of two rivers, the white Nile and blue Nile. These unite and pursue a course for 1,800 miles and falls into the Mediterranean through its two branches into which it is divided a few miles north of Cairo.
Pithom
Egyptian, Pa-Tum, house of Tum, the sun god, one of the treasure cities built for Pharaoh Rameses II. by the Israelites. It was probably the Patumos of the Greek historian Herodotus. It has now been satisfactorily identified with Tell-el-Maskhuta, about 12 miles west of Ismailia, and 20 east of Tel-el-Kebir, on the southern bank of the present Suez Canal. Here have recently been discovered the ruins of supposed grain chambers, and other evidences to show that this was a great store city.
Its immense ruin-heaps show that it was built of bricks, and partly also of bricks without straw. Succoth is supposed by some to be the secular name of this city, Pithom being its sacred name. This was the first halting place of the Israelites in their exodus.
It has been argued that these store cities were residence cities, royal dwellings, such as the Pharaohs of old, the Kings of Israel, and our modern Khedives have ever loved to build, thus giving employment to the superabundant muscle of their enslaved peoples, and making a name for themselves.
Puah
Splendid. One of the two midwives who feared God, and refused to kill the Hebrew male children at their birth. A descendant of Issachar.
Rameses
The land of, was probably the land of Goshen. After the Hebrews had built Rameses, one of the treasure cities, it came to be known as the land in which that city was built. The city bearing this name was probably identical with Zoan, which Rameses II rebuilt. It became his special residence, and ranked next in importance and magnificence to Thebes.
Huge masses of bricks, made of Nile mud, sun dried, some of them mixed with stubble, possibly moulded by Jewish hands, still mark the site of Rameses. This was the general rendezvous of the Israelites before they began their march out of Egypt. Called also Raamses.
Shiphrah
Beauty, one of the Egyptian midwives.
Solomon's Temple
Before his death David had with all his might provided materials in great abundance for the building of the temple on the summit of Mount Moriah on the east of the city on the spot where Abraham had offered up Isaac. In the beginning of his reign Solomon set about giving effect to the desire that had been so earnestly cherished by his father and prepared additional materials for the building. From subterranean quarries at Jerusalem he obtained huge blocks of stone for the foundations and walls of the temple. These stones were prepared for their places in the building under the eye of master builders.
Treasure Cities
Store cities which the Israelites built for the Egyptians.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
During more than 200 years while Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived at liberty the Hebrews increased slowly only about seventy persons went down into Egypt. In about the same number of years though under cruel bondage they became a large nation.
This wonderful increase was according to the promise long before made to the fathers. The performance of God's promises is sometimes slow but sure. 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 and 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 labor of love. The offense 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. It makes a man fear where no fear is.
Flee when no one pursues him and human wisdom often is foolishness and very sinful. God's people had taskmasters set over them not only to burden them but also afflict them with their burdens. They not only made them serve for Pharaoh's profit but so that lives became bitter but the Israelites wonderfully increased.
Christianity spread most when it was persecuted when the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church. They that take counsel against the Lord and his Israel do but imagine a vain thing and create greater vexation to themselves. 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 Hebrew was now under an uncommon blessing. 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.
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