Exodus 1

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Exodus 1 opens the story of Israel's slavery. The seventy descendants of Jacob who came to Egypt have become a people so numerous that the land is filled with them. A new king who did not know Joseph sees them as a threat, and the chapter records three escalating measures against them: forced labor building the store cities Pithom and Rameses, which only makes them multiply; a secret order to the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah to kill newborn boys, which they refuse because they fear God; and finally a public command to the whole nation to throw every Hebrew boy into the Nile. God rewards the midwives with families, and the people keep growing.

장 주석 열기

Exodus 1 begins with a list of names and ends with babies in the river, and the distance between the two is the story of how a family became a people and a guest became a slave. Seventy people came down to Egypt with Jacob. Generations later they fill the land, and a pharaoh who has never heard of Joseph looks at them and sees a security problem. His policy is what empires always do first: put them to work. Taskmasters, brick pits, store cities, lives made bitter, and yet the harder the Egyptians press, the more the Israelites grow, until Egypt is afraid of its own workforce. So the king turns to something quieter. He calls in two midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, and tells them to let the girls live and kill the boys on the birthstool. They do not. The text gives the reason in three words: they feared God. When Pharaoh demands an explanation, they tell him the Hebrew women are too vigorous to wait for a midwife, and the most powerful man in the world accepts it. God, absent from the chapter until this moment, is good to the midwives and gives them families of their own. Then Pharaoh drops the secrecy and orders his whole people to throw every Hebrew boy into the Nile. The chapter ends there, in the dark, with a decree that will put a baby in a basket in the very river meant to kill him.

핵심 본문

Exodus 1:1-7 Exodus 1:8-14 Exodus 1:15-21 Exodus 1:22 Genesis 46:26-27 Matthew 2:16-18

Historical and literary context

The chapter bridges Genesis and Exodus by repeating the list of Jacob's sons and the number seventy from Genesis 46, then passing over several generations in a sentence. The "new king who did not know Joseph" is unnamed, like every pharaoh in Exodus; the store city Rameses points many readers to the thirteenth century BC and Ramesses II, though the date of the exodus is disputed. Brick making with straw and mortar is well attested in Egyptian records and tomb paintings, as are Semitic laborers. The midwives are the only Egyptians of the period named in the chapter, and the naming of two women while the king stays anonymous is a deliberate reversal.

How the chapter unfolds

Verses 1 to 7 list the sons of Israel, note the death of Joseph's generation, and describe the extraordinary growth of the people in language borrowed from Genesis 1. Verses 8 to 14 introduce the new king, his fear, his shrewd plan, and the forced labor that fails to check the growth. Verses 15 to 21 tell of the midwives, the king's order, their disobedience, their answer, and God's reward. Verse 22 records the final command to drown every Hebrew son in the Nile, which sets up the birth of Moses in chapter 2.

Why this chapter matters

The chapter establishes the pattern of the whole book: an empire that oppresses and a God whose people flourish under the oppression. "The more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied" has been quoted by persecuted communities ever since. Shiphrah and Puah are the first recorded act of civil disobedience in the Bible, and their fear of God over fear of the king became a model for Christian and Jewish resistance to unjust orders. The order to drown the boys is the background to Moses in the basket and, in Matthew's Gospel, to Herod's slaughter of the infants.

Interpretive tension to watch

The midwives lie to Pharaoh, and God rewards them; readers have long debated whether the text approves the lie or only the refusal to kill, and whether the women were Hebrews or Egyptians who served the Hebrews, since the Hebrew phrase allows both. How two midwives could serve a population of hundreds of thousands is a further question, answered by taking them as heads of a guild or the story as told in miniature. The chapter's silence about God until verse 17 is also striking: for sixteen verses he is absent, and then he appears in the fear of two women.

이 장을 위한 질문

Pharaoh's policy is built on fear of a people who have done nothing to him. Where does that fear come from, and where do you see it today?
The midwives "feared God" more than the king. What made their refusal possible, and what did it cost them?
God is not mentioned until verse 17. What does his silence in the first half of the chapter say about how he works?

Study with context

Use this as a chapter guide, then press deeper into the text itself. The goal is to slow down observation, notice structure, and ask better questions before jumping to conclusions.

노트에 추가

1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; 4 Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. 5 The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all, including Joseph, who was already in Egypt. 6 Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, 7 but the Israelites were fruitful and increased rapidly; they multiplied and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them. 8 Then a new king, who did not know Joseph, came to power in Egypt. 9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become too numerous and too powerful for us. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase even more; and if a war breaks out, they may join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.” 11 So the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. As a result, they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and flourished; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. 13 They worked the Israelites ruthlessly 14 and made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar, and with all kinds of work in the fields. Every service they imposed was harsh. 15 Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 “When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them on the birthstools. If the child is a son, kill him; but if it is a daughter, let her live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had instructed; they let the boys live. 18 So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?” 19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before a midwife arrives.” 20 So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, He gave them families of their own. 22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people: “Every son born to the Hebrews you must throw into the Nile, but every daughter you may allow to live.”

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