1 And these are the names of the sons of Israel who had come into Egypt; with Jacob had they come, each with his household:
The sons of Leah: Reuben -- Jacob's firstborn -- and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun. The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant: Dan and Naphtali. And the sons of Zilpah, Leah's maidservant: Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob that were born to him in Padan-Aram.
And these are the names of the sons of Israel who came into Egypt: Jacob and his sons. Jacob's firstborn, Reuben. And the sons of Reuben: Enoch, and Phallu, and Hezron, and Carmi. -- And the sons of Simeon: Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Saul the son of a Canaanitish woman. -- And the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. -- And the sons of Judah: Er, and Onan, and Shelah, and Pherez, and Zerah; but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Pherez were Hezron and Hamul. -- And the sons of Issachar: Tola, and Puah, and Job, and Shimron. -- And the sons of Zebulun: Sered, and Elon, and Jahleel. -- These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Padan-Aram; and his daughter, Dinah. All the souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty-three. And the sons of Gad: Ziphion and Haggi, Shuni and Ezbon, Eri, and Arodi, and Areli. -- And the sons of Asher: Jimnah, and Jishvah, and Jishvi, and Beriah; and Serah their sister; and the sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel. -- These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter; and she bore these to Jacob: sixteen souls. The sons of Rachel Jacob's wife: Joseph and Benjamin. And to Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asnath bore to him, the daughter of Potipherah the priest in On. -- And the sons of Benjamin: Belah, and Becher, and Ashbel, Gera and Naaman, Ehi and Rosh, Muppim, and Huppim, and Ard. -- These are the sons of Rachel who were born to Jacob: all the souls were fourteen. And the sons of Dan: Hushim. -- And the sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, and Guni, and Jezer, and Shillem. -- These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter; and she bore these to Jacob: all the souls were seven. All the souls that came with Jacob to Egypt, that had come out of his loins, besides Jacob's sons' wives: all the souls were sixty-six.
And it came to pass as her soul was departing -- for she died -- that she called his name Benoni; but his father called him Benjamin.
Reuben, thou art my firstborn, My might, and the firstfruits of my vigour: Excellency of dignity, and excellency of strength. Impetuous as the waters, thou shalt have no pre-eminence; Because thou wentest up to thy father's couch: Then defiledst thou [it]: he went up to my bed. Simeon and Levi are brethren: Instruments of violence their swords. My soul, come not into their council; Mine honour, be not united with their assembly; For in their anger they slew men, And in their wantonness houghed oxen. Cursed be their anger, for it [was] violent; And their rage, for it [was] cruel! I will divide them in Jacob, And scatter them in Israel. Judah -- [as to] thee, thy brethren will praise thee; Thy hand will be upon the neck of thine enemies; Thy father's children will bow down to thee. Judah is a young lion; From the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stoopeth, he layeth himself down as a lion, And as a lioness: who will rouse him up? The scepter will not depart from Judah, Nor the lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh come, And to him will be the obedience of peoples. He bindeth his foal to the vine, And his ass's colt to the choice vine; He washeth his dress in wine, And his garment in the blood of grapes. The eyes are red with wine, And the teeth [are] white with milk. Zebulun will dwell at the shore of the seas; Yea, he will be at the shore of the ships, And his side [toucheth] upon Sidon. Issachar is a bony ass, Crouching down between two hurdles. And he saw the rest that it was good, And the land that it was pleasant; And he bowed his shoulder to bear, And was a tributary servant. Dan will judge his people, As another of the tribes of Israel. Dan will be a serpent on the way, A horned snake on the path, Which biteth the horse's heels, So that the rider falleth backwards. I wait for thy salvation, O Jehovah. Gad -- troops will rush upon him; But he will rush upon the heel. Out of Asher, his bread shall be fat, And he will give royal dainties. Naphtali is a hind let loose; He giveth goodly words. Joseph is a fruitful bough; A fruitful bough by a well; [His] branches shoot over the wall. The archers have provoked him, And shot at, and hated him; But his bow abideth firm, And the arms of his hands are supple By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob. From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel: From the ùGod of thy father, and he will help thee; And from the Almighty, and he will bless thee -- With blessings of heaven from above, With blessings of the deep that lieth under, With blessings of the breast and of the womb. The blessings of thy father surpass the blessings of my ancestors, Unto the bounds of the everlasting hills: They shall be on the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brethren. Benjamin -- [as] a wolf will he tear to pieces; In the morning he will devour the prey, And in the evening he will divide the booty.
And this is the number of the men equipped for military service, who came to David to Hebron, to transfer the kingdom of Saul to him, according to the word of Jehovah. The children of Judah that bore shield and spear were six thousand eight hundred, equipped for military service. Of the children of Simeon, mighty men of valour for war, seven thousand one hundred. Of the children of Levi four thousand six hundred. And Jehoiada the prince of Aaron, and with him were three thousand seven hundred; and Zadok, a valiant young man, and his father's house two and twenty chief men. And of the children of Benjamin, the brethren of Saul, three thousand; but hitherto the greater part of them had adhered to the house of Saul. And of the children of Ephraim twenty thousand eight hundred, mighty men of valour, men of name in their fathers' houses. And of the half tribe of Manasseh eighteen thousand, who were expressed by name, to come and make David king. And of the children of Issachar, who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their bidding. Of Zebulun, such as went forth in the host, armed for war with all weapons of war, fifty thousand, keeping rank without double heart. And of Naphtali a thousand captains, and with them thirty-seven thousand with shield and spear. And of the Danites armed for war twenty-eight thousand six hundred. And of Asher such as went forth in the host, to set themselves in battle array, forty thousand. And from the other side of the Jordan, of the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and of the half tribe of Manasseh, with all manner of weapons of war for battle, a hundred and twenty thousand. All of them men of war, keeping rank in battle array, came with a perfect heart to Hebron, to make David king over all Israel; and all the rest also of Israel were of one heart to make David king. And there they were with David three days, eating and drinking; for their brethren had prepared for them; and those too that were near them, as far as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, brought food on asses, and on camels, and on mules, and on oxen; provisions of meal, fig-cakes and raisin-cakes, and wine and oil, and oxen and sheep, abundantly; for there was joy in Israel.
These are the heads of their fathers' houses: the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel: Enoch and Phallu, Hezron and Carmi: these are the families of Reuben. -- And the sons of Simeon: Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Saul the son of a Canaanitish woman: these are the families of Simeon. And these are the names of the sons of Levi, according to their generations: Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari. And the years of the life of Levi were a hundred and thirty-seven years.
And over the tribes of Israel were: for the Reubenites Eliezer the son of Zichri was the prince; for the Simeonites, Shephatiah the son of Maachah; for the Levites, Hashabiah the son of Kemuel; for Aaron, Zadok; for Judah, Elihu of the brethren of David; for Issachar, Omri the son of Michael; for Zebulun, Jishmaiah the son of Obadiah; for Naphtali, Jerimoth the son of Azriel; for the children of Ephraim, Hosea the son of Azaziah; for the half tribe of Manasseh, Joel the son of Pedaiah; for the half [tribe] of Manasseh in Gilead, Jiddo the son of Zechariah; for Benjamin, Jaasiel the son of Abner; for Dan, Azareel the son of Jeroham. These were the princes of the tribes of Israel.
And I heard the number of the sealed, a hundred [and] forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of [the] sons of Israel: out of [the] tribe of Juda, twelve thousand sealed; out of [the] tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand; out of [the] tribe of Gad, twelve thousand; out of [the] tribe of Aser, twelve thousand; out of [the] tribe of Nepthalim, twelve thousand; out of [the] tribe of Manasseh, twelve thousand; out of [the] tribe of Simeon, twelve thousand; out of [the] tribe of Levi, twelve thousand; out of [the] tribe of Issachar, twelve thousand; out of [the] tribe of Zabulun, twelve thousand; out of [the] tribe of Joseph, twelve thousand; out of [the] tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand sealed.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Exodus 1
Commentary on Exodus 1 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 1
Ex 1:1-22. Increase of the Israelites.
1. Now these are the names—(See Ge 46:8-26).
7. children of Israel were fruitful—They were living in a land where, according to the testimony of an ancient author, mothers produced three and four sometimes at a birth; and a modern writer declares "the females in Egypt, as well among the human race as among animals, surpass all others in fruitfulness." To this natural circumstance must be added the fulfilment of the promise made to Abraham.
8. Now there arose up a new king—About sixty years after the death of Joseph a revolution took place—by which the old dynasty was overthrown, and upper and lower Egypt were united into one kingdom. Assuming that the king formerly reigned in Thebes, it is probable that he would know nothing about the Hebrews; and that, as foreigners and shepherds, the new government would, from the first, regard them with dislike and scorn.
9, 10. he said … Behold, the … children of Israel are more and mightier than we—They had risen to great prosperity—as during the lifetime of Joseph and his royal patron, they had, probably, enjoyed a free grant of the land. Their increase and prosperity were viewed with jealousy by the new government; and as Goshen lay between Egypt and Canaan, on the border of which latter country were a number of warlike tribes, it was perfectly conformable to the suggestions of worldly policy that they should enslave and maltreat them, through apprehension of their joining in any invasion by those foreign rovers. The new king, who neither knew the name nor cared for the services of Joseph, was either Amosis, or one of his immediate successors [Osburn].
11. Therefore they did set over them taskmasters—Having first obliged them, it is thought, to pay a ruinous rent and involved them in difficulties, that new government, in pursuance of its oppressive policy, degraded them to the condition of serfs—employing them exactly as the laboring people are in the present day (driven in companies or bands), in rearing the public works, with taskmasters, who anciently had sticks—now whips—to punish the indolent, or spur on the too languid. All public or royal buildings, in ancient Egypt, were built by captives; and on some of them was placed an inscription that no free citizen had been engaged in this servile employment.
they built for Pharaoh treasure cities—These two store-places were in the land of Goshen; and being situated near a border liable to invasion, they were fortified cities (compare 2Ch 11:1-12:16). Pithom (Greek, Patumos), lay on the eastern Pelusiac branch of the Nile, about twelve Roman miles from Heliopolis; and Raamses, called by the Septuagint Heroopolis, lay between the same branch of the Nile and the Bitter Lakes. These two fortified cities were situated, therefore, in the same valley; and the fortifications, which Pharaoh commanded to be built around both, had probably the same common object, of obstructing the entrance into Egypt, which this valley furnished the enemy from Asia [Hengstenberg].
13, 14. The Egyptians … made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick—Ruins of great brick buildings are found in all parts of Egypt. The use of crude brick, baked in the sun, was universal in upper and lower Egypt, both for public and private buildings; all but the temples themselves were of crude brick. It is worthy of remark that more bricks bearing the name of Thothmes III, who is supposed to have been the king of Egypt at the time of the Exodus, have been discovered than of any other period [Wilkinson]. Parties of these brickmakers are seen depicted on the ancient monuments with "taskmasters," some standing, others in a sitting posture beside the laborers, with their uplifted sticks in their hands.
15. the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives—Two only were spoken to—either they were the heads of a large corporation [Laborde], or, by tampering with these two, the king designed to terrify the rest into secret compliance with his wishes [Calvin].
16. if it be a son, then ye shall kill him—Opinions are divided, however, what was the method of destruction which the king did recommend. Some think that the "stools" were low seats on which these obstetric practitioners sat by the bedside of the Hebrew women; and that, as they might easily discover the sex, so, whenever a boy appeared, they were to strangle it, unknown to its parents; while others are of opinion that the "stools" were stone troughs, by the river side—into which, when the infants were washed, they were to be, as it were, accidentally dropped.
17. But the midwives feared God—Their faith inspired them with such courage as to risk their lives, by disobeying the mandate of a cruel tyrant; but it was blended with weakness, which made them shrink from speaking the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
20, 21. God dealt well with the midwives—This represents God as rewarding them for telling a lie. This difficulty is wholly removed by a more correct translation. To "make" or "build up a house" in Hebrew idiom, means to have a numerous progeny. The passage then should be rendered thus: "God protected the midwives, and the people waxed very mighty; and because the midwives feared, the Hebrews grew and prospered."