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Matthew Henry |
E X O D U S
CHAP. I.
We have here,
I. God’s kindness to Israel, in multiplying them
exceedingly,
(ver. 1-7).
II. The Egyptians’ wickedness to them,
1. Oppressing and enslaving them,
(ver. 8-14).
2. Murdering
their children,
(ver. 15-22).
Thus whom the court of heaven
blessed the country of Egypt cursed, and for that reason.
| The Israelites Oppressed in Egypt. | B. C. 1588. |
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1 Now 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: for Joseph
was in Egypt already.
6 And Joseph
died, and all his brethren, and all that
generation.
7 And the children of
Israel were fruitful, and increased
abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed
exceeding mighty; and the land was
filled with them.
In these verses we have,
1. A recital of
the names of the twelve patriarchs, as they
are called,
Their names are often
repeated in scripture, that they may not sound
uncouth to us, as other hard names, but that,
by their occurring so frequently, they may
become familiar to us; and to show how
precious God’s spiritual Israel are to him,
and how much he delights in them.
2. The
account which was kept of the number of
Jacob’s family, when they went down into
Egypt; they were in all seventy souls
(v. 5).
according to the computation we had,
This was just the number of the
nations by which the earth was peopled, according
to the account given,
Gen. x.
For
when the Most High separated the sons of
Adam, he set the bounds of the people according
to the number of the children of Israel, as
Moses observes,
Notice is
here taken of this that their increase in Egypt
might appear the more wonderful. Note, It
is good for those whose latter end greatly
increases often to remember how small their
beginning was,
3. The death of
Joseph,
v. 6.
All that generation by degrees
wore off. Perhaps all Jacob’s sons died much
about the same time; for there was not more
than seven years’ difference in age between
the eldest and the youngest of them, except
Benjamin; and, when death comes into a
family, sometimes it makes a full end in a
little time. When Joseph, the stay of the
family, died, the rest went off apace. Note,
We must look upon ourselves and our brethren,
and all we converse with, as dying and
hastening out of the world. This generation
passeth away, as that did which went before.
4. The strange increase of Israel in Egypt,
v. 7.
Here are four words used to express
it: They were fruitful, and increased abundantly,
like fishes or insects, so that they
multiplied; and, being generally healthful
and strong, they waxed exceedingly mighty, so
that they began almost to outnumber the
natives, for the land was in all places filled
with them, at least Goshen, their own allotment.
Observe,
(1.) Though, no doubt, they
increased considerably before, yet, it should
seem, it was not till after the death of Joseph
that it began to be taken notice of as extraordinary.
Thus, when they lost the benefit of
his protection, God made their numbers their
defence, and they became better able than
they had been to shift for themselves. If
God continue our friends and relations to us
while we most need them, and remove them
when they can be better spared, let us own
that he is wise, and not complain that he is
hard upon us. After the death of Christ, our
Joseph, his gospel Israel began most remarkably
to increase: and his death had an influence
upon it; it was like the sowing of a
corn of wheat, which, if it die, bringeth forth
much fruit,
(2.) This wonderful
increase was the fulfillment of the promise
long before made unto the fathers. From the
call of Abraham, when God first told him he
would make of him a great nation, to the deliverance
of his seed out of Egypt, it was 430
years, during the first 215 of which they were
increased but to seventy, but, in the latter
half, those seventy multiplied to 600,000
fighting men. Note,
[1.] Sometimes God’s
providences may seem for a great while to
thwart his promises, and to go counter to
them, that his people’s faith may be tried,
and his own power the more magnified.
[2.] Though the performance of God’s promises is
sometimes slow, yet it is always sure; at the
end it shall speak, and not lie,
Hab. ii. 3.
8 Now there arose up a new king
over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.
9 And he said unto his people, Behold,
the people of the children of Israel
are more and mightier than we:
10 Come on, let us deal wisely with them;
lest they multiply, and it come to pass,
that, when there falleth out any war,
they join also unto our enemies, and
fight against us, and so get them up
out of the land.
11 Therefore they
did set over them taskmasters to afflict
them with their burdens. And they
built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom
and Raamses.
12 But the more
they afflicted them, the more they
multiplied and grew. And they were
grieved because of the children of Israel.
13 And the Egyptians made the
children of Israel to serve with rigour:
14 And they made their lives bitter
with hard bondage, in mortar, and in
brick, and in all manner of service in
the field: all their service, wherein they
made them serve, was with rigour.
The land of Egypt here, at length, becomes
to Israel a house of bondage, though hitherto
it had been a happy shelter and settlement
for them. Note, The place of our satisfaction
may soon become the place of our affliction,
and that may prove the greatest cross to us
of which we said, This same shall comfort us.
Those may prove our sworn enemies whose
parents were our faithful friends; nay, the
same persons that loved us may possibly turn
to hate us: therefore cease from man, and
say not concerning any place on this side
heaven, This is my rest for ever. Observe here,
I. The obligations they lay under to Israel
upon Joseph’s account were forgotten: There
arose a new king, after several successions in
Joseph’s time, who knew not Joseph,
v. 8.
All
that knew him loved him, and were kind to
his relations for his sake; but when he was
dead he was soon forgotten, and the remembrance
of the good offices he had done was
either not retained or not regarded, nor had
it any influence upon their councils. Note,
the best and the most useful and acceptable
services done to men are seldom remembered,
so as to be recompensed to those that did
them, in the notice taken either of their
memory, or of their posterity, after their
death,
Therefore our great
care should be to serve God, and please him,
who is not unrighteous, whatever men are,
to forget our work and labour of love,
If we work for men only, our works,
at furthest, will die with us; if for God, they
will follow us,
This king of
Egypt knew not Joseph; and after him arose
one that had the impudence to say, I know
not the Lord,
ch. v. 2.
Note, Those that are
unmindful of their other benefactors, it is to
be feared, will forget the supreme benefactor,
II. Reasons of state were suggested for
their dealing hardly with Israel,
1. They are represented as more and mightier
than the Egyptians; certainly they were not
so, but the king of Egypt, when he resolved
to oppress them, would have them thought
so, and looked on as a formidable body.
2. Hence it is inferred that if care were not taken
to keep them under they would become dangerous
to the government, and in time of war
would side with their enemies and revolt from
their allegiance to the crown of Egypt. Note,
It has been the policy of persecutors to represent
God’s Israel as a dangerous people,
hurtful to kings and provinces, not fit to be
trusted, nay, not fit to be tolerated, that they
may have some pretence for the barbarous
treatment they design them,
Ezra iv. 12, &c. Esth. iii. 8.
Observe, The thing they feared
was lest they should get them up out of the
land, probably having heard them speak of
the promise made to their fathers that they
should settle in Canaan. Note, The policies
of the church’s enemies aim to defeat the
promises of the church’s God, but in vain;
God’s counsels shall stand.
3. It is therefore
proposed that a course be taken to prevent
their increase: Come on, let us deal wisely
with them, lest they multiply. Note,
(1.) The
growth of Israel is the grief of Egypt, and
that against which the powers and policies of
hell are levelled.
(2.) When men deal wickedly,
it is common for them to imagine that
they deal wisely; but the folly of sin will, at
last, be manifested before all men.
III. The method they took to suppress
them, and check their growth,
The Israelites behaved themselves so peaceably
and inoffensively that they could not
find any occasion of making war upon them,
and weakening them by that means: and
therefore,
1. They took care to keep them
poor, by charging them with heavy taxes,
which, some think, is included in the burdens
with which they afflicted them.
2. By this
means they took an effectual course to make
them slaves. The Israelites, it should seem,
were much more industrious laborious people
than the Egyptians, and therefore Pharaoh
took care to find them work, both in building
(they built him treasure-cities), and in husbandry,
even all manner of service in the
field: and this was exacted from them with
the utmost rigour and severity. Here are
many expressions used, to affect us with the
condition of God’s people. They had taskmasters
set over them, who were directed,
not only to burden them, but, as much as
might be, to afflict them with their burdens,
and contrive how to make them grievous.
They not only made them serve, which was
sufficient for Pharaoh’s profit, but they made
them serve with rigour, so that their lives became
bitter to them, intending hereby,
(1.) To break their spirits, and rob them of every
thing in them that was ingenuous and generous.
(2.) To ruin their health and shorten
their days, and so diminish their numbers.
(3.) To discourage them from marrying, since
their children would be born to slavery.
(4.) To oblige them to desert the Hebrews, and
incorporate themselves with the Egyptians.
Thus he hoped to cut off the name of Israel,
that it might be no more in remembrance.
And it is to be feared that the oppression
they were under had this bad effect upon
them, that it brought over many of them to
join with the Egyptians in their idolatrous
worship; for we read
that
they served other gods in Egypt; and, though
it is not mentioned here in this history, yet
we find
that God had threatened
to destroy them for it, even while they were
in the land of Egypt: however, they were
kept a distinct body, unmingled with the
Egyptians, and by their other customs separated
from them, which was the Lord’s doing,
and marvellous.
IV. The wonderful increase of the Israelites,
notwithstanding the oppressions they groaned
under
(v. 12):
The more they afflicted them the
more they multiplied, sorely to the grief and
vexation of the Egyptians. Note,
1. Times
of affliction have often been the church’s
growing times, Sub pondere crescit–Being
pressed, it grows. Christianity spread most
when it was persecuted: the blood of the
martyrs was the seed of the church.
2. Those
that take counsel against the Lord and his
Israel do but imagine a vain thing
(Ps. ii. 1),
and create so much the greater vexation to
themselves: hell and earth cannot diminish
those whom Heaven will increase.
15 And the king of Egypt 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; if it be a son,
then ye shall kill him: but if it be a
daughter, then she shall live.
17 But
the midwives feared God, 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,
Because the Hebrew women are
not as the Egyptian women; for they
are lively, and are delivered ere the
midwives come in unto them.
20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives:
and the people multiplied, and
waxed very mighty.
21 And it came
to pass, because the midwives feared
God, that he made them houses.
22 And Pharaoh charged all his people,
saying, Every son that is born ye shall
cast into the river, and every daughter
ye shall save alive.
The Egyptians’ indignation at Israel’s increase,
notwithstanding the many hardships
they put upon them, drove them at length to
the most barbarous and inhuman methods of
suppressing them, by the murder of their
children. It was strange that they did not
rather pick quarrels with the grown men,
against whom they might perhaps find some
occasion: to be thus bloody towards the infants,
whom all must own to be innocents,
was a sin which they had to cloak for.
Note,
1. There is more cruelty in the corrupt
heart of man than one would imagine,
The enmity that is in the
seed of the serpent against the seed of the
woman divests men of humanity itself, and
makes them forget all pity. One would not
think it possible that ever men should be so
barbarous and blood-thirsty as the persecutors
of God’s people have been,
2. Even confessed innocence is no defence
against the old enmity. What blood so
guiltless as that of a child new-born? Yet
that is prodigally shed like water, and sucked
with delight like milk or honey. Pharaoh
and Herod sufficiently proved themselves
agents for that great red dragon, who stood
to devour the man-child as soon as it was born,
Rev. xii. 3, 4.
Pilate delivered Christ to be
crucified, after he had confessed that he
found no fault in him. It is well for us that,
though man can kill the body, this is all he
can do. Two bloody edicts are here signed
for the destruction of all the male children
that were born to the Hebrews.
I. The midwives were commanded to murder
them. Observe,
1. The orders given
them,
It added much to the
barbarity of the intended executions that the
midwives were appointed to be the executioners;
for it was to make them, not only
bloody, but perfidious, and to oblige them to
betray a trust, and to destroy those whom
they undertook to save and help. Could he
think that their sex would admit such cruelty,
and their employment such base treachery?
Note, Those who are themselves barbarous
think to find, or make, others as barbarous.
Pharaoh’s project was secretly to engage the
midwives to stifle the men-children as soon
as they were born, and then to lay it upon
the difficulty of the birth, or some mischance
common in that case,
The two
midwives he tampered with in order hereunto
are here named; and perhaps, at this time,
which was above eighty years before their
going out of Egypt, those two might suffice
for all the Hebrew women, at least so many
of them as lay near the court, as it is plain
by
many of them did, and of
them he was most jealous. They are called
Hebrew midwives, probably not because they
were themselves Hebrews (for surely Pharaoh
could never expect they should be so barbarous
to those of their own nation), but
because they were generally made use of by
the Hebrews; and, being Egyptians, he
hoped to prevail with them.
2. Their pious
disobedience to this impious command,
They feared God, regarded his law, and
dreaded his wrath more than Pharaoh’s, and
therefore saved the men-children alive. Note,
If men’s commands be any way contrary to
the commands of God, we must obey God
and not man,
No power
on earth can warrant us, much less oblige us,
to sin against God, our chief Lord. Again,
Where the fear of God rules in the heart, it
will preserve it from the snare which the inordinate
fear of man brings.
3. Their justifying
themselves in this disobedience, when
they were charged with it as a crime,
They gave a reason for it, which, it seems,
God’s gracious promise furnished them with–that
they came too late to do it, for generally
the children were born before they came,
I see no reason we have to doubt the truth
of this; it is plain that the Hebrews were
now under an extraordinary blessing of
increase, which may well be supposed to
have this effect, that the women had very
quick and easy labour, and, the mothers and
children being both lively, they seldom needed
the help of midwives: this these midwives
took notice of, and, concluding it to be the
finger of God, were thereby emboldened to
disobey the king, in favour of those whom
Heaven thus favoured, and with this justified
themselves before Pharaoh, when he called
them to an account for it. Some of the
ancient Jews expound it thus, Ere the midwife
comes to them they pray to their Father
in heaven, and he answereth them, and they do
bring forth. Note, God is a readier help to
his people in distress than any other helpers
are, and often anticipates them with the blessings
of his goodness; such deliverances
lay them under peculiarly strong obligations.
4. The recompence God gave them for their
tenderness towards his people: He dealt well
with them,
v. 20.
Note, God will be behind-hand
with none for any kindness done to his
people, taking it as done to himself. In particular,
he made them houses
(v. 21),
built
them up into families, blessed their children,
and prospered them in all they did. Note,
The services done for God’s Israel are often
repaid in kind. The midwives kept up the
Israelites’ houses, and, in recompence for it,
God made them houses. Observe, The recompence
has relation to the principle upon
which they went: Because they feared God,
he made them houses. Note, Religion and
piety are good friends to outward prosperity:
the fear of God in a house will help to build
it up and establish it. Dr. Lightfoot’s
notion of it is, That, for their piety, they
were married to Israelites, and Hebrew
families were built up by them.
II. When this project did not take effect,
Pharaoh gave public orders to all his people
to drown all the male children of the Hebrews,
We may suppose it was made
highly penal for any to know of the birth of
a son to an Israelite, and not to give information
to those who were appointed to throw
him into the river. Note, The enemies of
the church have been restless in their endeavours
to wear out the saints of the Most
High,
Dan. vii. 25.
But he that sits in
heaven shall laugh at them. See
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