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Exodus 1

KJV · Chapter 1/40

1Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.

2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,

3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,

4Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

5And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.

6And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.

7And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.

8Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.

9And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we:

10Come 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.

11Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.

12But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.

13And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour:

14And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.

15And 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:

16And 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.

17But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.

18And 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?

19And 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.

20Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty.

21And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.

22And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Jacob's descendants multiply greatly in Egypt; a new pharaoh, fearing Israel's growth, enslaves them with forced labor and orders the Hebrew midwives to kill the newborn baby boys.

Explanation

This chapter opens the book of Exodus with a dramatic reversal: the family that Joseph had saved with honor at the end of Genesis has now become, generations later, a perceived threat in the eyes of a new pharaoh 'who knew not Joseph.' Fear of a foreign people's growing strength leads to systematic oppression, showing how prejudice and political insecurity can breed mass cruelty. In the midst of this escalating violence, the midwives Shiphrah and Puah stand out as quiet heroines who defy the king's order because they fear God more than human authority, and they are rewarded for their courage. The observation that 'the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied' already reveals a central theme of the book: no human oppression can thwart the plans of God. The lesson for today is that integrity and moral courage in the face of unjust orders carry eternal value, even when they seem small against established power.

Fun facts

  • The cities of Pithom and Rameses, built by the Hebrews as 'treasure cities' (v. 11), are mentioned in Egyptian records and identified by archaeologists with real sites in the Nile delta region, linking the biblical account to the documented historical geography of ancient Egypt.
  • The names of the midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, are preserved in the text, a notable detail considering that the oppressive pharaoh, one of the most powerful figures in the account, remains nameless — a sign that the Bible values and remembers the acts of courage of ordinary people more than political power.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Exodus 1:1Exodus opens right where Genesis left off: it repeats the list of Jacob’s sons who came into Egypt with him, each one with his own household, picking up the scene already told in Genesis 46.
  2. Exodus 1:2It follows the birth order of Leah’s sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, the first four, in the same sequence as Genesis.
  3. Exodus 1:3Leah’s sons continue with Issachar and Zebulun, and then comes Benjamin, Jacob’s youngest and the only son of Rachel born in Canaan.
  4. Exodus 1:4The list closes with Dan and Naphtali, sons of Bilhah, and Gad and Asher, sons of Zilpah — Jacob’s four mothers together complete the twelve names.
  5. Exodus 1:5The total of seventy matches the count in Genesis 46; Joseph was already in Egypt, so he is not counted among those who “came into Egypt” with their father.
  6. Exodus 1:6An entire generation passes in just a few words: Joseph, his brothers, and that whole generation die, clearing the way for the new setting of the chapter.
  7. Exodus 1:7Without giving numbers, the text marks the explosive growth of the Hebrew people in Egypt — it is this growth that will worry the new pharaoh next.
  8. Exodus 1:8A new king rises to the throne with no memory of what Joseph had done for Egypt. It is this loss of memory that changes the until-then peaceful relationship with the Hebrews.
  9. Exodus 1:9Calling the Hebrews “more and mightier than we” is an exaggeration on Pharaoh’s part, meant to justify the oppression he is about to announce.
  10. Exodus 1:10Pharaoh’s fear is that the numerous Hebrews will join an enemy in a war and then leave Egypt, taking the slave labor force away with them.
  11. Exodus 1:11The “taskmasters” were overseers put in charge of exploiting the Hebrews’ forced labor, not ordinary tax collectors. The “treasure cities” were storehouses and warehouses of the Egyptian government, a kind of logistical base for the kingdom, built right in the region where the Hebrews lived. It is on these projects that Pharaoh starts using Israelite slave labor.
  12. Exodus 1:12Pharaoh’s plan fails: instead of holding the people back, the oppression seems to backfire, and the Egyptians grow even more afraid of them.
  13. Exodus 1:13It sums up decades of forced labor in a few words: the Egyptians treated the Hebrews with harshness, not as hired workers.
  14. Exodus 1:14“Mortar” and “brick” describe heavy construction work; “in the field” includes forced farm labor — the summary of the slavery the Hebrews had already been suffering for generations.
  15. Exodus 1:15Shiphrah and Puah are the only Hebrew midwives named, perhaps leaders of a larger group in charge of delivering the Hebrew women’s babies.
  16. Exodus 1:16The “stools” were the little bench or pair of stones a Hebrew woman sat or crouched on during childbirth, a common way to give birth at the time. Pharaoh gives the gruesome order right there, at the moment of birth: if it is a boy, kill him; if a girl, let her live. It is the first extermination plan against the Hebrew people, disguised as routine childbirth.
  17. Exodus 1:17The midwives disobey the order to kill the boys because they fear God more than Pharaoh — the book’s first act of resistance, carried out by two ordinary women.
  18. Exodus 1:18Pharaoh realizes the order was not carried out and summons the midwives to explain themselves, opening the dialogue of the next verse.
  19. Exodus 1:19The midwives tell Pharaoh that the Hebrew women are “lively,” meaning strong and quick in labor, and give birth before the midwives can arrive to help. It is the excuse they use to justify why they did not kill the boys as Pharaoh had ordered. There is no way to know whether it was a lie or partly true; the text only records that God rewarded their attitude.
  20. Exodus 1:20God rewards the midwives’ attitude, and the text again marks the growth of the Hebrew people, now in spite of Pharaoh’s direct persecution.
  21. Exodus 1:21“He made them houses” means that God gave the midwives families of their own — a common biblical way of describing a reward for faithfulness.
  22. Exodus 1:22After the midwives get around the earlier order, Pharaoh changes strategy and commands the whole Egyptian people to throw newborn Hebrew boys into the Nile. It is this decree that explains why Moses’s mother has to hide her son and, in the next chapter, risk setting him afloat in a basket.

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