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Exodus 1 - Oppression, Midwives, and the Fear of God

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Exodus begins with names before it gives us a king’s commands. A family brought to Egypt grows into a people, and Pharaoh turns their fruitfulness into an accusation. Forced labor gives way to a secret order to kill, then to a public decree against the children. Within that worsening violence, two named midwives refuse the work assigned to them. Their fear of God preserves lives before Moses has begun to speak.

Names and fruitfulness in Egypt (Exodus 1:1-7; Greek/Brenton 1:1-7)

A note on numbering. This study follows NKJV chapter and verse numbering and prints Brenton’s English Septuagint with its own verse labels. The numbered passage units here correspond in the two editions, although their wording can differ.

1: These are the names of the sons of Israel that came into Egypt together with Jacob their father; they came in each with their whole family. 2: Ruben, Simeon, Levi, Judas, 3: Issachar, Zabulon, Benjamin, 4: Dan and Nephthalim, Gad and Aser. 5: But Joseph was in Egypt. And all the souls born of Jacob were seventy-five. 6: And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. 7: And the children of Israel increased and multiplied, and became numerous and grew exceedingly strong, and the land multiplied them.

The opening joins Exodus to the family history of Genesis. Israel has not appeared from nowhere. These are Jacob’s sons and their households, remembered after the generation of Joseph has died. A change of ruler will threaten the people, but the death of one generation has not ended God’s promise.

The list resists the way Pharaoh will describe them. He sees numbers, danger, and a labor supply. Scripture first gives them names and families. Their worth does not begin when they become useful to a king, and it will not disappear when he finds them inconvenient. The names of the midwives will later sharpen the contrast: the king has power, but the women whom he commands are the ones remembered by name.

Brenton’s verse 5 gives seventy-five souls; Acts 7:14 likewise gives seventy-five. The Hebrew-based NKJV of Exodus 1:5 gives seventy. Deuteronomy 10:22 gives seventy even in Brenton’s Septuagint, so the difference is not a simple division between every Greek witness and every Hebrew-based translation. Deuteronomy’s point is the contrast between a small beginning and the multitude God has formed. Here too, the number introduces a family whose growth depends on God’s faithfulness.1

Verse 7 piles up descriptions of growth and ends with the striking phrase “the land multiplied them”. Egypt, the place of sojourning, becomes the setting in which the family grows strong. St. Stephen reads this multiplication as the time of God’s promise drawing near (Acts 7:17-19). Pharaoh will interpret the same increase as a threat. What one heart receives as blessing, another uses as a reason for fear.

This difference reaches ordinary life. Another person’s success can awaken thanksgiving or suspicion in us. A child becoming more capable, a fellow servant receiving responsibility, or a newcomer finding a place in the parish may expose our need to remain central. Gratitude lets another person grow without turning that growth into an accusation.

Forgetfulness becomes oppression (Exodus 1:8-14; Greek/Brenton 1:8-14)

8: And there arose up another king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph. 9: And he said to his nation, Behold, the race of the children of Israel is a great multitude, and is stronger than we: 10: come then, let us deal craftily with them, lest at any time they be increased, and whensoever war shall happen to us, these also shall be added to our enemies, and having prevailed against us in war, they will depart out of the land. 11: And he set over them task-masters, who should afflict them in their works; and they built strong cities for Pharao, both Pitho, and Ramesses, and On, which is Heliopolis. 12: But as they humbled them, by so much they multiplied, and grew exceedingly strong; and the Egyptians greatly abhorred the children of Israel. 13: And the Egyptians tyrannised over the children of Israel by force. 14: And they embittered their life by hard labours, in the clay and in brick-making, and all the works in the plains, according to all the works, wherein they caused them to serve with violence.

The new king “knew not Joseph”. The verse does not tell us whether this is ignorance, rejection of his memory, or a change of regime. Its place in the story makes the loss of gratitude plain. Egypt had received help through Joseph; now the people of his family are treated as potential enemies. The ruler speaks of a possible war as though the presence of Israel already establishes guilt.

This forgetting prepares another refusal. In Exodus 5:2 Pharaoh will say, “I do not know the Lord”. The king who does not recognize Egypt’s debt to Joseph will refuse the Lord’s claim over Israel. The repeated lack of knowledge points toward a moral confrontation: power wants the benefits of human service while recognizing no authority above itself.2

His strategy has a bitter contradiction. He fears Israel will leave the land, yet makes their life there intolerable. The language intensifies from being afflicted in their works to being tyrannized “by force” and serving “with violence”. Hard labor alone does not account for the evil. The work is imposed through domination, and the people are treated as bodies belonging to Pharaoh.

Brenton includes “On, which is Heliopolis” beside Pitho and Ramesses. The same city appears in Joseph’s marriage to Aseneth, daughter of its priest, in Genesis 41:45. This connects the present oppression with the Egypt in which Joseph once served. The line identifies cities in the narrative; it does not settle the date of the oppression or furnish an exact route for the departure.3

The more the people are humbled, the more they multiply. That reversal declares the failure of Pharaoh’s plan to extinguish the covenant people. It does not make violence good or promise that suffering will always produce visible success. Genesis 15:13-14 had foretold affliction in a foreign land and God’s judgment on the enslaving nation. Psalm 105:23-25 (LXX 104:23-25) remembers Israel’s growth and Egypt’s hatred within the story of God’s faithfulness. The promise keeps suffering from becoming the final account of Israel’s future.4

Labor that consumes prayer, rest, and human dignity can teach a similar lesson about false masters. Yet the spiritual comparison must never blur the difference between a pressured schedule and forced labor. Exodus gives us reason both to repent of our own controlling habits and to oppose actual exploitation. The worship to which God will bring Israel restores people whom Pharaoh has tried to reduce to their output.

The fear of God protects life (Exodus 1:15-17; Greek/Brenton 1:15-17)

15: And the king of the Egyptians spoke to the midwives of the Hebrews; the name of the one was, Sepphora; and the name of the second, Phua. 16: And he said, When ye do the office of midwives to the Hebrew women, and they are about to be delivered, if it be a male, kill it; but if a female, save it. 17: But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt appointed them; and they saved the male children alive.

The command turns the hands that should help bring children into the world into instruments of murder. Pharaoh wants the killing hidden within an ordinary work of care. The midwives refuse to let their vocation be reversed. They continue preserving life because they fear God.

Brenton calls them Sepphora and Phua, the women named Shiphrah and Puah in the Hebrew-based NKJV. Sepphora is also Brenton’s form for Moses’ wife in Exodus 2:21, but that later woman is a different person. The names here identify the midwives who face the king’s command.5

The Greek wording represented by Brenton’s “midwives of the Hebrews” describes their relation to the people they serve. The phrase alone does not settle whether the women are themselves Hebrew. Their obedience to God, rather than a securely stated ethnic identity, is the narrative’s decisive fact.6

Their fear differs from Pharaoh’s. His fear makes vulnerable people disposable; theirs makes a murderous order impossible to obey. Reverence for God frees the conscience from treating the king’s voice as ultimate. Acts 5:29 gives the apostolic expression of that duty: “We ought to obey God rather than men”.7

This courage is specific. The midwives cannot abolish slavery or prevent every later crime. They can refuse to kill the children placed in their care. Hidden service can feel small because it does not end the whole evil. Scripture honors it because the life of a person is never small. The servant who protects someone from humiliation, the employee who refuses a dishonest act, and the adult who seeks safety for a threatened child begin with the responsibility actually entrusted to them.

Mercy, truthfulness, and families (Exodus 1:18-21; Greek/Brenton 1:18-21)

18: And the king of Egypt called the midwives, and said to them, Why is it that ye have done this thing, and saved the male children alive? 19: And the midwives said to Pharao, The Hebrew women are not as the women of Egypt, for they are delivered before the midwives go in to them. So they bore children. 20: And God did well to the midwives, and the people multiplied, and grew very strong. 21: And as the midwives feared God, they established for themselves families.

The king summons the women because the children are alive. Their answer says that births occur before they arrive. The narrative explicitly praises their fear of God and the saving of life; it does not give a separate judgment on the truth of every detail in their explanation. That distinction keeps the ethical question from swallowing the chapter, while still leaving truthfulness morally serious.

Gems from the Fathers: Mercy, truthfulness, and families

St. Augustine addresses this exact episode in Against Lying, sections 32-34. He regards their reply as a lie, but distinguishes it from the mercy for which God rewarded them. He writes: “That therefore which was rewarded in them was, not their deceit, but their benevolence; benignity of mind, not iniquity of lying.”8

His conclusion is stronger than merely saying that the narrative leaves the question open. Augustine refuses to turn the reward into permission for lying and argues that the women should refuse the killing without speaking falsely, even at danger to themselves. This is his moral reading, not an additional sentence of Exodus. It holds mercy and truth together: the king’s wicked command has no claim on their obedience, and the defense of life must not become a habit of praising deceit.

A frightened person facing abuse or danger should not be required to work through an ethical debate before seeking safety. Refusing a murderous or abusive demand, concealing someone from a threat, and obtaining appropriate help are not obligations to cooperate with the aggressor. The passage forms conscience against evil commands; it cannot be used to demand that the vulnerable expose themselves or another person to harm.

Verse 20 plainly says that God did well to the midwives. Verse 21 then says, “they established for themselves families”. Brenton gives the women as the actors in that second statement. The Hebrew-based NKJV instead says that God provided households for them. These readings belong beside one another, not silently substituted for one another. In the displayed text, women who have protected the families of others establish families of their own, within the account of God’s favor.9

The reversal is a sign of future where Pharaoh demands death. It is not a guarantee that faithful women will marry or have children, nor a measure by which to judge someone who remains unmarried or bears the sorrow of infertility. God’s approval in verse 20 is already explicit. Neither family circumstance nor immediate visible success can serve as a reliable measure of holiness.

The river and the reversal to come (Exodus 1:22; Greek/Brenton 1:22)

22: And Pharao charged all his people, saying, Whatever male child shall be born to the Hebrews, cast into the river; and every female, save it alive.

When the midwives refuse him, Pharaoh spreads the order to all his people. A failed secret command becomes public violence. The river is made the place into which children must be cast. The chapter ends before rescue is visible, with a decree that makes the next account of Moses’ birth urgent.

Wisdom interprets the later judgments in direct relation to this decree. Wisdom 11:6-7 (Septuagint) connects the river troubled with blood to the command by which infants were killed. Wisdom 18:5 (Septuagint) joins the intended killing of the children, the rescue of one child, and the destruction of the oppressors in mighty water. These are scriptural explanations of the reversal, not simply a Christian reader’s imaginative association.10

Matthew 2:13-18 carries the threat against children into the account of Herod and the infant Christ. Egypt, the place of Pharaoh’s decree, becomes a refuge for the Holy Family from another ruler’s violence. The pattern points to the true Deliverer without making murdered children incidental to His story. Matthew preserves their lament; Exodus likewise refuses to let Pharaoh’s policy become an acceptable background detail.11

The Church’s Voice in Worship: The river and the reversal to come

The First Hoos of Coptic Midnight Praise sings the sea-crossing victory of Exodus 15. It names Pharaoh’s chariots and army and praises the Lord for leading His redeemed people toward His holy habitation. Read beside Exodus 1, this thanksgiving reaches back to the danger that seemed to govern Israel’s future. The power that ordered children into water will not finally own the water or the people.12

This is a connection to the later Exodus song, not an appointment of Exodus 1 as a lection. The Church’s praise allows the threatened people of this chapter to remain in our memory when we sing of victory. Deliverance means that the Lord hears suffering and acts, not that we learn to become indifferent to it.

Spiritual Fruit

Let gratitude protect another person’s dignity. Pharaoh’s forgetting opens the way to cruelty. Remember someone whose labor or kindness sustained you, especially someone whose service has become easy to overlook. Thank that person plainly, and change one demand that treats a helper as though availability were their whole identity.

Refuse the evil assigned to you. The midwives preserve the lives within their care before they can see how the nation will be delivered. Identify a particular pressure to conceal harm, humiliate someone, or cooperate with dishonesty. Seek wise support and take the faithful step available to you. Christian courage is not measured by how much of the world one can control.

Receive hidden service without resentment. Care can remain unseen for years. The named women stand before a king who assumes they will obey him, and Scripture remembers their reverence for God. Bring the desire for recognition into prayer, then continue the work of mercy without treating the person you serve as a debtor.

Keep mercy joined to truth. Augustine’s distinction between benevolence and deceit turns the heart toward honest repentance. Refuse to praise a falsehood merely because it protected your convenience. Ask Christ for courage to speak truthfully, withhold cooperation from evil, and protect those in danger with practical help.

At the end of this chapter Pharaoh still speaks and the children are still threatened. Faith has already taken form in the women who refuse him. Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen those who protect vulnerable lives, comfort those who grieve, and teach us to fear You more than the approval of the powerful.

Footnotes

  1. Compare Brenton, Exodus 1:5 and Deuteronomy 10:22, with Acts 7:14 and NKJV, Exodus 1:5. 🔗 🔗 ↩

  2. Brenton, Exodus 5:2, compared with Exodus 1:8. 🔗 ↩

  3. Brenton, Genesis 41:45, compared with Exodus 1:11. 🔗 ↩

  4. Brenton, Genesis 15:13-14 and Psalm 105:23-25 (LXX 104:23-25). 🔗 🔗 ↩

  5. NKJV, Exodus 1:15; Brenton, Exodus 2:21. 🔗 🔗 ↩

  6. Swete’s Septuagint, Exodus 1:15, “ταῖς μαίαις τῶν Ἐβραίων”, reproduced on Bible Hub. The genitive relation is insufficient by itself to decide ethnicity; no further ethnic identification is asserted here. 🔗 ↩

  7. Acts 5:29, NKJV. 🔗 ↩

  8. St. Augustine, To Consentius, Against Lying, section 32; compare sections 33-34 for his stronger argument against lying even under threat. Translated by H. Browne, NPNF, First Series, volume 3. Public-domain text. 🔗 ↩

  9. Brenton, Exodus 1:21, compared with NKJV, Exodus 1:21. Swete’s Greek likewise gives a plural verb and “for themselves”. 🔗 🔗 🔗 ↩

  10. Brenton, Wisdom 11:6-7 (Septuagint) and 18:5, on infant killing and the water judgments. 🔗 🔗 ↩

  11. Matthew 2:13-18, including both the flight into Egypt and the lament for the slain children. 🔗 ↩

  12. The First Hoos, Coptic Midnight Praise, English translation of St. Antony Monastery, as printed in Tasbeha.org’s Hymn Library; compare Exodus 15. 🔗 ↩

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