Exodus 1King James Version
Generations have passed. The descendants of Jacob have multiplied so much that a new Pharaoh, who knew not Joseph, becomes afraid. He puts them under bitter slavery. When that fails to slow them down, he orders the Hebrew midwives to kill every newborn boy. The midwives fear God and refuse.
Israel has multiplied in Egypt since Joseph's time. A new Pharaoh, fearing their numbers, enslaves them with brutal labor building Pithom and Raamses. When oppression fails to slow their growth, he orders the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah to kill newborn boys. They refuse, fear God, and survive. Pharaoh escalates: every son born to Hebrews must be thrown into the Nile.
When a nation tries to break a people through fear, those who fear God quietly outlast every empire that threatens them.
v12: "But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew" -- oppression itself becomes the evidence that no human power can cancel a divine promise.
Around 1446 or 1290 BC, Egypt under a powerful New Kingdom pharaoh. Hebrew clans fill the eastern Nile delta, Goshen, where generations ago Joseph settled them. The Nile is sacred. Mud-brick labor under the sun is backbreaking. The midwife's mat is a private, intimate space. Pharaoh reaches even there.
Pharaoh, the unnamed new king who knows nothing of Joseph, drives the policy of fear; Shiphrah and Puah, the midwives, defy the kill order at personal risk; the Hebrew people collectively absorb abuse and keep growing.
This chapter opens the central story of the Old Testament: God delivering a powerless people from the world's greatest empire. Every later theme of Exodus, liberation, covenant, and faithfulness under pressure, is seeded here. Paul cites this chapter's logic in Romans 8.
For when you feel crushed by a system designed to grind you down and you are starting to wonder if resistance even matters. Watch two midwives choose conscience over compliance, and notice what happens next.
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.