Exodus 1:22
in Exodus 1Then Pharaoh commanded all his people: “Every son born to the Hebrews you must throw into the Nile, but every daughter you may allow to live.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
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.
KJV
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.
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This verse in Exodus 1
Commentary
8 notes on this verseAnd Pharaoh charged all his people,.... Finding he could not carry his point with the midwives, he gave a general order to all his people everywhere: saying, every son that is born ye shall cast into the river; the river Nile; not every son born in his kingdom, for this would have ruined it in time; but that was born to the Jews, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; and it is added in the Septuagint version, to the Hebrews: and every daughter ye shall save alive; for the reasons given See Gill on Exo 1:16.
This site's exposition
Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river
The third measure drops the pretence of policy, goes to the whole population, and makes the Nile the instrument. Egypt's life came out of that river and Adam Clarke notes that the river was itself an object of worship, so the killing is done in the water the country depended on. The first plague turns that river to blood at 7:20, which answers the decree in the place where it was carried out. The decree also spares the daughters, and the next chapter has a Hebrew mother, a sister and Pharaoh's own daughter save one child, in a basket the text calls an ark, using the word for Noah's vessel and for nothing else in the Old Testament.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
Just as Pharaoh was drowned in those very waters in which he had drowned the infants, so too David removed Goliath's head with that very sword with which he had destroyed many. Moses divided the waters through the symbol of the cross, while David laid …
Because they feared God, they built up houses. Without the fear of God, a house cannot be built. If then with the fear of God houses were built by those who had not committed sin but rather did their building at God's pleasure, we who have been captured, what must we do? Listen, sinner; we must fear God, indeed, to avoid sin; but after shipwreck there is the second plank of repentance. "When the house was being built after captivity." "When the house was being built," not "was built," for repentance is without limit.
A commentator
John ChrysostomHOMILIES ON ACTS 54, AT ACTS 20:17 · Written in the 5th century.
proposed
And that you may learn this—Pharaoh commanded the infants to be cast into the river. Unless the infants had been cast forth, Moses would not have been saved, he would not have been brought up in the palace. When he was safe, he was not in honor; when he was exposed, then he was in honor. But God did this, to show His riches of resource and contrivance.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
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.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Ye shall cast into the river - As the Nile, which is here intended, was a sacred river among the Egyptians, it is not unlikely that Pharaoh intended the young Hebrews as an offering to his god, having two objects in view: 1. To increase the fertility of the country by thus procuring, as he might suppose, a proper and sufficient annual inundation; and 2. To prevent an increase of population among the Israelites, and in process of time procure their entire extermination.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
The extreme cruelty of the measure does not involve improbability. Hatred of strangers was always a characteristic of the Egyptians (see Gen 43:32), and was likely to be stronger than ever after the expulsion of an alien race.
The words behind it
13 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיְצַ֣ו | vaytzav | and he commanded | H6680 → | 494 times |
| פַּרְעֹ֔ה | paroh | Pharaoh | H6547 → | 274 times |
| לְכָל־ | lekhol | to all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| עַמּ֖וֹ | amo | people his | H5971 → | 1873 times |
| לֵאמֹ֑ר | lemor | <to> saying | H559 → | 5305 times |
| כָּל־ | kol- | every | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| הַבֵּ֣ן | haben | <the> son | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| הַיִּלּ֗וֹד | haiyilod | <the> born | H3209 → | |
| הַיְאֹ֙רָה֙ | hayorah | the River towards | H2975 → | 65 times |
| תַּשְׁלִיכֻ֔הוּ | tashlikhuhu | you will throw him | H7993 → | 125 times |
| וְכָל־ | vekhol | and every | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| הַבַּ֖ת | habat | <the> daughter | H1323 → | 588 times |
| תְּחַיּֽוּן׃ ס | techaiyun | you will let live ! | H2421 → | 282 times |
וַיְצַ֣וand he commanded
vaytzavH6680 →494 times
פַּרְעֹ֔הPharaoh
parohH6547 →274 times
לְכָל־to all
lekholH3605 →5413 times
עַמּ֖וֹpeople his
amoH5971 →1873 times
לֵאמֹ֑ר<to> saying
lemorH559 →5305 times
כָּל־every
kol-H3605 →5413 times
הַבֵּ֣ן<the> son
habenH1121 →4930 times
הַיִּלּ֗וֹד<the> born
haiyilodH3209 →
הַיְאֹ֙רָה֙the River towards
hayorahH2975 →65 times
תַּשְׁלִיכֻ֔הוּyou will throw him
tashlikhuhuH7993 →125 times
וְכָל־and every
vekholH3605 →5413 times
הַבַּ֖ת<the> daughter
habatH1323 →588 times
תְּחַיּֽוּן׃ סyou will let live !
techaiyunH2421 →282 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Proverbs 4:16For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone fall.
it leads to
- Psalms 36:4
Even on his bed he plots wickedness; he sets himself on a path that is not good; he fails to reject evil.
- Micah 2:1
Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands.
- Isaiah 57:20
But the wicked are like the storm-tossed sea, for it cannot be still, and its waves churn up mire and muck.
- 2 Peter 2:14
Their eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed.
- Proverbs 1:16
For their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed blood.
- Psalms 36:4
Through
Proverbs 1:16For their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed blood.
it leads to
- Isaiah 59:7
Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction lie in their wake.
- Proverbs 6:18
a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that run swiftly to evil,
- Isaiah 59:7
Through
Psalms 105:25whose hearts He turned to hate His people, to conspire against His servants.
it leads to
- Acts 7:19
He exploited our people and oppressed our fathers, forcing them to abandon their infants so they would die.
- Acts 7:19
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Exodus
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ephrem the Syrian, COMMENTARY ON TATIAN'S DIATESSARON 12; Jerome, HOMILY 72; John Chrysostom, HOMILIES ON ACTS 54, AT ACTS 20:17; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.