The Israelites are multiplied in Egypt. They are oppressed by a new king, who commandeth all their male children to be killed.
The smal number of Israelites much increasing in Aegypt, 6. especially after the death of Ioseph and his brethren, 8. a new king, that knew not Ioseph in vaine striueth to hinder their multiplication, 11. by imposing workes vpon them, 15. and by commanding to kil, 22. and to drowne al the malchildren of them. God in the meane time rewardeth the midwiues, that fearing him, killed not the children.
1These are the names of the children of Israel, that went into Egypt with Jacob: they went in every man with his household:Questi sono i nomi dei figliuoli d'Israele, che entrarono in Egitto con Giacobbe: ciascheduno vi andò colla sua famiglia:THESE be the names of the children of Israel, that entred into Aegypt with Iacob: they did enter in euerie one with their houses,Hæc sunt nomina filiorum Israël qui ingressi sunt in Ægyptum cum Jacob: singuli cum domibus suis introierunt: 2Ruben, Simeon, Levi, Juda,Ruben, Simeon, Levi, Giuda,Ruben, Simeon, Leui, Iudas,Ruben, Simeon, Levi, Judas, 3Issachar, Zabulon, and Benjamin,Issachar, Zabulon, e Beniamin,Issachar, Zabulon, and Beniamin,Issachar, Zabulon et Benjamin, 4Dan, and Nephthali, Gad and Aser.Dan, e Nephthali, Gad, e Aser.Dan, and Neptali, Gad, and Aser.Dan et Nephthali, Gad et Aser. 5And all the souls that came out of Jacob’s thigh, were seventy: but Joseph was in Egypt.Erano adunque tutte le anime di coloro, che eran nati di Giacobbe, settanta: Giuseppe poi era in Egitto.Therfore al the soules that came out of Iacobs thigh, were seuentie: and Ioseph was in Aegypt.Erant igitur omnes animæ eorum qui egressi sunt de femore Jacob, septuaginta: Joseph autem in Ægypto erat. 6After he was dead, and all his brethren, and all that generation,Dopo la morte del quale, e de' fratelli di lui, e di tutta quella generazione,Who being dead, and al his brethren, and al that generation,Quo mortuo, et universis fratribus ejus, omnique cognatione illa, 7The children of Israel increased, and sprung up into multitudes, and growing exceedingly strong they filled the land.I figliuoli d'Israele crebbero, e come l'erba moltiplicarono; e rinforzatisi oltre ogni credere riempierono quella terra.the children of Israel increased, and as it were springing vp did multiplie: and growing strong exceedingly, filled the land.filii Israël creverunt, et quasi germinantes multiplicati sunt: ac roborati nimis, impleverunt terram. 8In the mean time there arose a new king over Egypt, that knew not Joseph:Si levò su frattanto un nuovo re in Egitto, il quale nulla sapea di Giuseppe:In the meane time there arose a new king ouer Aegypt, that knew not Ioseph:Surrexit interea rex novus super Ægyptum, qui ignorabat Joseph. 9And he said to his people: Behold the people of the children of Israel are numerous and stronger than we.E disse al suo popolo: Ecco che il popolo de' figliuoli d'Israele è numeroso, e ne può più di noi.and he said to his people: Behold the people of the children of Israel is much, and stronger then we.Et ait ad populum suum: Ecce, populus filiorum Israël multus, et fortior nobis est.
10Come let us wisely oppress them, lest they multiply: and if any war shall rise against us, join with our enemies, and having overcome us, depart out of the land.Su via, vediam d'opprimerlo con arte, affinché non si vada ingrossando; e in caso che ci sia mossa guerra, si unisca co' nostri nemici, e vinti noi, se ne vada da questo paese.Come, let vs wisely oppresse the same, lest perhaps it multiplie: and if there shal be anie warre against vs, it ioyne with our enemies, and we being ouerthrowne, they depart out of the land.Venite, sapienter opprimamus eum, ne forte multiplicetur: et si ingruerit contra nos bellum, addatur inimicis nostris, expugnatisque nobis egrediatur de terra. 11Therefore he set over them masters of the works, to afflict them with burdens: and they built for Pharao cities of tabernacles, Phithom, and Ramesses.Dette adunque ad essi de' soprastanti a' lavori, affinché questi li caricassero di pesi: ed essi fabbricarono a Faraone le città de' tabernacoli, Phithom, e Ramesses.Therfore he set ouer them maisters of the workes, to afflict them with burdens: and they built vnto Pharao cities of tabernacles, Phithom, and Ramesses.Præposuit itaque eis magistros operum, ut affligerent eos oneribus: ædificaveruntque urbes tabernaculorum Pharaoni, Phithom et Ramesses. 12But the more they oppressed them, the more they were multiplied and increased.Ma quanto più gli opprimevano, tanto più moltiplicavano, e crescevano.And the more they did oppresse them, so much the more they multiplied, and increased:Quantoque opprimebant eos, tanto magis multiplicabantur, et crescebant: 13And the Egyptians hated the children of Israel, and afflicted them and mocked them:E gli Egiziani aveano in odio gl'Israeliti, e aggiungevano allo strazio gl'insulti:and the Aegyptians hated the children of Israël, and deriding afflicted them:oderantque filios Israël Ægyptii, et affligebant illudentes eis, 14And they made their life bitter with hard works in clay and brick, and with all manner of service, wherewith they were overcharged in the works of the earth.E rendevan loro amara la vita col caricarli di faticosi lavori di terra cotta, e a far de' mattoni, e in ogni specie di servitù, onde gli angariavano ne' lavori di campagna.and they brought their life into bitternes with the hard workes of clay, and bricke, and with al seruice, wherewith they were pressed in the workes of the earth.atque ad amaritudinem perducebant vitam eorum operibus duris luti et lateris, omnique famulatu, quo in terræ operibus premebantur. 15And the king of Egypt spoke to the midwives of the Hebrews: of whom one was called Sephora, the other Phua,E il re d'Egitto parlò alle levatrici degli Ebrei, delle quali l'una chiamavasi Sephora, l'altra Phua,And the King of Aegypt said to the mid wiues of the Hebrewes: of whom one was called Sephora, the other Phua,Dixit autem rex Ægypti obstetricibus Hebræorum, quarum una vocabatur Sephora, altera Phua, 16Commanding them: When you shall do the office of midwives to the Hebrew women, and the time of delivery is come: if it be a man child, kill it: if a woman, keep it alive.E fece loro questo comando: Quando assisterete le donne Ebree nel tempo del parto, se sarà un maschio, uccidetelo; se una femmina, salvatela.commanding them: When you shal be midwiues to the Hebrew wemen, and the time of deliuerie is come: if it be a manchild, kil it: if a woman, reserue her.præcipiens eis: Quando obstetricabitis Hebræas, et partus tempus advenerit: si masculus fuerit, interficite eum: si femina, reservate.
17But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded, but saved the men children.Ma le levatrici temettero Dio, e non obbedirono al comando del re d'Egitto; ma salvavano i maschi.But the midwiues feared God, and did not according to the commandement of the king of Aegypt, but preserued the menchildren.Timuerunt autem obstetrices Deum, et non fecerunt juxta præceptum regis Ægypti, sed conservabant mares. 18And the king called for them and said: What is it that you meant to do, that you would save the men children?E chiamatele a sé il re disse loro: Che è quello che voi avete voluto fare in salvando i bambini?To whom being called vnto him, the king said: What is this that you ment to do, that you would saue the men-children?Quibus ad se accersitis, rex ait: Quidnam est hoc quod facere voluistis, ut pueros servaretis ? 19They answered: The Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women: for they themselves are skilful in the office of a midwife; and they are delivered before we come to them.Risposer quelle: Non sono le donne Ebree, come l'Egiziane: perocché elle sanno aiutarsi ne' loro parti, e partoriscono prima che noi andiamo ad assisterle.Who answered: The Hebrew wemem are not as the Aegyptian wemen: for they haue the knowledge to play the mindwife them selues, and before we come to them, they are deliuered.Quæ responderunt: Non sunt Hebreæ sicut ægyptiæ mulieres: ipsæ enim obstetricandi habent scientiam, et priusquam veniamus ad eas, pariunt. 20Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied and grew exceedingly strong.Dio pertanto fece del bene alle levatrici: e il popolo cresceva e diventava possente formisura.God therfore did wel to the midwiues: and the people encreased, and became strong exceedingly.Bene ergo fecit Deus obstetricibus: et crevit populus, confortatusque est nimis. 21And because the midwives feared God, he built them houses.E perché le levatrici temettero Dio, egli stabilì le case loro.And because the midwiues feared God, 〈…〉e built them housesEt quia timuerunt obstetrices Deum, ædificavit eis domos. 22Pharao therefore charged all his people, saying: Whatsoever shall be born of the male sex, ye shall cast into the river: whatsoever of the female, ye shall save alive.Intimò adunque Faraone a tutto il suo popolo quest'ordine: Tutti i maschi, che nasceranno, gettateli nel fiume; e serbate tutte le femmine.Pharao therfore commanded al his people, saying: Whatsoeuer shal be borne of the male sex, cast it into the riuer: whatsoeuer of the female, reserue it.Præcepit ergo Pharao omni populo suo, dicens: Quidquid masculini sexus natum fuerit, in flumen projicite: quidquid feminini, reservate.
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Seventy: Septuagint, "75," including the offspring of Joseph. See Genesis 46:26.
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Calmet
Generation, or race of mortals who had seen his wonderful works. The tyrant, who knew not Joseph, began his reign about 58 years after that patriarch's death. (Calmet)
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Haydock
Numerous. Calvisius observes, that from Ephraim alone might have sprung 4,112,323,729 people. See St. Augustine, q. 43, etc. (Haydock)
Tirinus
In the space of 215 years, 70 people may produce an immense multitude, as Bonfrere shews by an accurate calculation. God also was pleased to bless the Hebrews with fecundity, so that they sprung up (ebullierunt) like frogs or fishes, ver. 7. In Egypt, the women had sometimes seven at a birth (Pliny, Natural History 7:3,) and Aristotle (Anim. 7:4,) mentions one woman who had 20 children at four births. (Tirinus)
Calmet
Stronger. This might easily be true, if this king had only Thebais under his command. But if he was king of all Egypt, it seems an exaggeration. (Calmet)
Haydock
Indeed, human policy often gives birth to all kinds of wickedness. The king justifies his cruelty on this pretext of self-defence. He wishes to keep the Hebrews under; yet he is not willing to let them depart, as he knew they intended, according to Joseph's prediction. (Haydock)
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Masters. Cruel like himself, who not only made them build without proper materials, (ver. 14, and Exodus 5:10, Haydock,) but oppressed them with heavy burdens of brick and tile. Hence Aristophanes calls the Hebrews in derision Plinthophoroi. This servitude is styled the iron furnace of Egypt, Deuteronomy 4:20; Jeremias 11:4.
Challoner
Of tabernacles, or of storehouses. (Challoner)
Calmet
To keep his treasures, Chaldean, or "fortresses," Septuagint. It may also be the name of a city, Miscenoth, Exodus 12:37. Phithom, perhaps the same as the town of Heroum, where the Septuagint say Joseph first met his father, Genesis 46:28. Ramesses was the capital, and situate in the Arabic nome. (Calmet)
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Menochius
Service. They were forced to till the land, reap, etc. (Menochius)
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Calmet
The time, etc. Hebrew, "and you shall see them upon the two stones." Abenaim. Jeremias (xviii. 3,) uses the same expression, speaking of a potter hard at work. (Calmet)
Menochius
A woman, from whom nothing could be feared, to be reserved for service and for pleasure. (Menochius)
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Menochius
Skilful, etc. Hebrew Caioth means midwives: or they are full of vigour, or bring forth alive, like brutes. By this allusion they not only excuse themselves, but seem also to enter into the king's sentiments of hatred and scorn for the Hebrews. (Menochius)
Calmet
Women in Egypt, and in the eastern regions, are easily delivered, and hardly stand in need of any assistance. (Ludolf) (1 Kings 4:19.) Perhaps, therefore, the midwives spoke truth, with regard to the generality of the Hebrew women. But they gave way to a lie of excuse, with regard to some, (ver. 17,) which St. Augustine would not allow, even to save all the Hebrew children. (contra Mend. 15.) It was not so easy to discover this delusion, as women in that country seldom appear in public; and hence Jochabed was enabled to hide Moses so long. (Calmet)
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Challoner
Because the midwives feared God, etc. The midwives were rewarded, not for their lie, which was a venial sin; but for their fear of God, and their humanity; but this reward was only temporal, in building them houses, that is, in establishing and enriching their families. (Challoner)
Worthington
This alone the Scripture specifies, though they might also be filled with heavenly graces. (Worthington)
Some conclude from this verse, that the midwives embraced the true religion. The Hebrew refers built them to the Hebrews, as if they multiplied in consequence of the humanity of these women; (Calmet) and the Vulgate may be explained in the same sense. (Haydock) De Muis supposes, that Pharao ordered houses to be built for the midwives, where the Hebrew women were forced to appear when they were to be delivered, in the presence of commissaries.
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Haydock
The river Nile, where the persecuting successor of this king found his end. (Haydock)
Calmet
It seems this inhuman decree was not published till after Aaron was born, and it was probably revoked soon after the birth of Moses; for if it had been rigorously put in execution, there would have been nothing but old men 80 years after, when Moses led the people out of Egypt. (Calmet)
Menochius
But perhaps even the Egyptians abhorred and refused to execute this edict. (Menochius)
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Of tabernacles.... Or, of storehouses.
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Because the midwives feared God, etc.... The midwives were rewarded, not for their lie, which was a venial sin; but for their fear of God, and their humanity: but this reward was only temporal, in building them houses, that is, in establishing and enriching their families.
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The first part of this booke. Of the Israelites seruile affliction in Aegypt, and their deliuerie from thence.
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Enuie, vaine feare, (v. 10.) & hatred of true religiō (v. 13.) are the causes why Infidels persecute the faithful.
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The first persecution was in temporal losses and bodilie paines, by pressing them with workes.
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The second was secrete murther.
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17. But the midvviues feared God.] In commendation of the midwiues not God must be feared before Princes commanding contrarie things. obeying the kings commandment, Moyses opposeth the feare of God, to the feare of Princes; shewing therby that when their commandments are contrarie, the subiects must feare God, and not do that the Prince commandem. So Mat 10. Luc. 12. Act. 4. & 5. did our Sauiour himself teach, and that for feare of damnation, saying: Feare him vvho hath povver to cast into het And so his Apor•les indued with the Holie Ghost, practised, answering in this case, that they must heare God rather then men. Againe, God must be obeyed rather then men. Alwayes vnderstood, when they Princes must be obeyed in lawful things. are contrarie For otherwise both S. Peter and S. Paul teach vs, that Princes, 1. Pet 2. Ro. 13. yea Infidels, of whom they especially speake, must be obeyed:
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19. Hebrevv vvemen are not.] Herein the midwiues sinned. For it is neuer lawful to lye. Because the lavv of God is truth, wherby S. Augustin proueth (li. coot. mend. c. 10) Allies are sinnes and vnlawful. Psal. 11• v. 142. that whatsoeuer varieth from truth is vnlawful. VVhen therfore (saith he) examples of lying are proposed to vs out of holie Scripture, either they are not lies, but are thought to be, whiles they are not vnderstood, o• if they be lies, they are not to be imitated, because they are vnlawful. • Gregorie teacheth the same (li. 18. Moral. c. 20.) Q••a proselt• ab 〈◊〉 discrep it, quitquid• •eritate discord•t: Because assuredly vvhatsoeuer disagreeth from veritie, differeth from equitie. Yet these fathers. hold such an officious lye, as this Venial sinnes. was, to be a lesse sinne, and more easily pardoned, and purged by good workes folowing.
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21. Because the midwiues feared God.] Feare of God •s 〈◊〉 is properly taken in holie Scripture is that holie feared by which the children of God refraine Feare of God. meritorious. from sinne, and that with temporal danger. lest they should ofend the diuine Maiestie. So these midwiues endangering their owne liues, by not fullfiling Pharaos commandment, had the true feare of God, and for the same were rewarded, Temporal rewardes promised in the old Testamēt, eternal in the new. as is most probable, eternally: though mention be here made only of temporal reward; after the 〈…〉 of the old 〈◊〉. VVhere such promises were made to Abraham, and other most godlie Patriarches, for an assay only and •aist of euerlasting life, which is more expresly promised in the Gospel of Christ. as S. Hierom teacheth, Epist. ad Dardanum.
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The third was open murther.
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St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 32
… and—to speak frankly to a friend—I have found several variations which confirm our faith. After having exactly revised the prophets, Solomon, the psalter, and the books of Kings, I am now engaged on Exodus (called by the Jews, from its opening words, Eleh shemôth
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 1
… But nevertheless, letting go all these and throwing away the very sceptres of Egypt, he hastened to join himself unto captives, and men worn down with toil, whose strength was spent in the clay and the making of bricks, men whom his own slaves abhorred, (for, saith he ( ἐβδελύσσοντο , Sept.
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Tertullian † AD 220 On Monogamy 16
… Let them accumulate by their iterated marriages fruits right seasonable for the last times—breasts heaving, and wombs qualmish, and infants whimpering. Let them prepare for Antichrist (children) upon whom he may more passionately (than Pharaoh) spend his savagery. He will lead to them murderous midwives.
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 21.33
… sending him forth an ambitious monarch—and bringing him back a corpse for which no one even felt pity; which, as I have heard, was not allowed to rest in the grave, but was shaken out and thrown up by the earth which he had shaken: a prelude—I take it—to his future chastisement. Then another king arose,
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Exhortation to Martyrdom, Addressed to Fortunatus 10
… One hope have I sought of the Lord, this will I require; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.” Also in Exodus, the Holy Scripture declares that we are rather multiplied and increased by afflictions, saying: “And the more they afflicted them, so much the more they became greater, and waxed stronger.”
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.30.2
… “And the Egyptians exercised their power rigorously upon the children of Israel; and they made life bitter to them by severe labours, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field which they did, by all the works in which they oppressed them with rigour.”
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 13.10
… but those who are strangers to them, while they are free in relation to things beyond the earth, are as slaves in respect of those who lord it over them and keep them in bondage; as the Egyptians lorded it over the children of Israel, and greatly afflicted their life and violently held them in bondage.
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 54
… ( Exod. i. 22 .) 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 Jew threatened him, saying, “Wouldest thou kill me?” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 41.2
… For even as regards freedom in this life, how was that the truth when you said, “We were never in bondage to any man”? Was not Joseph sold? Were not the holy prophets led into captivity? And again, did not that very nation, when making bricks in Egypt, also serve hard rulers, not only in gold and silver, but also in clay?
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St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 4.2
… Whence, also, they say that Pharaoh was a type of the devil in Egypt, since he mercilessly commanded the males to be cast into the river,
St Ephrem the Syrian † AD 373 Ephraim Syrus: Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh 12
Satan also who strangled the little ones that Moses might perish,
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St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 Against Eunomius 1-2.27
… “The same energies produce sameness of works.” Let us test this by facts. The energy of fire is always one and the same; it consists in heating: but what sort of agreement do its results show? Bronze melts in it; mud hardens; wax vanishes: while all other animals are destroyed by it, the salamander is preserved alive
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Against Lying 32
32. But, as for that which is written, that God did good to the Hebrew midwives, and to Rahab the harlot of Jericho,
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Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 2.20
… It was plainly less than their due which He commanded to be exacted. The Egyptians ought to have given back their men-children
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Lying 5
… of Jacob questioned by his father, and answering that he was the elder son Esau: likewise that of the Egyptian midwives, who to save the Hebrew infants from being slain at their birth, told a lie, and that with God’s approbation and reward:
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 5.7
… but if that which is not be spoken, it is a lie. Therefore saith he, “Thou wilt destroy all that speak a lie;” because drawing back from that which is, they turn aside to that which is not. Many lies indeed seem to be for some one’s safety or advantage, spoken not in malice, but in kindness: such was that of those midwives in Exodus,
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 54
… for it was not permitted them to deal with his matter at their own will. For this is a marvellous thing, that not by the things which seem to be for our security, but by their very opposites, all comes to be for us. And that you may learn this—Pharaoh commanded the infants to be cast into the river. (
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1. THESE ARE THE NAMES, — ואלה שמות veelle scemot, and these are the names; where the vau seems to join this history of Exodus with the end of Genesis, and to continue it. For formerly the Pentateuch was one continuous book; which posterity afterwards divided into five sections or books. Add that the Hebrew vau often abounds through pleonasm, and serves only for ornament, especially at the beginning of a discourse or sentence. Whence also Ezechiel thus begins: "And it came to pass in the thirtieth year"; therefore the vau and, among the Hebrews, is often merely a mark of the beginning of discourse, and begins the oration. EACH ONE WITH THEIR HOUSEHOLDS ENTERED. — "Households," that is sons and grandsons: for household among the Hebrews often signifies offspring, because it is as it were the structure of the father: thus the Lord promised to David that He would give him a house, that is a royal offspring, II Kings VII, 11. But Achab a house, that is a royal line, He would overturn, III Kings XXI, 29. Thus Rachel and Lia built a house, that is the race of Israel, Ruth IV, verse 11. Thus also the Greeks, Latins, Gauls, Flemings, Spanish, and Italians take house. Hence the Poet: When the house of Assaracus shall rule over conquered Argos. Secondly, rightly is house taken by metonymy for family, and the whole domestic matter which is contained in the house, as Aristotle almost takes house, lib. I Politic. cap. I, when he says: "A house is an economic association, consisting of a man, wife, children, servants, an ox and other animals." Whence the Chaldean translates, each one entered with the men of his house, namely with sons and servants, and their household goods and domestic property; for this in fact was thus done as is clear from Genesis XLVI, 8. Thus Procopius, Bede and St. Augustine here, in the first discourse.
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2, 3. REUBEN, SIMEON, etc. BENJAMIN. — This is not the order of birth: for thus Benjamin, as the youngest, ought to be last; but it is the order of the conjugal bed. For the first six are the sons of Jacob's first wife, namely Lia; the seventh, namely Benjamin, is the son of Jacob's second wife, namely Rachel; the two following sons are the sons of the third wife, namely the handmaid Bala; the two last are the sons of the fourth, namely Zelpha.
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5. THEREFORE ALL THE SOULS OF THEM THAT CAME OUT OF THE THIGH OF JACOB WERE SEVENTY. — "Souls," that is men; it is a synecdoche. The Seventy translate, all the souls that came out of the thigh of Jacob were seventy. Where it is clear that souls are taken for men. For it is certain that the soul of a man does not come out of the thigh, nor is it born from the transmission of parents: which that our Interpreter might indicate, he clearly translated, the souls of them that came out, etc. The Hebrew either way, but better in this latter way, with Ours and the Chaldean. Here is noted the number of the Hebrews entering Egypt, namely that they were 70, so that that wonderful fecundity of multiplying the seed promised to Abraham the grandfather, Genesis cap. XIII, 16, and Genesis XV, 5, might be seen to be most truly fulfilled by God, when in 215 years, during which they lived in Egypt, they were so increased in number that besides children and wives, six hundred thousand men on foot were numbered in the departure, cap. XII, verse 37. SEVENTY, — if you count Joseph with his two sons, as is clear from Genesis XLVI. Wherefore what Moses immediately subjoins here: "But Joseph was in Egypt," contains an exception, not from what immediately preceded, but from what he had said a little before verse 1: "These are the names of the sons of Israel, who entered into Egypt." For the Hebrews do not always regard what immediately precedes, but often what is above and more remote. But the sense is, as if Moses said: In verse 1 among the sons of Jacob entering into Egypt, I did not count Joseph; because Joseph had already been before and was in Egypt.
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6. WHEN HE WAS DEAD, AND ALL HIS KINDRED. — "Kindred," namely of his sons, both his own and those of his brothers, that is his nephews from his brothers; which is the nearest and greatest kinship, as if to say: When Joseph and his brothers died, and their sons, namely in the second generation of them, or in their nephews. Whence the Hebrew for kindred is דור dor, that is generation, or age, as if to say: When that generation died, or that age, namely when those Seventy who had entered Egypt with Jacob died, then immediately the children of Israel grew wonderfully and were multiplied, who were the sons and descendants of those first Seventy.
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7. AS GERMINATING. — In Hebrew it is ישרצו veïsretsu, that is they swarmed like frogs and fishes, whose breeding and multiplication is wonderful, beyond birds and land animals: and this both on account of the abundance of moisture, as Pliny wishes, lib. IX, cap. II; and because they generate in all seasons of the year, as Aristotle teaches, lib. VI De Animal. cap. XVII. Note here that our Interpreter sometimes employs different similitudes and metaphors than those in the Hebrew, when the matter is the same and the sense identical: especially if his be more familiar to us or clearer than that which is in the Hebrew, as is this of germinating before that of frogs and fishes. For this is permitted, indeed it befits a faithful Interpreter. Furthermore τὸ germinating signifies that they were multiplied like a germ, and as if the sons of the earth came forth from the earth in troops, and, as Aquila translated it, crept forth. Whence the Septuagint translates: And the children of Israel increased and multiplied, and became very strong: so much did they grow that they spread throughout that whole land, says Theodotion, in Greek χυδαῖοι ἐγένοντο, which the interpreter of Origen translated, in great multitude they were spread abroad, and they grew exceedingly exceedingly, and the land multiplied them. Aptly: for just as from one grain of seed many stalks grow, from one stalk many ears, from one ear many grains, so that from one grain often three hundred or more are born: so from one patriarch, say from Judah, many sons were born, from one son many grandsons, from one grandson many great-grandsons, etc., so that from one patriarch, within a hundred years, not merely hundreds but thousands of offspring were produced, and the patriarch could from his sons and grandsons alone raise an army and lead it into battle against enemies. AND WAXED EXCEEDING MIGHTY, — increased in multitude, which is the great strength of an army or people. Moses uses here anadiplosis, to signify the innumerable propagation of his nation. AND FILLED THE LAND, — understand appropriately, their own or assigned to them, namely the land of Goshen. You will ask, whence came such multiplication of the Hebrews, from nature or from miracle? I answer first, that it is not properly to be ascribed to miracle: for naturally if 70 men continually generate, and these others, and those others always for 215 years, they will produce an immense number of children. Whence Diodorus Siculus teaches in lib. III, cap. II, that Ninus, who began to reign about 250 years after the flood, led against the Bactrians one hundred and seventy times one hundred thousand foot soldiers. See how much in 250 years, from the three sons of Noah alone, mankind was propagated. In like manner therefore the same could happen here; and this first, because it could naturally happen, that all Hebrew women were fertile and gave birth every single year. Second, it could happen that they began to bear prematurely, and ceased very late. Third, the Hebrews relate, nor does Abulensis disagree, that they bore two, three, indeed even four offspring at once; indeed Aristotle, lib. VII Histor. animal. cap. IV, asserts that this is common in Egypt, for thus he says: "Since some animals bear single offspring, others multiple, the human race is in doubt; for mostly women individually bear single offspring. But often, and in most places they also bear twins, as certainly happens in Egypt; for in Egypt they bear three and four; and in some places this often happens; but when mostly five are born, and some woman bore twenty births, bringing forth five in each birth, and the greater part of them could be nourished and grow up." Thus Aristotle. I answer second, that this fertility and propagation of the Hebrews is not to be ascribed to nature alone, but to the singular providence, aid and concurrence of God, by which He helped nature, fostered it, made it more vigorous and fertile. It is proved, because the Hebrews grew so much while they were in the greatest and continual labors and afflictions both of body and mind, indeed the more they were oppressed, the more they grew; but this oppression and affliction is contrary to fertility, and brings sterility, and this is what St. Augustine says, lib. XVIII De Civit. cap. VII: "The Hebrews grew through God divinely fecundating their multiplication." Allegorically, Jacob with his twelve sons entering Egypt signifies Christ with his twelve Apostles entering the world, and preaching the Gospel throughout it, from which after the death of Joseph, that is of Christ, an innumerable multitude of believers was propagated. Thus St. Augustine, serm. 48 De Tempore.
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8. THERE AROSE A NEW KING IN THE LAND. — Who was this? Cajetan thinks he was not Egyptian by origin, but Assyrian. He proves this from the fact that Isaiah says in chapter 52, verse 4: "My people went down into Egypt, and the Assyrian hath oppressed him." But the sense of that passage is different, as I have said there. Secondly, others with Eusebius think it was Mephrem, whom Eusebius makes the fourth king of the 18th dynasty, which is that of the Politans: and he adds that in the first year of his reign, Joseph died, and the affliction of the Hebrews began. But this contradicts Scripture here, which asserts that this affliction began after the death of Joseph, and of all his brothers and nephews. Levi lived long after Joseph, as did the other brothers and nephews: therefore this affliction of the Hebrews began long after Joseph's death. Thirdly, others think it was Ramesses; from the fact that from him, as it seems, the city of Ramesses was named, which the Hebrews built at his command during this affliction. But Eusebius, Cyril and others relate that Ramesses reigned long after Moses. Fourthly, Gerard Mercator calls this king Armesesmianes, whom he says reigned for 66 years, and began to reign five years before the birth of Moses. Fifthly, the Abbot of Avila, Pererius, Torniellus, and others more probably think it was Amenophis, who was truly the seventh in the 18th dynasty of the Politans, whom some think to be Memnon, the speaking stone, whose statue gave forth a voice even until the time of Christ: for when the ray of the Sun at its rising touched this statue and reached his mouth, then it spoke in the manner and mode of men: in the 18th year of his reign, Eusebius relates that Moses was born; but this affliction of the Hebrews began a little before the birth of Moses. He is called a new king, not because he was from another dynasty, but because he was from another family than the preceding kings who had honored Joseph, as Josephus says; or he is called a new king, on account of a different and new character, custom, manner and mode of government: different, I say, from the preceding kings, who had treated Joseph and the Hebrews kindly. Allegorically, the old king is God, the new king is the devil, who afflicted the faithful in three ways: first, violently through the persecutions of ten Roman Emperors; secondly, wisely through philosophers and heretics; thirdly, cunningly and smoothly through enticements and pleasures, as he now does, since the Church has obtained peace. See Rupert and St. Augustine, sermon 84 On the Times. Thus that Abbot in John Moschus in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter 144, used to say: "Let us not desire to serve the Egyptians in pleasures, which make us subject to Pharaoh, that pernicious tyrant." Whoever therefore serves pleasure, subjects himself to Pharaoh, that is to the demon. WHO KNEW NOT JOSEPH. — The Chaldean translator renders it, who did not keep the decrees of Joseph, but introduced new laws and customs, according to that: A new king, a new law. See here how quickly oblivion and ingratitude creep upon mortals. Egypt, saved by Joseph in the famine, was owed by the king and the Egyptians to Joseph: moreover Joseph had purchased for the king and in perpetual right, by feeding the people in the famine, the fifth part of all the produce of Egypt; but "it is quickly forgotten, and (as Pindar says) the old benefit is delivered to oblivion, and as it were to sleep:" for men inscribe benefits in dust, injuries in marble, nay they engrave them, as Blessed Thomas More used to say. And even today in cities, kingdoms, congregations we often experience that: "There arose a new king who knew not Joseph!" Learn therefore what the same More said: "The world neither is accustomed to repay well and laudably done deeds with due reward, nor is it able to do so with gratitude." Whoever therefore seeks the favor of princes, hear that saying of Wolsey, who was the cause of the divorce of Henry VIII of England from Catherine, and afterwards incurred the utmost indignation of the king: "I," he said, "because I sought not the favor of God, but of the king, have therefore lost the favor of God, and have not acquired the favor of the king." We recently knew in Belgium a chief courtier, who for many years was intimate with a certain neighboring prince, and was in the highest delights: but afterwards, for a slight cause, he fell from all his favor. He, withdrawing from the court, began to philosophize more deeply, and to attend to God and his own soul, and then used to say: By experience I have learned how great is the difference between services rendered to a prince, and services rendered to God; again, how great is the difference between the favor of princes and the favor of God. For I have learned and seen great and many services rendered to a prince, quickly consigned to oblivion, and poorly rewarded; but if you offend a prince even slightly, I have seen that it remains fixed in his mind, and is severely avenged: but services, even small ones, rendered to God, I have learned are preserved in his eternal memory, and are rewarded by him with great and eternal rewards; but offenses against him, even grave ones, are so erased by light penance, that he himself immediately forgets all injury, and freely remits the punishment. This is what the Comic poet says: If you do anything well, favor is a lighter feather; if there is any sin, they bear leaden angers. Justly therefore exclaims St. Bernard, epistle 107: "O wicked age, which art accustomed to bless only your friends in such a way as to make them enemies of God! Haman found favor with King Ahasuerus; this favor brought him the cross: Ahithophel found favor with Absalom; this brought him hanging."
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You ask secondly, why God permitted the Hebrews to be oppressed with such harsh and prolonged servitude in Egypt? Rupertus answers that they were justly confined to that prison-house into which they had sent their brother Joseph beforehand; but that was the sin of the fathers, not however of their sons. I answer therefore first, because some of them had imbibed the impious customs and idolatry of the Egyptians; for that the Hebrews worshipped Apis and idols in Egypt, Ezekiel teaches, cap. XXIII, vers. 7; and that very thing is expressly taught there by St. Jerome and Theodoret. Hence also shortly after they cast the calf, as it were the Egyptian Apis, in Sinai; hence also Moses so often forbids and condemns idolatry in the Pentateuch. Thus Aben Ezra. This servitude was therefore the punishment of sin. Secondly, by this servitude as it were by a goad, God wished to stir them up, so that they would turn away from Egypt and the Egyptians, and strive toward Chanaan, destined for them by Him. Thirdly, so that by this servitude there would be given to the Hebrews occasion and just title for despoiling Egypt, and thus enriching themselves. Fourthly, so that by the same there would be given occasion for performing many and greatest portents, namely the ten plagues of Egypt, by which God wished to make manifest to the whole world His power and vengeance against the impious Egyptians, and His paternal clemency and care toward His Hebrews. Fifthly, so that by it He would purge, perfect and illustrate the Hebrews; for the more they were oppressed, the more they grew. Sixthly, so that this servitude, as it were gall, would render insipid to the Hebrews the honey and delights of Egypt, which they yearned for, so that having departed they would never desire to return to Egypt; for how much the Hebrews loved the fleshpots of Egypt, and desired to return to them, is evident from Num. XI, vers. 5, and cap. XIV, vers. 3. LEST PERHAPS THEY BE MULTIPLIED, AND, IF WAR SHALL ARISE AGAINST US, THEY ALSO JOIN WITH OUR ENEMIES, AND FIGHT AGAINST US, AND DEPART OUT OF THE LAND. — Note here three causes moving the Egyptians to the oppression of the Hebrews, namely fear, envy and hatred. First, fear, lest in the event of war they should join themselves with the enemies of the Egyptians, and having conquered and despoiled them, depart into the land promised to them by God, namely Chanaan. For the Hebrews boasted of this as promised to Abraham and to themselves by God, and therefore the Egyptians feared them. Secondly, envy, because they saw themselves surpassed by the foreign Hebrews in numerous, beautiful, robust, skillful offspring, and in other gifts of mind and body, and in excellence. Thirdly, hatred conceived from the diversity of religion, character and customs: for the Egyptians worshipped their Apis or ox, and other animals, the Hebrews one true God: hence the Hebrews sacrificed and ate cattle and sheep, which the Egyptians abhorred. But Josephus, who adds a fourth cause of hatred, namely this, that a certain prophet had foretold to the Egyptians that shortly there would be born someone from the Hebrews, who, if he should grow up, would overturn the empire of the Egyptians, and would wonderfully increase and prosper the affairs of the Hebrews: this was Moses. Vers. 10. COME, LET US DEAL WISELY WITH HIM. — The Hebrew has, come, let us be wise against him, or concerning him; the Septuagint, κατασοφισώμεθα αὐτοὺς, let us deal craftily against them: for wisdom and prudence, one is from above from God, another is earthly and diabolical of the world (such as this was), James III, 15. Certainly not by this law, purpose and mind, had Pharao admitted the Hebrews into his kingdom. You ask, when did this oppression of the Hebrews begin? First, Eusebius in his Chronicle thinks it began immediately after the death of Joseph, and consequently lasted 144 years; for so many years are there from the death of Joseph until the departure from Egypt, but this is an error: for Moses says here that it began after the death of Levi, and of all his brothers and of the whole kindred, from which many lived long after Joseph. Secondly, the Hebrews in the Seder olam think it began at the death of Levi, and lasted 116 years; but these also err both in the first and in the second: for from the death of Levi until the departure from Egypt, there elapsed not 116 years, but 121. Thirdly, Torniellus thinks it began at the beginning of the reign of Amenophis; and lasted 106 years. Fourthly, Pererius thinks it lasted 87 years. I answer and say that it began a little before the birth of Moses, and lasted about 90 years or more, that is to say it began 18 years before Moses, and 88 years while Moses was living; for in the 80th year of his life, Moses led the Hebrews out of it and out of Egypt. This is evident first from the fact that it began after the death of Joseph, of all his brothers and of that entire first generation; for it is established concerning Levi, who was only 4 years older than Joseph, that he lived 137 years, as appears cap. VI, vers. 16. Therefore Levi lived 23 years after the death of Joseph; but from the death of Joseph to the birth of Moses there elapsed 64 years; from the death therefore of Levi to Moses there elapsed 41 years. Again, Caath, the son of Levi, lived 133 years, as appears cap. VI, vers. 18. If he is placed as born in the 20th year of Levi, it follows that he outlived his father Levi by 16 years, so that from the death of Caath to Moses only 25 years elapsed. Again, after Caath there appear to have lived and died Phares and others, who were children when they entered Egypt; but this affliction began after the death of Levi, Caath and the other 70, who had come down from Chanaan with Jacob into Egypt; indeed after their death began first that multiplication of the Hebrews of which vers. 7 speaks, which stirred up this envy and hatred of the new king to afflict them. After Caath therefore about 45 years appear to have elapsed, during which partly the remaining of the first 70 died, partly the Hebrews were increased with much offspring: so that the envy and persecution of the Egyptians against the Hebrews began about a decade before the birth of Moses. This is proved, secondly, from the fact that this persecution of the Hebrews began at the birth of Mary, the sister of Moses, who was therefore called Mary, that is bitterness, as the Hebrews relate; but Mary was about a decade older than Moses. For she guarded Moses as an infant exposed, and took care that he be nourished and educated, as will appear cap. II. She was therefore at that time easily ten years old.
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In Hebrew, magistros means משים missim, that is, of tributes, not of money, but of bricks, so that each one would render his daily task of work. Our Interpreter therefore rightly translated it magistros operum (masters of works): whence also the Septuagint rendered it ἐπιστάτας τῶν ἔργων, that is, prefects of works. For these were not, like architects directing the structure, but as imperious exactors, as Philo says, pressing the work, and this to enervate the strength of the Hebrews, and to destroy and exhaust by excessive labor their faculty of generating and propagating themselves: namely, so that pressed by hardships, weary of living, they might not desire the pleasure of conjugal union. How truly that young man with St. Jerome, in his epistle to Rusticus, tempted by lust, falsely accused day by day of the crime committed and of fornication (the Abbot secretly arranging this for the victory of temptation), said: "Am I not permitted to live, yet fornication is permitted?" Hear Philo, book I of the Life of Moses, describing this bitter servitude of the Hebrews: "The king," he says, "compelled men to servile works, not only the freeborn, but also strangers. Second, he commanded them heavier labors than they could bear, heaping labors of some upon others. Third, if anyone withdrew himself from labor on account of infirmity, it was judged a capital offense. Fourth, over the works presided the most cruel and savage men, whom they therefore called exactors." Fifth, from excessive labor and heat, many were seized and died of plague: whom the Egyptians cast out unburied, as Philo says. Sixth, Eupolemus adds, according to Eusebius, book IX of the Preparation for the Gospel, that the king ordered the Hebrews to be clothed in different garments from the Egyptians, so that thus he might expose them to the ridicule and vexation of all, and therefore that king was punished by God and perished tormented by the disease of elephantiasis. WORKS. — What were these works imposed on the Hebrews by the Egyptians? I answer: The first work was to form clay into bricks, as is evident from verse 14. The second, to build the cities Pithom and Ramesses, as is said here. The third, to lead the Nile into many ditches, to irrigate the fields and meadows of individuals, and to surround the ditches with embankments. Thus Josephus, who attributes to the Hebrews, fourth, the insane substructures of the pyramids. Finally, in verse 14, Scripture says they served in all manner of service in the works of the earth. Morally, St. Bernard in the Sentences: "The masters," he says, "of the works of Pharaoh are three: the foul heat of burning lust, the fierce rage of raging avarice, the harmful appetite of empty glory." AND THEY BUILT THE CITIES OF TABERNACLES. — Thus also Aquila is said to have translated it by Procopius; the Chaldean translator rendered it, cities of treasures, so that the Hebrew משכנות sachan, whence miskenot, is the same as the Latin censere, and census, by metathesis. The Septuagint renders it πόλεις ὀχυρὰς, that is, fortified cities; Oleaster, enclosed cities, or cities for enclosing, namely arms, or something else. The Hebrew miskenet properly signifies granaries, storehouses, repositories, as Vatablus and others translate it. These cities were therefore like granaries (whence Our Interpreter translated it tabernacles) of the kingdom, in which public grain, oil, wine, etc., were stored: for these were the riches and treasures of the Egyptians; and therefore these cities were fortified and enclosed, as the Septuagint and others render it. The Septuagint adds that the Hebrews built Heliopolis. This is suspected by St. Jerome in the Hebrew Places, because Heliopolis had already been built before, as is evident from Genesis XLI, 43. But it can be answered that this was another Heliopolis: or, if it was the same, it had been destroyed by some chance and rebuilt by the Hebrews, or so enlarged that it seemed to be a new city. Tropologically, Pithom in Hebrew is the same as a failing mouth, or the mouth of the abyss. Ramesses is a shaking or trampling of the moth. Pharaoh, that is the demon, orders these to be built, so that the sinner in death might hear with Lucifer that word of Isaiah XIV, 11: "The moth shall be spread under thee, and worms shall be thy covering." See Origen and Rupert. Whence also St. Bernard in the Sentences: "The refuge of the impious," he says, "is threefold: the deceptive teaching of falsehood, which is Pithom; the worldly fortification of power, which is Ramesses; the simulating figure of justice, which is the city of the Sun. Pharaoh orders these to be built." TO PHARAOH. — Note: All the kings of Egypt are called Pharaohs, just as all Roman Emperors are called Caesars. You will ask, whence? First, some think Pharaohs are called from Pharo, an island of Egypt; second, others: Pharaoh, they say, in Hebrew is the same as free, naked, unencumbered (from the root פרע para, that is, he made naked, unencumbered), and from this the Latin word Baro seems to be derived; kings therefore were called Pharaohs as it were Barons, that is, free princes and rulers. But Pharao is an Egyptian name, not Hebrew. Third, others think that the kings of Egypt were called Pharaohs from their first king Pharao, just as afterwards they were called Ptolemies from the first Ptolemy, son of Lagus, to whom Alexander the Great assigned Egypt. But because we nowhere read of the first king who was called Pharao by his proper name, hence, fourth, it seems more true that Pharao is a name of dignity, as with us is the name Augustus. Thus Eusebius in his Chronicle, and Josephus, who expressly teaches in book VIII of the Antiquities, chapter VI, that Pharao means king in the Egyptian language: from Pharao, therefore, says Josephus, is a name of honor and principality, by which all the kings of Egypt were called, from that Minaeus who founded Memphis, and who preceded Abraham by many years, even to the times of Solomon, for thirteen hundred years: for after Solomon's father-in-law Pharao, no one of the kings of Egypt was any longer called by this name." Thus far Josephus, who in this last statement of his is mistaken; for it is established from the books of Kings, Ezekiel and Jeremiah, that after the times of Solomon there was Pharao Nechao, who killed Josiah, and Pharao Ephree, and other kings of Egypt are called Pharaohs throughout even to the Babylonian captivity. PHITHOM AND RAMESSES. — These were cities on the borders of the kingdom. For the Hebrews are said to have departed from Ramesses to Socoth in chapter XII, 37. Ramesses was perhaps named from the land of Ramesses in Gessen, which Pharao gave to the Hebrews to dwell in, Gen. XLVII, 11. Thus St. Jerome (or whoever is the author: for in Smyrna St. Jerome himself is cited) in the Hebrew Places; or certainly, as Abulensis wishes, from this city Ramesses the whole region was called Ramesses: so that in Gen. XLVII, 11, Ramesses is called by prolepsis the land, which was afterwards named Ramesses from this city: this city Abulensis and others afterwards wish to be called the City of Heroes. Whence in Genesis XLVI, verses 28 and 29, where Joseph is said to have met his father Jacob in Gessen, or Ramesses, the Septuagint has, at the City of Heroes. The same city was afterwards, they think, called the village of the Arsinoites, and finally Thebes and the Thebaid, famous for the dwelling of so many Monks and monasteries: although Adrichomius distinguishes all these things, and places three different cities, namely Ramesses, Thebes and the City of Heroes. The Jerusalem Targum wrongly translates Phithom and Ramesses as Tanis and Pelusium. The Hebrews relate that the Jews labored so sluggishly in these cities that they themselves became a proverb; for they say of a sluggard: "This one is Phithom and Ramesses."
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12. AND THE MORE THEY OPPRESSED THEM, THE MORE THEY MULTIPLIED. — St. Augustine notes, in book XVIII of the City of God, VI, that this happened not naturally, but by divine power; for nature, dried up, constricted and suppressed by excessive labor and anguish, could not supply the moisture and vital spirit for generating so many offspring: and therefore the more the body and soul were oppressed by work and hardship, the more unfit it became for generation. God here fulfills His faith given to Abraham, even if the order of things, which He fixed once, must be changed, so that all the Israelites may learn to place their most firm hope in His highest providence. Again, see here how virtue grows when agitated by adversities, which languishes and withers in prosperity. The Hebrew makes this clearer, which for "multiplied" has יפרץ iiphrots, that is, "burst forth." For just as water, or a river, the more it is constricted and confined, the more forcefully and abundantly it struggles, breaks through and bursts past the barriers and obstacles placed against it: so also here the sons of Israel, pressed by the Egyptians, struggled and burst forth with greater force and abundance. Morally learn here that servitude does not harm the pious and faithful, but benefits them; and so those who serve God, and are His care, even if they are slaves, are nevertheless free. Thus Bion used to say, "Good slaves are free, but the wicked, though free, are slaves to many desires;" and Sophocles: "Even if, he says, the body is enslaved, the mind nevertheless is free." Diogenes, sold into slavery, when asked what he knew, replied: "I know how to command free men." But his master freed him, and giving him his sons said: "Take, he said, my free men whom you may command." Aulus Gellius testifies to this, lib. II; whence Seneca in epistle 28: "He who, he says, despises servitude, is free in any crowd of masters." Terence was a slave, and learned with no servile mind, and wrote comedies in no servile style, by which he both earned freedom and merited a place among the leaders of poets. Plato, brought into servitude because he was a philosopher, was greater than the one who bought him. Fortune is inferior to any mind, and in a slave body dwells a free mind. The Senate rejected a slave, but not virtue, not industry, not faithfulness. Tiro was the slave of Cicero, but by these arts he obtained freedom, and left to posterity an elegant book about his patron's jests. Among the faithful, noble was Serapion the hermit, who sold himself for a small price, so that made a slave he might by his virtue and wisdom convert his master, and lead him freed from the servitude of sin to true freedom. More noble was St. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, who gave himself as a slave to the Vandals for the sake of a widow's son, and by his virtue and prophecy obtained freedom from the king for all his fellow citizens. That Malchus, whose life St. Jerome wrote, was a slave, whose chastity in marriage was vindicated by a lion, and asserted into freedom: for the lion killed his master Malchus as he pursued him in flight, and so Malchus escaped free. Finally, there was that saying of Cato, whom Cicero celebrates: "The wise man alone is free."
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13. And the Egyptians hated the children of Israel. — As if to say: Hence, or for this reason they hated them, namely because they saw them growing so much; the Hebrew is יקוצו jakutsu, that is, "were pricked" (for from this kots signifies a thorn, because it pricks), namely with pain, envy, anguish, sadness, disgust and hatred; and, as the Chaldean has it, they were troubled and distressed on account of the children of Israel. Hence it is clear that the Egyptians envied the increase and prosperity of the Hebrews; and their hatred had its origin not only from fear, but also from envy. Josephus teaches this expressly, and David in Psalm CIV, verses 24, 25. AND THEY AFFLICTED THEM, MOCKING THEM. — The Hebrew is, and they made the children of Israel serve in hardship, or cruelty, that is, they treated and exercised them tyrannically as if they were chattels: for the height of tyranny and cruelty is to mock the one whom you oppress; therefore our translator rightly rendered it, "mocking them."
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14. AND WITH ALL MANNER OF SERVICE, IN WHICH THEY WERE PRESSED IN THE WORKS OF THE EARTH. — The Hebrew is, in all the work of the field, that is, in all rustic work, their servitude was hard and cruel, harsh and tyrannical. Hence it appears that Pharaoh distributed the Hebrews throughout all Egypt, so that in fields and villages everywhere they might do all rustic works as if they were rustics and slaves, and he imposed the heaviest tasks upon them, and forced them to labor like donkeys.
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This is the second tyranny and tyrannical cunning, greater than the former servitude, labour and oppression, by which Pharao strives to extinguish the offspring of the Hebrew nation, and this through the work of midwives, by whose art the life of offspring is usually preserved, as Origen says here, hom. 2. The Hebrews are of the opinion that these midwives were Hebrew, and St. Augustine in the book Against Lying, cap. XV. But it seems more true that they were Egyptian. Thus Josephus, Hugo of St. Victor, Abulensis, Oleaster and others. For the tyrant would not have easily persuaded himself that the Hebrews would rage against their own nation. Again, they themselves sufficiently indicate that they served the Egyptian women in childbirth, and that they were Egyptian, when they say: "The Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women: for before we come to them (namely the Hebrew women), they are delivered"; hence their piety was more praiseworthy. ONE WAS CALLED SEPHORA, THE OTHER PHUA. — These two were more celebrated, and as it were the principals of the others, through whom Pharao took care that this command of his should be made known to the rest. The Jews hand down, and from them Lyran, that these two were Jochabed and her daughter Mary, namely the sister of Moses; and therefore God built for them two houses, namely the priestly and the royal: for from Jochabed were born priests, namely Moses and Aaron; but from Mary were born kings, because Mary married Caleb a prince of the house of Judah, in which was the sceptre and the royal family. But these are fables and inventions of the Jews: for, to pass over other things, Mary was then only a little girl of six or seven years at most: how therefore could she have been a midwife?
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16. AND THE TIME OF BIRTH SHALL COME. — In Hebrew it is, when you shall see upon אבנים obnaim. Obnaim is either the seat of the woman in travail, as the Hebrews commonly explain it; or rather, because it is dual, and descends from the root בנה bana, that is, to build, it signifies the two hinges of the belly, in which the embryo is first formed, just as a clay vessel is formed on the potter's wheel, which is therefore called by a related word אפנים ophnaim. Secondly, by which as by doors, the infant goes forth and comes out into the light: for the belly is as it were a building, or house of the embryo. But the sense is: when you shall see the infant upon obnaim, that is, upon the doors of the womb, that is, when you shall see the infant coming forth from the mother's womb a male. Whence the Septuagint translates, ὅταν μαιοῦσθε τὰς Ἑβραίας, καὶ ὦσι πρὸς τὸ τίκτειν, when you shall deliver the Hebrew women, and they shall be ready to bring forth; and clearly Vatablus, when you shall see them in travail bringing forth a son. Hence it is clear that these midwives were ordered to kill the males of the Hebrews not after birth, but in the very act of birth: secretly suffocating them, pressing them, strangling them, so that thus the mothers might conceal the matter, as if they themselves had brought forth the dead or dying, a cunning counsel indeed, lest the mothers should perceive the snare and be able to guard against it. Thus Abulensis and Lipomanus. Furthermore, it is certain that before the infant has perfectly come forth, the sex in it can be discerned, since physicians teach that it can be conjectured long before by certain signs, for example, if there are many and strong movements of the fetus in the womb, it is a sign that it is a male; again, if the mother is well-colored; if the infant is on the right side, because that part is warmer and stronger on account of the proximity of the liver, etc. Thus Galen and Hippocrates, lib. V, aphorism. 42 and 48. Behold in what degrees the impiety of the king grows: he wished first to hinder the conception by the labor and oppression of the parents; secondly, he attempts to destroy the birth; thirdly, vers. 22, he strives to drown the offspring already born. Thus tropologically the demon, first, is wont to divert a heroic work from being done; secondly, if he cannot do this, he attempts to vitiate it when it is done; thirdly, if he cannot prevail even in this, he strives to destroy it after it has been done. IF IT BE A MALE, KILL HIM. — The midwife can do this easily and secretly. For, as Aristotle says lib. VII Hist. animal. cap. X: "Skilled midwives repress inward into the womb the blood of the child: which being done, immediately the infant, who was already failing, is revived, and restored to life. Their office is to bind and cut the umbilical cord of the infant, and against those things which happen to act forthwith ingeniously," and to meet with evils: if any one of them neglects this, or does it wrongly, she will kill the infant. You ask: Why did Pharao order the males of the Hebrews to be killed, but the females to be spared? I answer first, because he feared them for himself, lest they should sometime join themselves to his enemies, vers. 10. Secondly, because the Hebrew women, as they were unwarlike, so were they beautiful: he therefore wished to abuse them for lust. Thirdly, he wished them to be preserved for the service of his wives' handmaids, and to be the handmaids of the Egyptians. Fourthly, the Hebrew women excelled in wool-working, weaving, dyeing and other arts, and were therefore very useful to the Egyptians, who by their nature are intent on gain, which Plato attributed to the climate of the place. Hear him in Cælius Rhodiginus, lib. XVIII, cap. XVIII: "Among the opinions of Plato this is observed, that from various regions of the sky or aspects thereof diverse κακίαν of morals, or intemperances, are engendered. By which argument, in the tract of Greece in acquiring disciplines men are seen to be much more apt than anywhere else. But those who tend toward Phoenicia or Egypt, are believed to be wonderfully shrewd in accumulating money, with genius made especially for that. But those nurtured in fury and anger, as many of the barbarians are found to be experienced in wars. And those who inhabit the burnt parts of the world by the sun, degenerate into timidity, and a more effeminate nature. For the inmost heat flows away through the relaxed and as it were gaping passages of the body by the intemperance of the nearby star. The evidence is the blackish skin, educated from without by the abundance of the inborn heat. But those who inhabit the cold and rigid places of the world; they excel by far in audacity, with the outermost parts of bodies glowing. But the meridian regions, tempered on this side by heat, on that by cold, both produce more prudent minds and wiser, and especially born to and made for empires, of which sort the situation of Italy seems to Vitruvius to be." Fifthly, because, as Euripides says, στύλοι εἰκὼν οἱ παῖδές εἰσιν ἄρσενες, the pillars of houses are male children: for the male multiplies, propagates and strengthens his family and race. Tropologically, women are the works of the flesh, men are the works of the mind and spirit. Again, women are soft, weak and imperfect souls; men are strong, generous and perfect. "By woman," says St. Jerome in chapter II of Ecclesiastes, "the weaker sex and matter are signified: none of the Saints, except very rarely, is related to have begotten daughters; and only Salphaad, who died in his sins, begat all daughters. Jacob among 12 sons, the father of one daughter, namely Dinah, is endangered on account of her." See also St. Ambrose, On Cain and Abel, chapter X. Virtue, says Cicero, Tusculan Disputations II, is named from man. But fortitude is especially proper to men, whose two greatest duties are the contempt of death and pain. And Lactantius, On the Workmanship of God, chapter XII: "Man," he says, "is so called from the fact that there is greater strength in him than in woman, and hence virtue received its name." And St. Augustine, in his letter to Macedonius: "Virtue," he says, "is to love what ought to be loved. To love, prudence is: to be turned aside by no troubles, fortitude is; by no enticements, temperance is; by no pride, justice is." Hence Ovid: Virtue tends toward difficult things. And Virgil, VI Aeneid: Easy is the descent to Avernus, but to recall one's step and escape to the upper air, this is the task, this is the labor: few whom just Jupiter has loved, or burning virtue has raised to the heavens, born of gods have been able to do so. Aristotle, in his Hymn in Praise of Virtue: "O Virtue," he says, "difficult and laborious for mankind, most beautiful discovery of life! your beauty, O maiden, is such that even to die for you is accounted in Greece a death to be desired, and to endure vehement and unceasing labors. Such immortal fruit do you plant in the breast, more precious than gold. By your grace Hercules, born of Jupiter, and the sons of Leda endured much, declaring by their deeds what they were able to accomplish." And Socrates: "A statue," he says, "stands on its base, but one devoted to virtue ought to stand immovable in good purpose." And Pliny, book XXXVI, chapter IX: "As," he says, "great obelisks are set up with great effort on account of their weight, but once placed endure for infinite ages, so also does virtue." Pharaoh therefore, that is the devil, says Origen, Cyril, Augustine, Rupert, especially strives to overthrow men, that is heroes and the perfect, through two midwives, that is, through the flesh and the world, namely through the pleasures of the flesh and through worldly riches and honors, which in order that we may overcome, we ought to fear God, and by the fear of God to mortify our flesh. The Egyptian women need the help of midwives because they are imperfect, being moved to works of virtue either by hope of honor and gain, or by fear of loss and disgrace: the Hebrew women do not need these, that is the perfect, because they are moved by the strength of the Holy Spirit to all good and holy things, however difficult, from pure love of God and zeal to please Him alone.
1:17
In Hebrew it is, they feared Elohim, that is God the judge, governing all things, punishing, rewarding; for this is Elohim, and therefore is to be feared and revered supremely.
1:19
In Hebrew it is nunchaiot, which signifies living or life-giving, and that in a threefold sense: First, as if they were to say: Because they themselves are of lively and keen wit, and, as the Chaldean translator renders it, because they themselves are wise, and therefore from themselves and their own diligence they have knowledge of the art of midwifery, as Our translator renders it. Second, because they themselves are lively and vigorous, and therefore before the midwife comes to them, they bring forth the child, and it is lively and strong. Thus Vatablus. Whence the Jerusalem Targum renders it, because they themselves give life before the midwife comes to them; they pray before their Father in heaven, and He hears them, and thus they bring forth. Third, because they themselves are life-givers, that is, midwives: for it is their office to help women in labour, so that the infant receives life, and thus by Hebrew phrase they are said to give life to the infant. Some Rabbis render it crudely: They are like beasts (for the Hebrew chaiot signifies these also), which when they bring forth, have no need of midwives. Assuredly crude midwives could give to crude Egyptians this crude answer as if it were natural to them. For thus the crude common people hostile to the Jews would naturally say: "The Jews bring forth like animals and mares." BEFORE WE COME TO THEM, THEY BRING FORTH. — They lie; for they themselves preserved the males of the Hebrews, as is said in verse 17. Rupertus thinks this lie of theirs was lawful, both because it proceeded from charity, and because God rewarded it, building them houses. Thus Cassianus, Collation XVII, from chapter XVII to XXV, teaches that it is lawful to lie either to avoid evil, or to acquire gain, for example to acquire humility. The same teaches Bede, in I Kings XXI, and Clement, book VII of the Stromata, and Origen, book IV Against Celsus, who seem to have drawn this error from the school of Plato, whose opinion this is, book III of the Republic: "Falsehood, although an evil thing, must nevertheless sometimes be used, as hellebore and medicine; therefore both the princes of cities, and if any others this is granted to, ought sometimes to lie either against enemies, or for country and citizens; but from others who do not know how to use falsehood, all falsehood ought to be taken away." The same seems to be the opinion of St. Chrysostom, homily 53 on Genesis, and St. Jerome, in chapter II to the Galatians; but these two are to be excused piously, in that by falsehood they understand simulation, or dissimulation. For it is now certain, and indeed a matter of faith, that all falsehood is sin and unlawful; this is clear from Proverbs XII, 22: "Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord." Indeed Scripture often by falsehood signifies all impiety and transgression, as in Jeremiah VIII, 6 and 10; Hosea VII, 1. Just as on the other hand by truth it signifies every office and duty of virtue, as is clear from John VIII, 44; Ephesians IV, 15; Psalm CXVIII, verses 30, 86, 160. Second, because this opinion was defined by Innocent III, title On Usuries, chapter Super eo. The reason is, because falsehood is intrinsically evil, both because it is repugnant to truth, or rather to truthfulness; and because it is in itself base for a man to deceive, and to speak against his mind. See St. Augustine, book On Falsehood, and book Against Falsehood, whom all Theologians constantly follow. You will say: This falsehood proceeded from charity. I answer: Charity never dictates that evil should be done, and consequently neither that one should lie, so that you may benefit your neighbour; for charity and truth are sisters: therefore this falsehood did not proceed from true charity, but from the disordered love of the midwives, or fear. You will say secondly: God rewarded this falsehood of theirs, building them houses. St. Augustine answers, book Against Falsehood, chapter XIX and following, that this reward was given to them, "not because they lied, but because they were merciful to the men of God; therefore in them the deception was not rewarded, but benevolence, kindness of mind, not the iniquity of the liar; and on account of that good God also forgave this evil to them." The same I say of Rahab, Joshua II, verse 5. The same teaches St. Gregory, book XVIII of the Morals, chapter II, where he adds that on account of this falsehood, their reward was changed from eternal to temporal. But this is scarcely probable: for venial sin, which this officious falsehood was, cannot overturn an act of charity, and the merit of eternal life. Calvin therefore errs, nay blasphemes, when from this he teaches that God holds in esteem, and adorns with reward, virtues, although stained with some mixture of filth, as if they were pure; which from his other principle, no less impious, he deduces, that no work is so holy and absolute, to which some stain does not adhere; for God neither here approved the vicious act of falsehood, nor rewarded it, which it is blasphemous to think; nay, they had indeed a true act of the fear of God, by which they revered God, and exposed themselves to the danger of death for God; but this act of fear is supernatural and meritorious of eternal life. This is true, but impertinent to this place; for neither does "building houses" signify in Scripture to give the reward of eternal life.
1:21
Thus the Hebrew, Chaldean and Latin texts, indeed also the Septuagint: for they have ἐποίησεν αὐταῖς οἰκίας. Truly therefore it was once read ἐποίησαν, that is, they made, as Augustine reads it, translating, they made for themselves houses, fortified namely, in which they might defend themselves from the attack of the Egyptians, whose commands they had despised: for it is not probable that they made these. "He built" therefore, not Pharaoh, but God whom they feared, "for them," not for the Hebrews, as Calvin wishes, but for the midwives, who feared God: for this is what the sequence of the discourse requires, which is occupied in describing the reward of the midwives, and the Septuagint, who translate αὐταῖς, and the Chaldean, who translates להן, feminine; for although in Hebrew the pronoun is masculine להם lahem, nevertheless it is placed for the feminine להן lahen by an enallage familiar to the Hebrews, as happens also in chapter xv, 20, and elsewhere: thus conversely, the feminine is placed for the masculine, Ruth 1, verse 13, and II Kings IV, 6. Moses uses the masculine for the feminine here, because women and families receive their name from men, says Vatablus. What are these houses? The Hebrews, as I said in verse 15, think that Mary married Caleb, and received a royal house, and that Jochabed received a priestly house, but foolishly. For Joseph says that Mary married not Caleb, but Hur, and the royal house was in the family of David, which descended not from Caleb, but from elsewhere. Secondly, R. Kimchi: "He made for them houses," that is, he says, he hid them from Pharaoh, and placed them in safety. Thirdly, Lyra: "He made for them houses," that is, he joined them in marriage to the chief Hebrews, and among them, gave them illustrious offspring and families. But this is said gratuitously and by conjecture: for Scripture does not say that God made for them houses of Hebrews, or among Hebrews, but absolutely houses. Fourthly, Rupert and St. Jerome in Isaiah LXV, understand by houses mansions in the heavens, of which Christ says, John chapter xiv: "In my Father's house there are many mansions." These Fathers therefore think that these midwives merited the reward of eternal life: St. Thomas holds the same view, II II, Question CX, last article. Fifthly, more probably St. Augustine and Theodoret explain thus: "He built for them houses," that is, he increased their household goods, gave them wealth and abundance of temporal things; for thus Jacob says to Laban, Genesis xxx: "It is just that I should at some time provide for my own house," for which the Hebrew has: When shall I also make a house for myself? Sixthly and best: "He built for them houses," that is, he gave them offspring and numerous progeny, rich, honored, distinguished, long-lived and enduring. For these five things especially ennoble offspring; for in Hebrew a son is called ben, from the root בנו bana, that is, he built, because a son is as it were the building and house of his father, and because sons through themselves, and through their own sons whom they beget, build the father's family, in the manner of a house. See the remarks on verse 1. Note: This reward was fitting, so that those who had preserved the offspring of the Hebrews, might be blessed in offspring. Again these midwives merited also eternal life, as I said; but in the Old Testament God is not accustomed to express that heavenly reward, because to the rude and carnal Jews he proposes almost only temporal rewards, and five of them. First, length of life; secondly, ample and clear posterity; thirdly, wealth; fourthly, power and dominion; fifthly, victory over enemies. For the express promise of the heavenly kingdom and eternal life is proper to the New Testament and the Gospel of Christ, says St. Jerome to Dardanus. St. Thomas, II II, Question CX, last article. They would have had an impossibility, and contrary to the nature of things, namely that virtue stained by vice, should be, or by that most brilliant eye of God be judged and held to be virtue. God therefore rewarded not the lie, but other acts of piety, mercy and fear of God, as Moses expressly says in verse 20, which were plainly distinct from the former act of lying; for these midwives in this care of infants drew forth many acts, some good, others bad. You will press: What therefore was to be done by these midwives; what was to be answered to Pharaoh pressing them? I answer: Either they ought to have fled from his face and hidden themselves; or by some artifice the truth ought to have been concealed, not denied; or certainly, as St. Augustine says, chapter XVII, book Against Lying, "it ought to have been most freely refused, and death ought rather to have been suffered for the most innocent truth."
1:22
This commandment concerning infanticide was laid upon the males of the Hebrews only, as is evident from the preceding verses; hence it is remarkable that Cajetan extends it also to the Egyptians. This was the third degree of tyranny, now openly raging against the Hebrews. It is probable that this edict so inhuman was abhorred by the Egyptians, and therefore scarcely received into use, and shortly afterwards neglected and abolished. Torniellus holds that it was revoked immediately after the death of Amenophis, who had established it; which he records with Eusebius in the fourth year of Moses. Tropologically, Origen, hom. 1, and from him St. Augustine, serm. 84 De Temp.: "Our soul," he says, "is either ruled by a legitimate king, or is laid waste by a tyrant." By the king he designates Pharao, who cherished Joseph and the Israelites; by the tyrant he designates Pharao, who knew not Joseph, and who afflicted the Hebrews in works of brick and mud. "For if, with God's help, we live piously; if we think of charity, of mercy, of patience, penance, etc.: although we are still in Egypt, that is in the flesh, nevertheless we are governed by Christ the king; and he himself rules us in mud and brick, but does not consume us, nor does he wear us down and afflict us with earthly cares or excessive anxieties. But if our soul should begin to decline from God, to pursue base things, then it submits its neck to the tyrant (the demon), who addresses his people, that is the pleasures of the body, so that the males of the Hebrews are killed, the females are spared. For the devil wishes to extinguish in us the rational sense and the vision of God, and to preserve what pertains to the concupiscence of the flesh. Here therefore Pharao compels you to his works, not of justice, but to serve iniquity: he himself will make brick for himself and mud; he himself will drive you under appointed masters and taskmasters to earthly and luxurious works by blows and beatings; he himself is the one who makes you run through the world, troubled by the elements of sea and land for the sake of desire; he himself is the king of Egypt, who makes you strike the forum with lawsuits, and to weary your neighbors with quarrels for a small plot of earth; he himself is the one who persuades you that luxury lies in wait for chastity, to deceive innocence; to commit in your house what is foul, abroad what is cruel, within your conscience what is shameful. If therefore you see your acts to be such, know that you are serving the king of Egypt, that is, you are being driven not by Christ, but by the spirit of the devil." Allegorically concerning the Holy Innocents slain by Herod, which, like precious grains while sown and dead, a great harvest arose for the Church, Prosper has this, De Promissione et prædicatione Dei, part. I, cap. XXXII. Finally anagogically Rupertus: By the standard of the Cross, he says, and by tribulation, we are made stronger than the demon, we are added to the angels, we go forth from the earth, because heaven awaits us.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
1:2
v. 2 « Ruben, Simeon, Levi, Iudas,» v. 3« Issachar, Zabulon et Beniamin »,
1:4
v. & « Dan et Nephthali, Gad et Aser ».
1:5
v. 5 « Erant igitur omnes animae eorum, qui egressi sunt de femore Iacob, septuaginta » — LXX hic, uti Gen. 46,97, septuaginta quinque : cf. quae dicebamus ibi. « Joseph autem », qui hoc numero septuagenario includitur, » 2n Aegypto erat », non cum Iacob ingressus est, sed ante illum. Nominum series, uti Gen. 35,23-26, primos enumerat uxorum, postea ancillarum filios; unum est illudque leve discrimen, Ioseph ibi cum Beniamin recenseri, hic ad caleem adscribi. E contra Gen. 46,8 sqq. primi recensentur Liae et ancillae Zelphae, posteriores Rachelis et ancillae Balae filii. Tamen h. l. numerus 70 (75) omnino ad "Gen. 46 nos revocat. Ergo utrumque elenchum Gen. 35 et 46 noster auctor norat, alterum compendio repetit. Cur repetat, rationem assignat Km. elohistae verbosum dicendi genus. Dicas novum ordiri narrationis caput, in qua duodecim tribus constanter nominentur; imo novum librum. Quodsi enim continuam cum libro Genesis narrationem auctor sacer producere volebat, inscribere hanc pericopen debebat « Hae sunf generationes filiorum Israel ». Cur vero numeri 70 rursum habetur mentio ? Quo et impleri iam coepta exhibeatur Dei de multiplicando patriarcharum semine promissio, et incrementum v. 7 clarius celebretur a tam exiguis initiis profectum (Sylv.).
1:6
v. 6 « Quo mortuo et universis fratribus ejus omnique cognatione illa », seu potius generatione (cf. Iud. 2,10),
1:7
v. 1 « filii Israel creverunt et quasi germinantes multiplicati sunt , ac roborati nimis imple- / verunt terram » Gessen. Cumulatis expressionibus praeoccupat quasi s. auctor recentiorum de numero Israelitarum Aegypto egredientium cavillos (H. A. Harper : The Bible and modern discoveries, London 1890 p. 77). Cum Heór. versum 6 versui 7 non subordinet sed coordinet, incrementum v. 7 non obtinuit tantum post, sed imprimis ante exstinctam illam generationem. Cf. Gen. 4,97 (Sylv.). Arg. — Hebraei a regibus Pastoribus benigne habiti vitaque pastorum viventes, cum numeris ac robore crevissent et extremam Aegypti provinciam Asiam versus obtinerent, novo regi Pastorum inimico invidiam movere. Ne igitur Pastoribus forte redituris socios se 1ungerent, eorum permultos a gregibus suis (cf. 9,4) abstractos ad angariam adegit primum duarum urbium exstruendarum, dein laterum etiam eoquendorum agrorumque irrigandorum. Quo et laboribus opprimerentur, et ad generandum essent ineptiores, et abinvicem separarentur, ne unus essent populus.
1:8
v. 8 « Surrexit. [interea| rez novus super Aegyptum, qui ignorabat loseph ». Rex novus non est mere rex alius (LXX), sed rex « ex alia familia » (/os.), ex alia dynastia (Tost.). Non dicitur immediate successisse e1, qui Iosephum exaltaverat; imo neque dicitur e nova dynastia exstitisse primus. Sacer textus eos duos pharaones novit solos, qui gentis electae fatis admiscebantur, reliquos ignorat : illorum alter priori comparatus exstitit novus. Porro cum e monumentis cum auctoribus antiquis collatis sciamus , Hebraeos sub regibus Pastoribus Aegyptum esse ingressos, sub dynastia Thebaea egressos, regem hunc novum non immerito Thebaeis aecensebimus. Is non norat loseph : nomen fortasse et acta audierat; sed uti Pharaonem, cui loseph servierat, usurpatorem reputabat ideoque sine dubio ejus nomen et imagines e monumentis delebat , ita principem eius ministrum Ioseph ignorabat, leges ab illo latas repudiabat (CAa/d.), ejus contribules aversabatur.
1:9
v. 9. « Et ait ad populum suum : Ecce populus filiorum Israel multus, et fortior nobis est ». Vox nobts iungatur cum fortior; non necessario item eum ultus. Verba per hyperbolen dicta putat Calm.; Dillm. illud 2o5?s intelligit non ut sonet « quam nos », sed « pro nobis » : fortior est, quam nos prudenter ferre possumus. Optime Ebers, Gosen p. 7^ Pharaonem ait loqui non de tota Aegypto, sed de sola regione Gessen, in qua reapse Hebraei numeris praevaluerint.
1:10
v. 10 « Venite, sapienter opprimamus eum », Hebr. astutos nos ezhibeamus quoad eum, « ne forte multiplicetur et, s ingruerit contra nos bellum , addatur inimicis nostris, ezpugnatisque nobis egrediatur de terra. ». Non sequitur Pharaonem novisse Ioseph vaticinium, Hebraeos quondam Aegypto esse egressuros (Bonfr.), sed reges Aegypti nitebantur advenas in Aegypto retinere ad servitium, et transfugas reducere.
1:11
v. 14 « Praeposuit itaque eis magistros operum », seu angariae , mo, pro quo Sam. mw2; vertuntque Chald. Syr., nescio cur, v2 malus, — « ut affligerent eos oneribus ». « Quibus non tam utilitatem propriam intendebat rex, quam filiorum Israel debilitationem , ut cum essent laboribus fatigati, non liberet eis generationi vacare sicque desinerent crescere » (S5/v.) Cf. v. 12. — « Aedificaveruntque urbes tabernaculorum Pharaoni, Phithom et RHamesses ». PY Tum seuHa Tum, quod nomen sonat « habitaculum Dei Tum », caput erat provinciae Thuku vel Thaket i. e. Socoth (Ex. 12,37); demonstravitque E. Naville (The store-city of Pithom and the route of the Exodus , London 1885) fuisse eo loco, ubi Romanorum tempore Heroopolis seu Ero Castra, nunc Tell el Maskhutah, inter Tell el Kebir et lacum Timsah. Cum in monumentis ib. praeter nomen Ramessis II insculptum reperiatur nomen regium nullum, hinc plurimum confirmatur opinio communis oppressorem Hebraeorum exstitisse Ramessen lI. Ramesses urbs Ex. 1,11 erat fortasse 1n pago Ramesses, qui Gen. 47,6.11 videtur fuisse pars terrae Gessen, eratque statio a pago Socoth (Ex. 19,37) diversa atque in interiore regionis parte sita. Is autem pagus Ramesses, unde profecti sunt Hebraei,e tota plagarum aegyptiarum narratione colligitur non ita longe abfuisse a Pharaonis Ramessis IL sede. Is plurimum morabatur in Taniseu Zoan, eam urbem plurimis aedificiis ornavit et amplificavit, ut urbis etiam nomen aliquod esset Pa Ramesses, 1. e. Ramessis urbs (Ebers l. c. p. 500). Cumque tandem Ps. 77 (18), 12.43 affirmentur Moysis portenta effecta esse « in campo Taneos », reapse veri simillimum est Ramessen Ex. 1,11 eandem esse atque Tanin. Pharao primum Hebraeis in urbe Phithom exstruenda usus, postea eosdem urbi regni capiti amplificandae adhibuit. Cf. Ps. Jon. « Tanis et Pelusium » (!) et, quoad aliorum placita D?/[m., Ebers. n'2D5 "Ww iam explanabat Chald. promptuaria, eadem voce atque Gen. 41,56, usus ; cuiusdam nominis esse affine : Ebers p. 521 sq. — Videtur ipsa illa aedificia in Teli el Maskhutah Naville reperisse, ita solida ut etiam expressioni LX X zóAetz o4 vpác om- tenuibus arenati stratis ligatorum, latitudinis 1: 8-2: 7 m., eximia cura constructos. Quibus concluduntur camerae plures quadratae, ab invicem separatae, quae non ali usui videntur inserviisse, quam ut essent promptuaria, quibus reconderetur frumentum pro exercitibus desertum traiecturis, pro « caravanis » et viatoribus Syriam petentibus.
1:12
v. 19 « Quantoque opprimebant eos, tanto magis multiplicabantur et crescebant ». Duritiae effectus providente Deo exstitit omnino contrarius eius, quem Aegyptii intendebant.
1:13
v. 13 « Oderantque filios Israel Aegyptii ». Hebr. : frangebantur animis a facte filiorum. Israel. Quinam potissimum affectus ea animorum confractione exprimitur? Vulg. idem verbum Num. 22,3 vertit « pertimuissent », Is. 7,16 « detestaris ». LXX Aq. « taedium » exprimunt, Chald. Syr. « angustias »; qui omnes affectus « fracto » animo congruunt, non item « odium ». Qui modo putaverant Hebraeos callide opprimi posse, Aegyptii iam « livore et dolore afficiebantur » (Calm.), saero veluti horrore numinis cuiusdam Hebraeis faventis. « Et a//ligebant illudentes eis ». Hebr. et servire faciebant 423, i. e. dure (Chald. Syr.), durius quam ante. Proximus divinae protectionis effectus fuere horror ille saeviorque oppressio.
1:14
v. 14 « Atque ad. amaritudinem perducebant vitam eorum operibus duris luti et lateris », — sat pulchram alliterationem habet Vulg.; argilla (Heór.) lateribus conficiendis insumebatur — « omnique famulatu, quo in terrae operibus premebantur ». Sed Hebr. : in operibus gravibus in argilla et lateribus , et tn omnibus operibus in agris (cf. Deut. 11,10), erat autem agrorum in Aegypto irrigatio labor gravissimus (Kn.); cum (Malv., Calm.) omnibus operibus eorum seu praeter (Feld) omnia opera eorum , quae faciebant per eos dure. Ultima vox eadem est atque extrema v. 13 vox et ad idem angariae genus refertur, aedificationem sc. promptuariorum. Cum in hac Hebraeorum numeros usque augeri viderent Aegyptii, duplicem aliam angariam addidere laterum faciendorum et agrorum curandorum. Quodsi ita interpreteris particulam ns, plana habetur constructio, neque ulla manet ratio supremi incisi diverso auctori assignandi. Eiusmodi porro angariae in monumentis Aegyptiorum identidem depictae conspiciuntur. Cf. etiam Jos.
1:15
v. 9. 15. 22. v. 15 « Dixit autem rex Aegypti obstetricibus Hebraeorum », seu accuratius Hebraearwum , secundum Masor. autem Aebraeis : expressio aneeps, quae vel eas designat obstetrices, quae Hebraeas in partu iuvabant, licet ipsae Hebraeae fortasse non essent, vel obstetrices Hebraeas, quae utique Hebraeas potissimum aut unice iuvabant. « Quarum wuna vocabatur Sephora, altera Phua ». Nomina secus non recurrunt in scriptura; non sunt necessario hebraea, sed fortasse aegyptia origine, et in Hebraeorum oribus in formam quasi hebraeam redacta. Ex quibus , cuius nationis eae mulieres fuerint, haud edocemur. Vig., Bible II. 234 in comparationem adducit nomina aegyptiaca Schepmau et Pue. Hebraeas putabat Aug. (Contra mendacium cap. 17; M. 11. 541); rationemque suggerit Malv. aegyptiis non fuisse usuras mulieres hebraeas. Sed verius aegyptias pronuntiant los., Men. aliique : cf. earum v. 19 verba. Cur duas tantum iubet rex? Has obstetricum quodammodo principes fuisse, aliqui tenent, monente tamen Cai. : « Non solita est inter Obstetrices praesidentia ». Duae utique obstetrices tot Hebraearum partibus haud erant pares. Haec narratio sane ab ipso Moyse tradi coepta est; ipse narrabat quae matrem narrantem audierat; haec non omnes obstetrices notas habuit, sed duarum ' tradidit nomina. Alias etiam fortasse allocutus est rex. Neque necessarium est supponere eum multas tentasse : cum paucarum experimento comperit, se per obstetrices rem tuto perficere non posse, decrevit universali lata lege intenta exsequi. Narratio sua se simplicitate commendat. Illud mD*aNn^ os pna versiones euphemistice reddunt. Quid praecise nomen sonet ignorari perspicies, si legeris quae Dillm, habet. Unum audi Sylv. : « Pro quibus in Hebraeo est: et videbitis super sellas (?); hoc est, in vulva seu in ostiis vulvae, quae pueri sedes est. Non erat Pharaonis intentio, ut proles aliquanto tempore servaretur viva et postea interficeretur; sed callida obstetricum vaftritie volebat in ipso partus momento necari; et quidem ita latenter, ut vel casu vel ex partus difficultate putarent accidere, et non per industriam fieri ». — Notat Harper 1. c. p. 91 sq., haud raro ab ipsis earum regionum nomadibus interfici filias recens natas : Pharaonis itaque ars atrox quidem erat, sed non inaudita. Reservabat ipse filias futuras ancillas et stirpis non hebraeae matres. « sages femmes ». Sed nv est vivus, vivax, vegetus : Ps. Ion. vv, aliqua versio graeca apud Field $y:2ívcoct», concordantque Aq. «ox43«c et Theod. &ocyovcücw, quae voces eas videntur designare mulieres, quae ipsae nulla adiuvante partus edant — « et, priusquam ventamus ad eas, pariunt ». Veritatem exaggeravere obstelrices, non omnia sunt ementitae. Mulieres in oriente, imprimis Arabes, saepe nulla adiuvante facillime pariunt. Cf. Calm. et Kn. Obstetrices non esse locutas veri. absimilia inde quoque inferas, quod rex eis « crediderit » (Tost.) ne-: que poenam inflixerit.
Arg. — E contextu colligitur, non obstantibus tam gravibus angariis Hebraeorum numeros crevisse; quare novum opprimendorum consilium iniit impius rex. Primum obstetricibus persuadere conatus est, ut pueros Hebraeorum in ipsa nativitate interimerent; dein publica lege lata eosdem aquis suffocari praecepit. Cum tot alloqui Dei populum suum iamiam defensuri conferre liceat triplex persecutoris alloquium
1:20
v. 20 « Bene ergo fecit Deus obstetricibus; et crevit populus confortatusque est nimis ». Nondum aperte Pharao vitas Hebraeorum attentaverat, tamen omnes eius fraudes effectu misere caruerunt.
1:21
v. 91 « Et quia timuerunt obstetrices Deum, aedificavit eis domos »,1. e. amplam eis concessit posteritatem ; hie enim expressionis sensus est, cf. Deut. 25,9; Ruth. 4,11 etc. Versus utique distinctius enuntiat illud, quod prior v. 20 pars affirmaverat : non ideo necessario alius affirmandus seriptor. Potuit illud sapienter iterari, quod in historia populi electi summi erat momenti : eos, qui Hebraeos contra oppressores iuvarent, nullum incurrere damnum, sed a Deo protegi et praemia ferre. Potuit in quibusdam manuscriptis sententia obliterari, ut iam solus sensus, non verba discernerentur; dein ex aliis manuscriptis sententia integra transeribi, ut iam utramque lectionem uterque textus obtinuerit. Neoterici unicam norunt omnium criticarum difficultatum solutionem diversos auctores, forficem et gluten. Adverte v. 21 intime connecti cum
1:22
v. 17. v. 29 « Praecepit ergo Pharao omni populo suo », tam Aegyptüs, qui potissimo nomine sw essent, quam Hebraeis, uti colligitur 2,3, « d?cens : Quidquid masculini sexus natum fuerit » Hebraeis (Sam. LXX Chald.), « in fhumen proiicite ; quidquid feminini, reservate ». « Cernens se prioribus dolis ad Hebraeorum extinctionem non proficere, ad apertam et publicam infantum necem eradum faeit » (Sy/v.).
1:1
BIBLE - Walton's Polyglot, London 1637. Ex. 1, 1-15. Rome, copy of the Pont. …
1:5
… It also designates man as an individual, a person (70 néphēš, Ex. 1, 5), especially in the legal formula néphēš hī ("if anyone").
1:8
Moses (Mōšeh, Μω[θ]σῆς, Vulg. MoySES, Ancient Latin Moses)
… first half of the 15th century B.C., or between the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 13th century, when the "oppression" reached its acute phase, with the employment of the Israelites as slaves in immense constructions undertaken by the pharaohs (Ex. 1, 8-14; cf. 5, 10-23), accompanied by xenophobia, which provoked the ferocious decree, repeatedly made harsher, according to which all newborn Hebrew males were to be put to death (ibid. …
Ramses ("Râ' Has Generated Him") II
According to many exegetes R. II is identified with the "new king" who began the oppression of the Israelites exiled in Egypt (Ex. 1:8-22) and whose daughter introduced Moses to his court (ibid. 2:9-10); he would have had the cities of R. (Pr-R'misso) and Pithom ([v.]; ibid. 1:11-14) built by the Hebrews. …
1:10
… It is disputed whether the Hebrews knew and practiced adoption; the biblical texts usually adduced (Gen. 48:12-20; Ex. 1:10; Esth. 2:7b) are not conclusive. …
1:11
… In these constructions and reconstructions the king would also have made use of foreign workers and among others of the Hebrew tribe of Goshen, descended from Jacob and received there in the time of the Hyksos; the Bible (Ex. 1, 11) declares explicitly that the Hebrews, under a king who was by then no longer mindful of Joseph's benefits, watched over by implacable overseers, were forced to erect "the store cities …
… According to Ex. 1:11, an Egyptian king, presumably Ramses II, had this city built, along with another, as a store-city by the Hebrews settled in Egypt; Herodotus (II, 158) would recall it under the name …
Ramses ("Râ' Has Generated Him") II
According to many exegetes R. II is identified with the "new king" who began the oppression of the Israelites exiled in Egypt (Ex. 1:8-22) and whose daughter introduced Moses to his court (ibid. 2:9-10); he would have had the cities of R. (Pr-R'misso) and Pithom ([v.]; ibid. 1:11-14) built by the Hebrews. …
1:14
… Which came about (Ex. 1, 14) under the guidance of Moses (v.), exposed to death on the Nile by order of a pha-
… Because of its blond-reddish color it recalled to mind the mud with which the Israelites in the land of Egypt were forced to make bricks (Ex. 1:14). It was the custom for the head of the family at the Passover supper to dip unleavened bread and bitter herbs in this mixture and hand them to the guests. …
Merneptah (« The Beloved of Ptah »)
A long tradition, going back to Champollion Figeac, to Lepsius, to Brugsch, to Mariette and to Maspero, and which still has convinced followers, makes him the Pharaoh of the Exodus (Ex. 1, 14), not without opposition (v. EGITTO).
… The bitter herbs recall the sufferings endured in Egypt; a mixture of apples, nuts, etc. (v. HAROSETH) recalls the bricks made in Egypt (Ex. 1:14). The four cups of wine for each of the diners are explained as an allusion to the four expressions for "to liberate, to save" that recur in the sacred text. …
1:15
… (8, 1), and by the Targum of Pseudo-Jonathan on Ex. 1, 15; 7, 11; Num. 22, 22 (which calls them sons of Balaam).
… The Egyptian midwives (Ex. 1, 15 ff.), the prophet Elijah (III Kings, 17 ff.), Tobit (2, 9); the Maccabees (I Mach. 1, 65-67; 2, 19-26; II Mach. 6, 23-26) found themselves faced with unjust laws and refused to observe them. …
Moses (Mōšeh, Μω[θ]σῆς, Vulg. MoySES, Ancient Latin Moses)
… as slaves in immense constructions undertaken by the pharaohs (Ex. 1, 8-14; cf. 5, 10-23), accompanied by xenophobia, which provoked the ferocious decree, repeatedly made harsher, according to which all newborn Hebrew males were to be put to death (ibid. 1, 15-22). From this situation is determined the first event in the life of M., son of Amram, of the tribe of Levi. …
… One of the Hebrew midwives, to whom Pharaoh ordered the killing of the male Israelite newborns (Ex. 1:15).
1:17
… In the Bible 'On is mentioned five times: first in Gen. 41, 45-50 and 46, 20 as the homeland of Joseph's father-in-law, in Ex. 1, 17 as one of the cities built by the Israelites at the Pharaoh's command.
1:22
… country: the pharaoh dreams of it in Genesis (41:1-3), when he sees the seven fat cows and then the seven lean cows of the prediction come up from the river; the pharaoh orders that all the newborn male children of the Hebrews be thrown into the river (Ex. 1:22); and among the reeds of the bank Moses is laid and then found and saved by the pharaoh's daughter, who had come down to bathe in the waters (ibid. 2:3-6).
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.