Egyptians.41For Pharaoh this situation was untenable; something had to be done! Just as Adolf Hitler spread propaganda—based on the false and insidious premise that the Jewish people were a threat to Germany and the world—so Pharaoh did before him in Exodus 1:9.42
involved hard labor for Adam in Genesis 3:19. The policy will also involve pain and suffering in the area of childbirth, just as the curse had included pain in childbirth for Eve in Genesis 3:16. The policy will also bring death on the Israelites, just as death came to a sinful Adam in Genesis 3:19.45
It is interesting and somewhat humorous that Pharaoh desires to deal
“shrewdly.” The word translated “shrewdly” is literally wisdom: “Let us make ourselves wise concerning the Hebrews.”46 Pharaoh is clearly an unbeliever. He is not interested in Yahweh, the true and living God of the Hebrews. In this situation Pharaoh can never be wise, for as Psalm 111:10 declares, “The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom.”47 Proud Pharaoh makes a pretense toward wisdom in verse 10, but shortly in the narrative he will be shown for the fool he is when two lowly midwives outsmart him.48 Whatever wisdom Pharaoh pretends to have, God easily outstrips it. Today, the most powerful and intelligent (yet Godless) detractors and persecutors of the church are no match for God, in whom wisdom resides.
45For the sake of space, I have not included still another connection between Exod 1:10 and Genesis, which is observed by Currid, A Study Commentary on Exodus, 48; Enns, Exodus, 43n12; and Hamilton, Exodus, 8. In Exod 1:10 Pharaoh says to his advisors, “Come, let us deal shrewdly with them.”
The phrase “come let us” is the same phrase found in the story of the Tower of Babel in Gen 11:3-4. The makers of the Tower of Babel had acted outside of the will of God, twice saying, “Come let us” as they baked bricks and constructed their tower. God put a stop to their plan. When Pharaoh says “come let us”
deal shrewdly with the Hebrews, he is acting outside the will of God, and God will stop his plans also.
46ה ָמ ְכּ ַח ְת ִנ is the hitpacel cohortative of ם ַכ ָח and is translated in the ESV as “let us deal shrewdly.” The word wisely (in place of shrewdly) is found in versions such as the JPS, KJV, and NASB.
47The comment of Gerald H. Wilson, “םכח,” in New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, ed. Willem A. VanGemeren (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997), 2:131-32, is apropos: “The Israelite narrator and reader would understand the irony of the circumstance. The Egyptians’
self-will to adopt a wisdom stance is no more than a pretense—wishful thinking—with no basis in reality, since it has no grounding in the will and purpose of Yahweh.”
48Childs, Exodus, 13, remarks, “Pharaoh thinks to act shrewdly, but is really the wicked fool who is duped by the clever midwives.”
Serpentine Actions
The prequel called Genesis also helps one comprehend the concerns of Pharaoh in verse 10.49 Pharaoh is worried about the possibility of further population growth in the Hebrews (he is worried “lest they multiply”), and is also concerned about the Hebrews
“escaping the land.” To Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God had promised numerous descendants and a land of their own. These are precisely the two promises that Pharaoh wants to terminate in Exodus 1:10. In this scheming, Pharaoh shows himself to be the consummate anti-God figure and seed of the serpent. Pharaoh wants to impose a
moratorium on population increase and a barricade to the Hebrews’s departure out of Egypt (to take the land of Canaan). He wants to lessen the threat to his regime by enforcing a halt on the numbers of Hebrews, yet still he needs them to stay in Egypt so he can exploit them for his labor projects. After all, if they up and left, they might then join forces with the evicted Hyskos people, and then where would Egypt be? A new invasion of Egypt would become all too possible. So then, Pharaoh would like the Hebrews’s multiplying to cease, and he would also like to prevent the Hebrews from escaping his nation. In all of it he shows himself to be acting in total opposition to the purposes of God.50
49In this paragraph I am following the basic literary argument of James K. Bruckner, Exodus, Understanding the Bible Commentary Series (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008), 21-22, who writes, “Pharaoh’s two concerns as an administrator (that they are ‘too numerous’ and might ‘leave the country’) set him in direct opposition to God’s two promises to Jacob: that ‘a company of nations’ would come from him and that God would give him the land of Canaan (Gen. 35:11-12). This sets the stage for the battle between the God of creation (‘be fruitful and multiply’) and of history (‘I will give you the land’) and the great and powerful Pharaoh.” I am aware of the ongoing debate concerning how to translate ה ָל ָﬠ in this verse (i.e., is it “escape” the land or “take over” the land?), and although commentators such as Garrett, A Commentary on Exodus, 151, and Stuart, Exodus, 65, make strong arguments in favor of the latter option, in the end I do not find their arguments as compelling as those for the former, argued persuasively by Bruckner (as above);
Greenberg, Understanding Exodus, 17-19, and Mackay, Exodus, 36. Arguing for the latter (“take over”) option, Stuart, Exodus, 66, comments, “With the proper translation of Exod 1:10, the Pharaoh’s speech makes sense; without it, it does not.” I hope, by the logic employed in the above paragraph in the body of this chapter to demonstrate that Stuart’s comment is overstated at minimum and perhaps even untrue.
50Enns, Exodus, 43, observes, “This is not a battle of Israel versus Pharaoh, or even Moses versus Pharaoh, but of God versus Pharaoh.”
“Therefore,” as the beginning of verse 11 says, “they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens.” Now the plan of Pharaoh is implemented, and with that implementation, the next phase of God’s plan also came to pass.51 God had sovereignly decreed back in Genesis 15:13 that the offspring of Abraham would be “afflicted for four hundred years,” and now that affliction was underway in Egypt. So unbeknownst to Pharaoh, he was acting within the parameters of God’s plan. God was very much present at this juncture of Israel’s story.
Pharaoh “set taskmasters” over the descendants of Abraham. “Taskmasters”
were like bosses over labor gangs who compelled their subjects to work on projects of the state without pay.52 These Egyptian bosses would have been ruthless in their tactics, because not only did they hate the Hebrew people, they also knew that their own livelihood depended on their subjects meeting quotas.53 Verse 11 explains that these bosses were there to “afflict” the Hebrews with “heavy burdens.” Victor Hamilton translates the word
“afflict” as “crush”; the bosses were there to ‘crush’ the people.54 The original Hebrew word has to do with forcing, subjugating, wearing down.55 The word translated “burdens”
is about compulsory labor.56 So the overall picture that begins to emerge is a picture of brutality, harassment, and little to no relief for the people of God.
51Here I am following Fretheim, Exodus, 28, who writes, “[Pharaoh’s] acts of oppression confirm that God’s word to Abraham in Gen. 15:13 was on target.”
52Sarna, Exodus, 6.
53So Garrett, A Commentary on Exodus, 158.
54Hamilton, Exodus, 9.
55The picel ofה ָנ ָﬠ is used at Exod 1:11. The meaning “to force” is attested by Leonard J.
Coppes, “ה ָנ ָﬠ III,” in Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, ed. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer, and Bruce K. Waltke (Chicago: Moody, 1980), 2:682. “To subjugate” is attested in Paul Wegner, “הנע,” in New International Dictionary, 3:450; and “to wear down” is affirmed by Oswalt, Exodus, 286.
56So Currid, A Study Commentary on Exodus, 47-48.
The end of verse 11 says that the Hebrew people “built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses.” Here at the beginning of Exodus, the people are pictured
constructing buildings for Pharaoh, seed of the serpent; at the end of Exodus the people will be free from Pharaoh and building a tabernacle for God.57 Victor Hamilton writes,
“The first building project is imposed and harsh. The second building one is God- revealed and an honor with which to be involved.”58