Exodus 1
Exodus Chapter 1, Explained
The sons of Israel who came to Egypt multiply greatly after Joseph's generation dies. A new king who did not know Joseph fears their number and enslaves them with harsh labor, yet the more they are afflicted the more they grow. He orders the Hebrew midwives to kill newborn boys, but Shiphrah and Puah fear God and spare them. Pharaoh then commands that every son be cast into the river.
Key verses from Exodus 1
“But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.”
Exodus 1:12
“But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.”
Exodus 1:17
What happens in Exodus 1
The chapter names the sons of Israel who entered Egypt and reports that after Joseph and his whole generation die, the Israelites become fruitful and fill the land. A new king arises who does not know Joseph and, fearing the people's growing strength, resolves to deal shrewdly with them. He sets taskmasters over them and afflicts them with hard bondage, building the store cities Pithom and Raamses. Yet the more they are oppressed, the more they multiply, so the Egyptians dread them and increase the cruelty.
Pharaoh then commands the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, to kill every newborn boy. But the midwives fear God and let the boys live, telling Pharaoh the Hebrew women deliver too quickly. God deals well with the midwives and gives them households of their own. Thwarted, Pharaoh charges all his people to throw every Hebrew son into the Nile.
Where Exodus 1 sits
Exodus opens generations after Genesis closed. The family of seventy has become a nation, fulfilling God's promise to make Abraham's descendants numerous. But the favor Joseph won has been forgotten, and Egypt turns oppressor. This chapter sets the stage for the Exodus, introducing the bondage from which God will deliver Israel and the murderous decree that Moses, born in the next chapter, will survive.
Themes in Exodus 1
Multiplied under affliction. The harder Egypt presses, the more Israel grows. Oppression cannot cancel God's promise to multiply Abraham's seed. The very effort to crush the people becomes the backdrop against which their God-given fruitfulness shines all the more stubbornly.
Fear of God over fear of kings. Shiphrah and Puah defy Pharaoh's command because they fear God more than the throne. Their quiet courage saves lives, and God honors them with households. Reverence for God can outweigh even a king's deadly order and change the course of a nation.
Empire's fear turns cruel. Pharaoh's dread of a growing minority drives him from forced labor to infanticide. The chapter exposes how threatened power escalates toward violence, targeting the most helpless, the newborn, in its attempt to secure control and hold on.
How Exodus 1 points to Jesus
A tyrant king, terrified of a rising people, orders the slaughter of Hebrew baby boys. The pattern returns in Matthew's Gospel, where Herod, fearing a newborn king, kills the infants of Bethlehem. Jesus, like Moses, is a child who survives a royal massacre and grows to deliver His people. The midwives who fear God and preserve life stand in the line of those who resist the powers of death, which the gospel answers fully in Christ, the giver of life. Israel's cry under bondage also sets up the Exodus, the great rescue the New Testament treats as a pattern of the salvation Jesus brings. These are thematic connections rather than direct prophecies, yet the shape of a delivered child and a delivering God points forward.
A thought to carry
Shiphrah and Puah were ordinary women with no power, yet their reverence for God changed the course of a nation. When a command conflicts with what God requires, whom do you fear more? Small acts of quiet courage, done out of the fear of God, can shelter life in the shadow of great cruelty.
A prayer. God of the oppressed, You see Your people's affliction and honor the brave. Give me the midwives' holy courage to fear You above every earthly power, and to protect life where others would destroy it. Remember me in my bondage. Amen.
Want to sit with this chapter for yourself? Read all of Exodus 1 in the King James Version, then open The Living Bread to ask any question about it and pray with others, free.
Questions people ask about Exodus 1
Did the midwives sin by deceiving Pharaoh?
Scripture does not condemn them; it says God dealt well with them and made them houses because they feared Him (Exodus 1:20). Their first act was to refuse to murder the innocent. Their words to Pharaoh protected life against a lawless, murderous command. The passage holds them up as examples of reverent courage, not as liars to be censured.
Why does the text stress that the new king did not know Joseph?
It marks a turning point. Joseph had saved Egypt, and Israel had lived under favor. A king who forgets that history feels no gratitude and sees only threat. The note explains how a once welcomed family became an enslaved people, and it warns how quickly gratitude can curdle into fear and cruelty when memory fails and self-interest takes over.