Exodus 1:1 And these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt; each man and his household came with Jacob: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; 4 Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. 5 All those who were descendants of Jacob were seventy [Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint read 'seventy-five' (compare Acts 7:14)] persons (for Joseph was in Egypt already).
"Of the twelve patriarchs, the sons of Jacob, who were heads of the twelve tribes, whose names are here given; since the historian is about to give an account of their [descendants] coming out of Egypt, and that it might be observed how greatly they increased in it, and how exactly the promise to Abraham, of the multiplication of his seed, was fulfilled: or, 'and these are the names'... this book being connected with the former by the copulative 'And’...” (Gill's Expositions)
"It may be inferred from various notices that the total number of dependents was considerable, a point of importance in its bearings upon the history of the Exodus (compare Genesis 13:6; Genesis 14:14).” (Barnes' Notes)
6 And Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation. 7 But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.
It was true of physical Israel and it is true of spiritual Israel. God’s promises are to bless a man or woman and multiply their spiritual offspring, forever. "But there is another thought here... and that is, as it is written on John Wesley’s monument in Westminster Abbey, ‘God buries the workmen and carries on the work.’ The great Vizier who seemed to be the only protection of Israel is lying in ‘a coffin in Egypt.’ And all these truculent brothers of his that had tormented him, they are gone, and the whole generation is swept away. What of that? They were the depositories of God’s purposes for a little while. Are God’s purposes dead because the instruments that in part wrought them are gone? By no means. If I might use a very vulgar proverb, ‘There are as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it,’ especially if God casts the net. So when the one generation has passed away there is the other to take up the work. Thus the text is a fitting introduction to the continuance of the history of the further unfolding of God’s plan which occupies the Book of Exodus.” (MacLaren's Expositions)
8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
"There arose a new king — One of another family, according to Josephus; for it appears from ancient writers that the kingdom of Egypt often passed from one family to another. That knew not Joseph — All that knew him loved him, and were kind to his relations for his sake; but when he was dead he was soon forgotten, and the remembrance of the good offices he had done was either not retained or not regarded. If we work for men only, our works, at furthest, will die with us; if for God, they will follow us, Revelation 14:13.” (Benson Commentary)
9 And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; 10 come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 BUT the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel. 13 So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor. 14 And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage—in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.
"The land of Egypt became to Israel a house of bondage. The place where we have been happy, may soon become the place of our affliction... Cease from man, and say not of any place on this side heaven, 'This is my rest.’… Our great care should be, to serve God, and to please Him who is not unrighteous, whatever men are, to forget our work and labour of love. The offence of Israel is, that he prospers. There is no sight more hateful to a wicked man than the prosperity of the righteous. The Egyptians feared lest the children of Israel should join their enemies, and get them up out of the land. Wickedness is ever cowardly and unjust; it makes a man fear, where no [reason for] fear is, and flee, when no one pursues him. And human wisdom often is foolishness, and very sinful. God's people had task-masters set over them, not only to burden them, but to afflict them with their burdens. They not only made them serve for Pharaoh's profit, but so that their lives became bitter. [BUT] The Israelites wonderfully increased. Christianity spread most when it was persecuted: the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church. They that take counsel against the Lord and his Israel, do but imagine a vain thing, and create greater vexation to themselves.” (Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary)
Exodus 1:15 Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah;
"Two only were spoken to—either they were the heads of a large corporation [Laborde], or, by tampering with these two, the king designed to terrify the rest into secret compliance with his wishes [Calvin].” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown) "They are called Hebrew midwives, probably not because they were themselves Hebrews; for sure Pharaoh could never expect they should be so barbarous to those of their own nation; but because they were generally made use of among the Hebrews, and being Egyptians [Josephus], he hoped to prevail with them." (Benson Commentary)
It is generally agreed that these midwives were of the Egyptian nationality, but it cannot be denied that they were of the Hebrew religion in accepting the Genesis accounts of origins (Genesis 1-2) and destiny (Genesis 3:15), by the influence of the mothers of Israel. They feared Yahweh, more than they feared pharaoh. They knew that it was appointed for man to die once and then the judgment. And they lived their lives in the light of that judgment.
"Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah..." "The names were preserved by tradition as those of two noble-minded women, who in perilous times had done their duty to God and their people, and refused to obey the inhuman command of the heathen king. Obviously if the numbers of the Israelites even remotely approached 600,000 males (Exodus 12:37), far more than two midwives must have been required: either the numbers were in reality very much less, or these were the only midwives whose names were remembered.” (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges)
16 And he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” 17 But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive. 18 So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and saved the male children alive?”
19 And the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.”
Pharaoh wanted them to fain that the boys were stillborn.
But the righteous midwives reported of the mothers: "They are lively, or, vigorous and active in promoting the birth of their own children; or, like the beasts, which without any help of others bring forth their young.” (Matthew Poole's Commentary) So the ruse will never work.
20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. 21 And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them.
"The promised blessing was manifested chiefly in the fact, that all the measures adopted by the cunning of Pharaoh to weaken and diminish the Israelites, instead of checking, served rather to promote their continuous increase.” (Keil and Delitzsch)
"Pharaoh and his court, who decreed the destruction of the male infants, show us that when wicked men are assailed with fears and menaced with danger, they are apt to substitute policy for prudence and cruelty for justice; and in that case, they are sure to fall into the pit they dig for another, as the history before us amply proves. Ah, how many dreadful portraits have we in sacred and profane history of the character of man. To what an extent of wickedness may he not rapidly attain? And who can be preserved, that does not properly believe in God, doing all things in his sight... In the midwives who feared God, and risked their lives for righteousness, persons may learn how to conduct themselves in the crisis of temptation and trouble. When a man is poor, and persecuted, and friendless, what has he left but his God? And if he, in those circumstances, forfeit the divine favour, he is ruined indeed. Joseph, abandoned in prison, and long forgotten of the butler, had nothing left but his piety; and it proved a hundredfold reward in this life, and in the world to come life everlasting. Let us learn therefore to reject the wisdom of the flesh, and to cherish the wisdom from above, which is pure, peaceable, full of mercy and of good fruit.” (Sutcliffe's Commentary)
Satan would not like today so much to stop physical birth, but spiritual birth- second birth. "The enemy [the serpent of old, the devil] who, by Pharaoh, attempted to destroy the church in this its infant state, is busy to stifle the rise of serious reflections in the heart of man [as well as the confessions of their mouths]. Let those who would escape, be afraid of sinning, and cry directly and fervently to the Lord for assistance.” (Matthew Henry)
Exodus 1:22 So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”
"When tyrants cannot prevail by deceit, they burst into open rage.” (Geneva Study Bible) "And Pharaoh charged all his people,.... Finding he could not carry his point with the midwives, he gave a general order to all his people everywhere: saying, every son that is born ye shall cast into the river; the river Nile; not every son born in his kingdom, for this would have ruined it in time; but that was born to the Jews, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; and it is added in the Septuagint version, 'to the Hebrews’ ... and every daughter ye shall save alive;…that they might be married and incorporated into Egyptian families, there being no males of their own, if this scheme took place, to match with them, and so by degrees the whole Israelitish nation would be mixed with, and swallowed up in the Egyptian nation, which was what was aimed at.” (Gill's Exposition) "Infanticide, so shocking to Christians, has prevailed widely at different times and places, and been regarded as a trivial matter.” (Ellicott's Commentary)