TOM · The Owner's Manual · Old Testament

Exodus 1

Before you read Exodus: who, when, why

BOOK 2 OF 66 · OLD TESTAMENT · BOOKS OF MOSES

Let My people go

AUTHOR: Moses, according to Jewish and Christian tradition. Jesus called it the book of Moses (Mark 12:26). Many modern scholars think it was put together from older sources over time.
EVENTS TOOK PLACE: From slavery in Egypt to the tabernacle at Mount Sinai. The date is debated: about 1446 BC from 1 Kings 6:1, or about 1270 BC in the time of Ramesses II.
DATE WRITTEN: Traditionally about 1440 to 1400 BC, during the forty years in the wilderness. Many scholars say it reached its final form much later, around 500 BC.
WRITTEN TO: The people of Israel, so they would never forget who rescued them.
ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS: About fifteen copies of Exodus were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. It was also translated into Greek, in the Septuagint, around 250 BC.
KEY VERSE: Exodus 20:2. I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

One of the Oldest Pieces of Exodus

This scroll is called 4QExod Lev f, which means a copy of Exodus and Leviticus from Cave 4 at Qumran. It was found with the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the photo shows all of its surviving pieces. They hold parts of the last chapters of Exodus and the first chapter of Leviticus, all on one scroll. Experts date it by its handwriting to about 250 BC, which makes it one of the oldest Bible scrolls ever found. That is about 250 years before Jesus was born. It is kept in Jerusalem.

The Setting

Egypt was the richest and strongest nation on earth. Its Pharaohs were worshiped as gods, and so were the Nile, the sun, frogs and cows. Jacob's family had moved there in a famine, and they settled in Goshen, the green land of the Nile Delta. Over time they grew into a huge nation, and a new Pharaoh made them slaves. Which Pharaoh is not named. The early date points to Thutmose III or Amenhotep II, the late date to Ramesses II, one of Egypt's most famous builders.

What Was Going Wrong

Slavery And Murder. Pharaoh worked Israel without mercy and ordered every Hebrew baby boy thrown into the Nile (1:13 to 14, 1:22).
The Gods of Egypt. Egypt worshiped many gods, and God said He would bring judgment on all of them (12:12).
A Hard Heart. Pharaoh hardened his heart again and again, even when he could see what God was doing (8:15, 8:32, 9:34).
A Leader Full of Excuses. Moses told God five different ways that he was the wrong man for the job (3:11, 3:13, 4:1, 4:10, 4:13).
Grumbling. Days after the sea parted, the people were complaining about water, food and Moses (15:24, 16:2 to 3, 17:3).
The Golden Calf. Forty days after they promised to obey, they made an idol and threw a party for it (24:7, 32:1 to 6).

Where to Find Jesus

Exodus 3:14. God's name I AM. Jesus said, Before Abraham was born, I am, in John 8:58.
Exodus 12:5 to 13. The spotless Passover lamb. Christ is our Passover lamb, 1 Corinthians 5:7.
Exodus 12:46. Not one bone of the lamb was to be broken, fulfilled at the cross, John 19:36.
Exodus 16:4. Bread from heaven. Jesus is the true bread from heaven, John 6:32 to 35.
Exodus 17:6. Water from the rock. Paul says that rock was Christ in 1 Corinthians 10:4.
Exodus 25:8. God's tent among His people. The Word pitched His tent among us, John 1:14.

Cool Stuff Most People Miss

The Ten Commandments Show Up Twice. They are in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, with small differences, mostly in the Sabbath command. Before the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest Hebrew Bible text known was the Nash Papyrus, with the Ten Commandments on it.
Why Moses Has Horns. Exodus 34:29 says Moses' face was shining. The Hebrew word for shine is close to horn, and the old Latin Bible said horned. So Michelangelo's Moses has two little horns.
What Is It. Manna comes from man hu, Hebrew for What is it? Israel ate a question for forty years.
The First Spirit Filled Artist. Bezalel is filled with God's Spirit to do art, 31:2 to 5. God cares about beauty.
The Blueprints Take Up A Third. Thirteen of forty chapters are about the tabernacle, where God would meet His people.
The Firstborn Are Bought Back. Every firstborn belongs to God, but Israel buys back each firstborn son instead of sacrificing him (13:13, 34:20). The nations burned children, which God hated (Leviticus 18:21).

Did Anybody Listen?

Sometimes. Forty days after promising to obey, they made a golden calf. But Moses prayed, God forgave them, and Exodus ends with God's glory filling the tent.

Chapter 1 in 30 seconds

Jacob's family grows from seventy people into a nation, and a new Pharaoh who never knew Joseph gets nervous. He turns them into slaves and makes them build store cities. When that does not slow them down, he orders the Hebrew midwives to kill the baby boys. The midwives fear God more than Pharaoh and quietly refuse.

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In this chapterField Notes · ArchaeologyPithom and Pi Ramesses · after verse 11 Field Notes · ArchaeologyThe Brooklyn Papyrus · after verse 15 The Big Question · Christians disagreeWhen Was the Exodus? · after verse 22

The Israelites Multiply in Egypt// Genesis 46:7–27

¹These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family:

²Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;

³Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;

⁴Dan and Naphtali;

Gad and Asher.

⁵The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all, including Joseph, who was already in Egypt.

⁶Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, ⁷but the Israelites were fruitful and increased rapidly; they multiplied and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.

EX 1:7[FULFILLS]God promised Abraham a land, descendants, and that he would father a great nation ← GEN 12:1-3
EX 1:7[FULFILLS]God told Jacob he would become a great nation in Egypt, be brought back, and Joseph would close his eyes ← GEN 46:3-4

Oppression by a New King// Acts 7:15–19

⁸Then a new king, who did not know Joseph, came to power in Egypt. ⁹“Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become too numerous and too powerful for us. ¹⁰Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase even more; and if a war breaks out, they may join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”

EX 1:8[QUOTED]Quoted in the New Testament → ACTS 7:18

¹¹So the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. As a result, they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. ¹²But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and flourished; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.

EX 1:11[ARCHAEOLOGY]The store cities named in Exodus are real Egyptian sites
EX 1:11[NOTE]WHEN? See When Was the Exodus?

Field Notes · Archaeology

Pithom and Pi Ramesses

Exodus 1:11 · Exodus 12:37 · Genesis 47:11

The feet of a giant statue of Ramesses II, still lying in a farm field at Qantir, the site of Pi Ramesses.

WHAT IT IS: Two real Egyptian cities in the eastern Nile Delta, the same area as the land of Goshen. Raamses was Pi Ramesses, which means House of Ramesses, the giant capital city of Pharaoh Ramesses II. Pithom means House of the god Atum.
HOW OLD IT IS: Pi Ramesses was built by Ramesses II starting about 1270 BC, right on top of an older city called Avaris, which goes back to about 1800 BC. Many people from Canaan lived at Avaris. Pithom is either Tell el Retaba, which was busy in the time of Ramesses, or Tell el Maskhuta, which is mostly from about 600 BC. Which site is Pithom is disputed.
WHERE AND WHEN FOUND: People once thought Pi Ramesses was Tanis, because statues of Ramesses were found there. Then Manfred Bietak, starting in 1966, and Edgar Pusch, starting in 1980, showed the real city was at Tell el Dab'a and Qantir. Later Pharaohs had hauled its stones to Tanis. Edouard Naville dug at Tell el Maskhuta in 1883, and a Polish and Slovak team has worked at Tell el Retaba since 2007.
WHAT WAS INSIDE: Scans under the fields at Qantir show palaces, temples and stables for hundreds of chariot horses, built with mud brick, the work Exodus 1:14 describes.
WHERE IT IS TODAY: The sites are mostly farm fields and mounds in the Nile Delta of Egypt. Many finds are in Egyptian museums and the Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum in Hildesheim, Germany.
WHAT IT CONFIRMS: The cities in Exodus 1:11 were real places in the right part of Egypt, with huge building projects going on.
THE BIG DEBATE: The name Raamses points many scholars to the late date, about 1270 BC. People who hold the early date, about 1446 BC, say a later writer updated the city name, just as Genesis 47:11 says land of Rameses long before any Ramesses was born.
WHAT IT DOES NOT PROVE: No record found so far names Hebrew slaves or Moses at these cities. The cities fit the story, but direct evidence of Israel there has not been found.

CONFIDENCE: MEDIUM

¹³They worked the Israelites ruthlessly ¹⁴and made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar, and with all kinds of work in the fields. Every service they imposed was harsh.

¹⁵Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, ¹⁶“When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them on the birthstools. If the child is a son, kill him; but if it is a daughter, let her live.”

EX 1:15[FIELD NOTES]An Egyptian list of household servants from about 1740 BC includes a woman named Shiphrah. See the Brooklyn Papyrus Field Notes page.

Field Notes · Archaeology

The Brooklyn Papyrus

Exodus 1:13 to 15 · Genesis 39:1

The Brooklyn Papyrus, written in hieratic, a fast handwritten form of Egyptian writing.

WHAT IT IS: A long Egyptian papyrus scroll. On one side are prison and court records. On the other side is a list of 95 servants who belonged to one wealthy Egyptian household.
HOW OLD IT IS: About 1740 BC, in the time of Pharaoh Sobekhotep III. Experts date it by the names of the kings and officials written in it, so this date is fairly firm.
WHERE AND WHEN FOUND: An American collector named Charles Edwin Wilbour bought it in Egypt in the 1880s. It went to the Brooklyn Museum in 1935, and the Egyptologist William Hayes published it in 1955.
WHAT WAS INSIDE: About 45 of the 95 servants are called Aamu, the Egyptian word for people from Canaan and Syria. Many have Semitic names, the same family of languages as Hebrew. One woman on the list is named Shiphrah, the same name as one of the Hebrew midwives in Exodus 1:15. Some scholars think they also see names like Asher and Issachar, but those readings are debated.
WHERE IT IS TODAY: The Brooklyn Museum in New York City.
WHAT IT CONFIRMS: People from Canaan really lived and worked as servants in Egyptian homes, with Semitic names that sound like names in the Bible. The life of Joseph as a slave in Potiphar's house and the Hebrew servants in Exodus fit this world.
WHAT IT DOES NOT PROVE: This Shiphrah is not the midwife from Exodus. She is a different woman with the same name. The list does not mention Israel, Moses or the Exodus.

CONFIDENCE: HIGH FOR THE PAPYRUS, MEDIUM FOR THE LINK

¹⁷The midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had instructed; they let the boys live. ¹⁸So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”

¹⁹The midwives answered Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before a midwife arrives.”

²⁰So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became even more numerous. ²¹And because the midwives feared God, He gave them families of their own.

²²Then Pharaoh commanded all his people: “Every son born to the Hebrews you must throw into the Nile, but every daughter you may allow to live.”

The Big Question · Christians disagree

When Was the Exodus?

Two Dates, One Story

Exodus 1:11 · 12:40 to 41 · 1 Kings 6:1 · Judges 11:26 · Joshua 6 and 11

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS: Solomon began the temple in the 480th year after Israel came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of his reign, 1 Kings 6:1. That was about 966 BC, which puts the Exodus about 1446 BC. Jephthah says Israel had lived in the land about 300 years, Judges 11:26. But Exodus 1:11 says the Hebrew slaves built the store cities Pithom and Rameses, and the great city of Pi Ramesses was built by Pharaoh Ramesses II, who ruled about 1279 to 1213 BC.
THE EARLY DATE, ABOUT 1446 BC: Take 1 Kings 6:1 at face value. Pharaoh would be Thutmose III or Amenhotep II. The name Rameses was updated by a later writer, just as Genesis 47:11 says land of Rameses long before any Ramesses was born. In the 1930s John Garstang dated the fall of Jericho's walls to about 1400 BC, and in 1990 Bryant Wood argued for that date again from the pottery. Letters found at Amarna in Egypt, from the 1300s BC, complain of raiders called Habiru in Canaan, which some link to the Hebrews.
THE LATE DATE, ABOUT 1270 BC: Pharaoh is Ramesses II, or his father Seti I. The 480 years is twelve generations of 40 years, a round number; real generations are closer to 25 years, which gives about 300 years. In the 1950s Kathleen Kenyon dated Jericho's fall to about 1550 BC, with little there in 1400. Hazor, which Joshua burned, 11:11, was destroyed in the 1200s BC.
THE 430 YEARS: Israel lived in Egypt 430 years, 12:40. The Greek Septuagint and the Samaritan text say in Egypt and Canaan, counting from Abraham, and Paul counts 430 years from the promise to the Law, Galatians 3:17. So some say Israel was in Egypt only about 215 years. This changes the story of the patriarchs, not the date of the Exodus itself.

Every View · What the Ground Says

Exodus 12:37 to 41 · 14:28 · Joshua 11:10 to 13

THE FIRM DATE: The Merneptah Stele, about 1208 BC, names Israel as a people in Canaan. So Israel was there by then. Both views fit, the late date just barely. See The Merneptah Stele Field Notes page.
THE SKEPTICAL VIEW: Some scholars think there was no large Exodus at all, or only a small group that escaped Egypt, and that Israel mostly grew up inside Canaan. They point out that Egyptian records never mention it. Others answer that Pharaohs did not carve their defeats in stone, and that the Bible's details about Egypt fit the times. See the Pithom and Pi Ramesses and Brooklyn Papyrus Field Notes pages.
BE CAREFUL WITH: The Ipuwer Papyrus is often called an Egyptian record of the plagues, but most scholars date it centuries earlier; see its page. Claims of chariot wheels found in the Red Sea have never been backed by real archaeologists. Movies like The Ten Commandments, 1956, and The Prince of Egypt, 1998, made Ramesses II the Pharaoh of the Exodus, but the Bible never names him.
HOW MANY?: About 600,000 men on foot, besides women and children, 12:37, perhaps two million people. Some read the Hebrew word for thousand, elef, as a clan or military unit, which would make the number much smaller. Others take the number as written.
WHAT ALL SIDES AGREE ON: Every believing view agrees God brought Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand, 13:3, and that the Passover points to Jesus, our Passover lamb, 1 Corinthians 5:7. The date changes the calendar, not the story.

Exodus 1

One of the Oldest Pieces of Exodus

The Setting

What Was Going Wrong

Where to Find Jesus

Cool Stuff Most People Miss

Did Anybody Listen?

The Israelites Multiply in Egypt// Genesis 46:7–27

Oppression by a New King// Acts 7:15–19

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