Exodus 1-15

Helmut Utzschneider, Wolfgang Oswald, Philip Sumpter, Walter Dietrich, David M. Carr, Adele Berlin, Erhard Blum, Irmtraud Fischer, Shimon Gesundheit, Walter Groß, Gary N. Knoppers, Bernard M. Levinson, Ed Noort, Helmut Utzschneider, Beate Ego

• Publisher: Kohlhammer
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9783170253377
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Theology

This commentary interprets the first part of the book of Exodus, through 15: 21. It features two approaches. On the one hand, the commentary interprets the final form of the traditional Hebrew text "synchronically" by means of form criticism and modern literary methods. On the other hand, it "diachronically" reconstructs the predecessors of the final form, from its origins in an exodus composition that opposes political domination to the text's final form as a dramatic narrative about the transfer of sovereignty from the Pharaoh to the God of Israel. Concluding syntheses examine the relationship between these two interpretive approaches while adding reflections on traditional and contemporary concerns.

Prologue: Exod 1:1–7:
In Egypt the Israelites Become a Great People

1 And these are the names of the sons of Israel^a who had come to Egypt. They had come with Jacob, each one with his own family^b: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad und Asher. 5 The descendants of Jacob^b amounted to seventy^a persons. But Joseph was already in Egypt.

6 Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and that entire generation. 7 But the Israelites were fruitful, they swarmed, they became numerous, they became stronger and stronger, and the land was full of them.

Notes on the Text and Translation

^1a The Hebrew expression בני ישׂראל is ambiguous. It can be rendered with “sons of Israel” and thus be made to refer to the physical sons of the patriarch Jacob/Israel. This is how the phrase is to be understood here. However, it can also denote the “Israelites,” the people Israel. In this context the ambiguity is programmatic: the theme of the prologue is the development of Israel’s sons into a people. This is why the expression is rendered “Israelites” from v. 7, although the ambiguity does continue in vv. 7 and 9 with programmatic significance, especially in v. 9 (cf. the diachronic analysis in the prologue).

^1b Literally: “a man and his house.”

^5a As in Gen 46:27^LXX, the LXX numbers the offspring of Jacob in Egypt to “seventy five.” It presumably includes Joseph’s two sons along with their two sons (Num 26:28–29, 35–36.) while not counting Jacob himself.

^5b Literally: “those who went out of Jacob’s thigh” (cf. Gen 46:26).

Synchronic Analysis

Name

The book of Exodus begins with an “and.” It connects the narratives of the book of Exodus to those of Genesis, although it does not simply continue them. Rather, the nominal phrase, “And these are the names (שׁמות) of the sons of Israel …” functions as the superscription to the book of Exodus as a whole. This was also the interpretation of the Hebrew textual tradition, which took a word from this opening sentence (pronounced sh^emot) and made it into the title of the book (a procedure followed for the other four books of the Torah as well). The book title “Exodus,” familiar from the Greek and Latin traditions, sets the entire book in the context of the theme of the exodus narrative (Exod 1–15). Just like the introductory formula, the content of the section Exod 1:1–7 also builds a thematic bridge between the Patriarchal Narratives and the new thing that starts with the exodus narrative. Verses 1–5 refer back to Genesis, whereas vv. 6-7 lead the way into the world of the exodus narrative.

Flashback

The subsequent clause in v. 1, “they had come with Jacob …” already creates a flashback to the Genesis narrative, more precisely, the Joseph Narrative (cf. Gen 46:1–7). The listing of the eleven sons of Jacob in vv. 2-4 also finds its counterpart in Genesis. As in Exod 1:1, the list in Gen 46:8-24 is introduced by the formula, “and these are the names of the sons of Israel who had come to Egypt,” although it arranges the sons of Jacob differently and includes a list of their children’s children as well. Most similar to Exod 1:2–4 is the list in Gen 35:23–26. Just as in Exod 1:2–4, the names of the sons are ordered according to their mothers Leah and Rachel and their servants Bilhah and Zilpah. In Exod 1 it is only Joseph who is counted by himself, for he was already in Egypt when his brothers arrived. Genesis 46:26-27 is likewise aware of the fact that Jacob’s sons and their families amount to 70 persons. By means of these flashbacks the prologue to the book of Exodus recapitulates the foundational genealogical and “statistical” data that constitute the starting point of the events of the exodus narrative.

Beginning of the Narrative

As discernible in the Hebrew wayyiqtol formation וימת, the narrative begins in v. 6: “Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and that entire generation.” Although the sentence still connects with the report of Joseph’s death in Gen 50:22–26, it decisively brings the events a step further. The Hebrew word דור that we have translated “generation” refers to “both a time period as well as the people who inhabit it,”¹ from old people to children. In other words, all the figures who have been active in the narrative thus far have now exited the scene, and in future their existence is only a memory. Exodus 1:6 thus establishes a kind of narrative ground zero for the exodus narrative. A sequence of new narrative events and narrative figures may now begin. It is in this sense that v. 7 immediately counteracts the “death notice” of the previous verse: “But the Israelites were fruitful (פרה) …” A cascade of narrative clauses follows which illustrate the consequences of this fruitfulness: they swarm (שׁרץ), they become numerous (רבה) and strong (עצם) so that the land is full of them (מלא). This choice of vocabulary also points back to Genesis, namely to the Patriarchal Narratives and the narratives of creation and the flood; to an extent the promises found there are being confirmed.

The triad, “be fruitful and multiply yourselves and fill the earth” appears for the first time in the Primeval History and is applied there to humanity (Gen 1:22; 1:28; 9:1). In the promises to the Patriarchs the combination of “being fruitful” and “multiplication” can be found, for example, in Gen 17:20 and 35:11. The word family עצם – here as a verb “to be strong, numerous,” in Exod 1:9 as an adjective עצום “strong” – in Gen 18:18 is applied to the descendants of Abraham.

From Tribe to People

For the exodus narrative, this amply descriptive depiction of the strengthening of Jacob/Israel’s descendants makes clear that the “Israelites” are going through a fundamental metamorphosis. They are being transformed from what Genesis described as a group of people into what Exodus in v. 9 explicitly calls a “nation.” Within the Torah’s overall depiction of history, Exod 1:7 marks the transition from a family history of the Israelites to their history as a people. Exodus 1:7 (along with the following v. 8) succinctly summarizes a long, trans-generational process into a brief narrative note. No doubt this is also expressed in verse seven’s accumulation of terms from the semantic field of “multiplication.” Ultimately, in the next scene the motif of the nation’s large size and strength gives rise to a narrative complication (cf. A. 4.5 in the Introduction), which, in a sense, sounds the “start signal” for the exodus narrative: the Egyptian king will explain his oppression of the people with this (Exod 1:9, 12) and this in turn motivates the demand for their departure.

Diachronic Analysis

Older ExodN	EM	DtrH	PC	TC
			1:1–7

Transition from Genesis to Exodus

From a diachronic perspective, the prologue to the exodus narrative (Exod 1:1–7) is closely associated with the literary-historical question of the connection between Genesis and Exodus, a problem that penetrates into the heart of the recent discussion concerning the literary history of the book of Exodus and beyond that the Pentateuch. Given that the answer to this question has far-reaching consequences for the contemporary Pentateuch debate, we shall go into the matter here in a somewhat expansive manner.²

Documentary Hypothesis

According to the Documentary Hypothesis, Exod chapter 1 contains elements from all three of the source documents which function to supply a transition from the Joseph Narrative to the Exodus complex – Otto Eißfeldt even proposed identifying four source documents.³ In the opinion of W.H. Schmidt, 1:6, 8–12a, 22 belong to the Yahwist (J), 1:15–20 (without ויעצמו מאד) belong to the Elohist (E), 1:12b, 20 ויעצמומאד,I21 belong to the Yehovist (JE), 1:1a, 2–4, 5b, 7 (without ויעצמו),I13, 14 (with בחמר until בשׂדה) belong to the Priestly Basic Document (P^G), 1:1b, 5a to the supplements to the Priestly Document (P^S) and 1:7 ויעצמו and 1:14 בחמר ובלבנים ובכל־עבדה בשׂדה to the Pentateuchal Redactor (R^P).⁴ In contrast, W. Propp ascribes 1:6, 8–12 to the Yahwist, 1:15–21 to the Elohist, 1:13–14 to P, and 1:1–5, 7 to the Pentateuchal Redactor.⁵

The plausibility of these literary-critical divisions depends to a large degree – and presumably one can add here: to too large a degree – on the plausibility of the Documentary Hypothesis as a whole. In particular, a continuous Elohistic narrative thread cannot be ascertained at the beginning of the book of Exodus. The fragmentary nature of the presumed Elohist, which has become pervasively clear, can also be seen in Exod 1, for it is only the story of the midwives in 1:15–21 that is ascribed to this source document. Given that this portion does not constitute a continuous narrative thread but does presuppose the multiplication of the Israelites, even the proponents of a modified Documentary Hypothesis consider it to be an extension.⁶

Pre-Priestly Bridge

For this reason more recent versions of the Documentary Hypothesis dispense with the postulate of an Elohist. Levin, for example, attributes Gen 50:14, 26aα; Exod 1:8–10a.b (only פן־ירבה),I11a, 12; 1:15a, 16 (without ויאמר) to the Yahwist, whom he admittedly considers to be a late-exilic editor. The verse-segments 1:10 (from והיה);I11b are supplements to the Yahwist, 1:13 belongs to P^G, whereas 1:14 is to be allocated to P^S. 1:1–7 and 1:15b, 1...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Editors’ Forward
• Author’s Preface
• Introduction: The Exodus Narrative in Synchronic and Diachronic Perspective
• Prologue: Exod 1:1–7: In Egypt the Israelites Become a Great People
• First Narrative Phase: Exod 1:8 – 2:22: The Egyptians Oppress the Israelites with Forced Labor; the Childhood and Youth of Moses
• Second Narrative Phase: Exod 2:23–6:1: From the Mountain of God to Egypt
• Third Narrative Phase: Exod 6:2–7:13: Yhwh Associates the Liberation of the Israelites with His Name and Resends Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh
• Fourth Narrative Phase: Exod 7:14–11:10: The Plagues Narrative
• First Cycle: Blood – Frogs – Gnats
• Second Cycle: Exod 8:16–9:12: Vermin – Pestilence of Livestock – Boils
• Third Cycle: Hail – Locusts – Darkness
• Sixth Narrative Phase: Exod 13:17–15:21: The Miracle of the Sea
• Bibliography