Exodus
eBook - ePub

Exodus

Peter E. Enns

Share book
  1. 624 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Exodus

Peter E. Enns

Book details
Book preview
Table of contents
Citations

About This Book

The NIV Application Commentary helps you communicate and apply biblical text effectively in today's context.

To bring the ancient messages of the Bible into today's world, each passage is treated in three sections:

  • Original Meaning. Concise exegesis to help readers understand the original meaning of the biblical text in its historical, literary, and cultural context.
  • Bridging Contexts. A bridge between the world of the Bible and the world of today, built by discerning what is timeless in the timely pages of the Bible.
  • Contemporary Significance. This section identifies comparable situations to those faced in the Bible and explores relevant application of the biblical messages. The author alerts the readers of problems they may encounter when seeking to apply the passage and helps them think through the issues involved.

This unique, award-winning commentary is the ideal resource for today's preachers, teachers, and serious students of the Bible, giving them the tools, ideas, and insights they need to communicate God's Word with the same powerful impact it had when it was first written.

Frequently asked questions

How do I cancel my subscription?
Simply head over to the account section in settings and click on “Cancel Subscription” - it’s as simple as that. After you cancel, your membership will stay active for the remainder of the time you’ve paid for. Learn more here.
Can/how do I download books?
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
What is the difference between the pricing plans?
Both plans give you full access to the library and all of Perlego’s features. The only differences are the price and subscription period: With the annual plan you’ll save around 30% compared to 12 months on the monthly plan.
What is Perlego?
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Do you support text-to-speech?
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Is Exodus an online PDF/ePUB?
Yes, you can access Exodus by Peter E. Enns in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Theology & Religion & Christian Ministry. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Year
2014
ISBN
9780310520740
Text and Commentary on Exodus
Exodus 1:1–22
THESE 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; Joseph was already in Egypt.
6Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, 7but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.
8Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. 9“Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. 10Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”
11So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13and worked them ruthlessly. 14They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.
15The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16“When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 17The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18Then 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, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”
20So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
22Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”
Original Meaning
ONE CAN BEGIN to understand Exodus by thinking of it more as a chapter of a book (the Pentateuch) than a book in its own right. Exodus is not meant to be read in isolation from the surrounding material in the Pentateuch. Rather, it describes one stage of Israel’s story that began with creation in Genesis 1 and ends with the Israelites poised at the borders of the land of Canaan at the end of Deuteronomy.
In Exodus 1, a number of elements draw the reader back to Genesis, thus driving us to read Exodus in light of what has come before. The connection to Genesis (esp. creation and the patriarchs) will prove to be an important theme in Exodus, so it is worth our while to see how this theme is initiated here.
The first such element is the first word of the book. Although not reflected in the NIV, the Hebrew text shows that 1:1 does not begin simply with the words “These are the names. …” Rather, it begins with the harmless word “and” (the Hebrew letter waw). This is not academic hair-splitting or forcing meaning from the text. Although the presence of “and” at the beginning of the book may seem odd,1 it functions here to join Exodus to what has come before. This book continues the story begun in Genesis: God chose a people for himself and brought them down into Egypt.2 Their presence there is an outworking of his presence with the patriarchs. It is no by-product of chance. This insight will soon prove to be most valuable for the Israelites.
Second, the first six words of 1:1 are an exact repetition of Genesis 46:8. The words are the same, but the contexts of the two passages are different. The context of Genesis 46 is the imminent move of the Israelites into Egypt. Joseph had just revealed his identity to his brothers. They report back to Jacob, who then sets out to see his long lost son once more before he dies. An appropriate translation for Genesis 46:8 is: “Now these are the names of sons of Israel who were traveling [better English: who journeyed] to Egypt.” And after this opening statement, as we also see in the opening paragraph of Exodus 1, Genesis 46:8–27 provides a genealogy of those who made the trek.
The perspective of Exodus 1:1, however, in contrast to Genesis 46:8, is that of looking back from an Egyptian setting to the past event of the Israelites’ move from Canaan to Egypt under Jacob. But in an effort to reproduce Genesis 46:8, Exodus 1:1 also uses the participle. This grammatical construction is striking. One would expect the standard past-tense narrative formula that is used throughout Hebrew narrative: waw (“and”) followed by the imperfect verbal form.3 The repetition of Genesis 46:8 in Exodus 1:1, including “and” and followed by the genealogies, indicates a clear connection between them. Exodus is to be read as a continuation of the past; it is one part of a larger story.4
A third element in Exodus 1 serves to remind its readers of Genesis. The language of 1:7 is creation language, calling to mind the language found in Genesis 1:28 and 9:1: The Israelites became “fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous.”5 The Hebrew of Exodus 1:7 is even more explicit than the NIV: “The Israelites became fruitful and swarmed; they increased in number and became exceedingly strong” (“swarm,” also used in Gen. 1:21 and 8:17, is another description of what God’s created beings do).
The Israelites’ increasing number in Egypt was a sign of God’s presence and blessing. They, like their forefathers, were fulfilling the creation mandate. The presence of such creation language in Exodus 1 is another indication that this book is to be read in the context of Genesis.6 The Exodus (deliverance) and Genesis (creation) connection will become more explicit later in the book with the plagues and the crossing of the sea. To anticipate those discussions: God will deliver the Israelites from bondage by unleashing the forces of creation against the Egyptians.
The new pharaoh who came into power (1:8) apparently did not “know” Joseph, which may mean that he was either wholly ignorant of his own nation’s history, or (more likely) that he simply chose to act in ignorance of Joseph’s wise counsel and how the Egyptians had benefited from it (Gen. 41). Verse 8 is also a striking example of a characteristic not only of Exodus in general but of many portions of biblical narrative: The writer does not provide a full, detailed account of what he is reporting.
Two immediate questions come to mind with respect to verse 8. (1) Who is this pharaoh? (2) How much time has passed since the demise of Joseph’s generation? The biblical writer, however, is not interested in giving these details. Why not? This is anyone’s guess. It may be that in providing too many concrete historical details he runs the danger of limiting the timelessness of the message of Exodus 7 (although then one must explain why the biblical writer does choose to be specific elsewhere, e.g., the names of the store cities in v. 11). Another reason may be that some of these “incidental” details 8 are simply not worth mentioning since they do not add to his purpose, a purpose that is evidently more theological than journalistic. Exodus is the story of God’s deliverance of his people.
Although this latter view is likely the case, another possibility should be given due consideration. It may be that some of the details are not mentioned because they do not need to be. We must not think that the original audience was encountering this or any other biblical story for the first time in writing.9 Although the omission of names and chronological markers may present a problem for modern interpreters, this difficulty should not be projected on ancient readers. An adequate explanation may be no more involved than appealing to the familiarity of the ancient audience with the story that we see only in its inscripturated form. It is likely that by the time the narrative received its “official” (i.e., biblical) written form, the story had already been in wide circulation for considerable time. The biblical form then presents a story that for modern readers appears fresh, but for an ancient audience was the very stuff of their cultural and spiritual fabric.10
Although some of the details of the story are lacking, what is clear is that this new pharaoh is not at all happy with what he sees. What troubles him is the increasing number of Israelites (v. 9).11 To put it another way, Pharaoh is opposed to their fulfillment of the creation mandate to be fruitful and increase (cf. Pharaoh’s words in v. 9 with vv. 6–7). In this respect, Pharaoh represents not only a force hostile to God’s people by enslaving them (vv. 11–14), but a force hostile to God himself, who wills that his people multiply.
We see, then, already at this early stage of the book, what will become much more pronounced later on: the real antagonists in the book of Exodus. This is not a battle of Israel versus Pharaoh, or even of Moses versus Pharaoh, but of God versus Pharaoh. The Egyptian king, as we will see in the following chapters, is presented as an anti-God figure; he repeatedly places himself in direct opposition to God’s redemptive plan, and this behavior is already anticipated here. Pharaoh’s ultimate sin is not simply making slaves of God’s people. This is merely his solution to get at a much more basic problem: The Israelites are becoming too numerous, and as such present a possible military threat to Egypt (v. 10).12
The very oppression of the Egyptians in wanting to reduce the number of Israelites is antithetical to the created order. This is the sin of Egyptian slavery, which anticipates a point to be elaborated in subsequent chapters: Since the increase of the Israelites in Egypt is a fulfillment of the creation command, it is fitting to speak of the Israelites’ deliverance from Egypt in creation language and to punish the Egyptians by means of a series of creation reversals (the plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea).13
Enslavement is one of three solutions by which Pharaoh attempts to keep the Israelites’ numbers to a manageable mass: enough for forced labor, but not enough to encourage rebellion.14 This proves futile as oppression merely results in further increase, and, as if to drive this point home, verse 12 repeats the “increase” language of verse 7. Pharaoh is no match for the Creator-God. Verse 12 hints at the eventual outcome of this battle.
The second solution is to command the midwives 15 to kill all Israelite male children at birth (since only males posed any military threat). This, too, proves futile and even results in blessing for the midwives. Ironically, they are blessed by the very thing Pharaoh enlisted their help to prevent: population increase.16
The final solution is the murder of all male infants (v. 22) by throwing them into the Nile. Thus, what for the Egyptians is a life-giving force is intended as an instrument of death for the Israelites. The significance of this act, both for Egypt’s future destruction and Israel’s deliverance, cannot be overstated. Water will play a central role in bringing this struggle to a close.
In keeping with his taciturn prose, the writer does not tell us anything that transpires after the giving of this insidious decree. His only concern is to move the narrative to Moses and his escape. It is evident, however, that either many other male infants escaped as well or (more likely) that the decree was eventually rescinded, since Moses was not the only male of his generation to survive! The existence of male offspring is assumed throughout Exodus 1–14 (e.g., 3:22). Nevertheless, the text does not give us information regarding the sweeping ramifications of this decree. All we are told is that one special child escaped Pharaoh’s evil intention.17
Bridging Contexts
CONTINUITY WITH THE PAST. The first chapter of Exodus is the beginning of the story of Israel’s deliverance from her enemy, Egypt. Yet it is more than this. Already at this early stage we see the author’s concern that his readers understand that story of deliverance fully and properly. From the very first word he demonstrates his intention to put the Israelites’ stay in Egypt in its true historical perspective. Israel, through a variety of circumstances, finds herself in a foreign and hostile place. However the people might choose to view that present circumstance, the author reminds them that the full story is one that stretches back to their ancient ancestors and even to the very beginning of the world itself. It is only in seeing their situation from the broad, divine point of view that the readers can hope to gain a full understanding of their lot in life. It is this divine...

Table of contents