Exodus 1:10

World English Bible

Contextual Overview

⁸ Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who didn't know Joseph. ⁹ He said to his people, "Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. ¹⁰ Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it happen that when any war breaks out, they also join themselves to our enemies, and fight against us, and escape out of the land." ¹¹ Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. They built storage cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses. ¹² But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out. They were grieved because of the children of Israel. ¹³ The Egyptians ruthlessly made the children of Israel serve, ¹⁴ and they made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field, all their service, in which they ruthlessly made them serve.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Come on: Psalms 10:2, Psalms 83:3, Psalms 83:4, Proverbs 1:11

wisely: Numbers 22:6, Job 5:13, Psalms 105:25, Proverbs 16:25, Proverbs 21:30, Acts 7:19, Acts 23:12, 1 Corinthians 3:18-20, James 3:15-18

Reciprocal: Exodus 18:11 - in the thing 2 Samuel 16:20 - Give counsel 1 Kings 12:28 - took counsel Psalms 33:10 - The Lord Psalms 73:8 - speak wickedly Isaiah 10:24 - after the manner Habakkuk 3:14 - their Matthew 2:7 - General Luke 16:8 - done 1 Corinthians 3:19 - He

Cross-References

Genesis 1:4
God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness.

Deuteronomy 32:4
The Rock, his work is perfect; For all his ways are justice: A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, Just and right is he.

Psalms 104:31
Let the glory of Yahweh endure forever. Let Yahweh rejoice in his works.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Come on,.... Which is a word of exhortation, stirring up to a quick dispatch of business, without delay, the case requiring haste, and some speedy and a matter of indifference:

let us deal wisely with them; form some wise schemes, take some crafty methods to weaken and diminish them gradually; not with open force of arms, but in a more private and secret manner, and less observed:

lest they multiply; yet more and more, so that in time it may be a very difficult thing to keep them under, and many disadvantages to the kingdom may arise from them, next observed:

and it come to pass, that when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies; their neighbours the Arabians, and Phoenicians, and Ethiopians: with the latter the Egyptians had wars, as they had in the times of Moses, as Josephus p relates, and Artapanus q, an Heathen writer, also: Sir John Marsham r thinks these enemies were the old Egyptians, with whom the Israelites had lived long in a friendly manner, and so more likely to join with them, the Thebans who lived in upper Egypt, and between whom and the pastor kings that reigned in lower Egypt there were frequent wars; but these had been expelled from Egypt some time ago:

and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land; take the opportunity, by joining their enemies and fighting against them, to get away from them out of Egypt into the land of Canaan, from whence they came: this, it seems, the Egyptians had some notion of, that they were meditating something of this kind, often speaking of the land of Canaan being theirs, and that they should in a short time inherit it; and though they were dreaded by the Egyptians, they did not care to part with them, being an industrious laborious people, and from whom the kingdom reaped many advantages.

p Antiqu. l. 2. c. 10. q Ut supra. (Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 27. p. 431.) r Canon Chron. See 8. p. 107.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Any war - The Northeastern frontier was infested by the neighboring tribes, the Shasous of Egyptian monuments, and war was waged with Egypt by the confederated nations of Western Asia under the reigns of the successors of Amosis. These incursions were repulsed with extreme difficulty. In language, features, costume, and partly also in habits, the Israelites probably resembled those enemies of Egypt.

Out of the land - The Pharaohs apprehended the loss of revenue and power, which would result from the withdrawal of a peaceful and industrious race.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 1:10. They join also unto our enemies — It has been conjectured that Pharaoh had probably his eye on the oppressions which Egypt had suffered under the shepherd-kings, who for a long series of years had, according to Manetho, governed the land with extreme cruelty. As the Israelites were of the same occupation, (viz., shepherds,) the jealous, cruel king found it easy to attribute to them the same motives; taking it for granted that they were only waiting for a favourable opportunity to join the enemies of Egypt, and so overrun the whole land.