Oppression in Egypt; Moses is born
Exodus & Wilderness · Draft · BSB
Content revision: fbf355041940512a · No editorial review date recorded
Date: c. 1526 BC · Moses born (calculated). Moses was 80 when he spoke to Pharaoh (Exodus 7:7). Dated from 1 Kings 6:1, which places the Exodus 480 years before Solomon began the temple (c. 966 BC). Many scholars instead date the Exodus to about 1260 BC.
Jacob’s descendants multiply in Egypt. A new king who does not know Joseph enslaves them to build the store cities Pithom and Rameses and orders the Hebrew baby boys killed, but the midwives fear God. A Levite mother hides her son and sets him in a basket among the reeds of the Nile; Pharaoh’s daughter finds him, adopts him and names him Moses.
Primary Scripture
1:1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family:
1:2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;
1:3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;
1:4 Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.
1:5 The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all, including Joseph, who was already in Egypt.
1:6 Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died,
1:7 but the Israelites were fruitful and increased rapidly; they multiplied and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.
1:8 Then a new king, who did not know Joseph, came to power in Egypt.
1:9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become too numerous and too powerful for us.
1:10 Come, 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.”
1:11 So 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.
1:12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and flourished; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.
1:13 They worked the Israelites ruthlessly
1:14 and 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.
1:15 Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah,
1:16 “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.”
1:17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had instructed; they let the boys live.
1:18 So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”
1:19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before a midwife arrives.”
1:20 So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became even more numerous.
1:21 And because the midwives feared God, He gave them families of their own.
1:22 Then 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.”
2:1 Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman,
2:2 and she conceived and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him for three months.
2:3 But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in the basket and set it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.
2:4 And his sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
2:5 Soon the daughter of Pharaoh went down to bathe in the Nile, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. And when she saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maidservant to retrieve it.
2:6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the little boy was crying. So she had compassion on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew children.”
2:7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call one of the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?”
2:8 “Go ahead,” Pharaoh’s daughter told her. And the girl went and called the boy’s mother.
2:9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the boy and nursed him.
2:10 When the child had grown older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses and explained, “I drew him out of the water.”
Related Scripture
Deuteronomy 26:5–7 · recollection
Israel’s confession at the firstfruits: the Egyptians mistreated us, and we cried out to the LORD.
Stephen retells Moses’ birth.
Location evidence
Event map marker: Proposed site; [longitude, latitude] = [31.834217, 30.79937]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.
Rameses: Proposed site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [31.834217, 30.79937]. Classification source: editorial.
OpenBible · site identifications
Pithom: Proposed site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [31.963611, 30.5475]. Classification source: editorial.
OpenBible · site identifications
For the class
Where do you see God at work in this chapter, though he is hardly named?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial (content/authored/exodus-wilderness.json)
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm