Genealogy: Exodus 1.1-7
Exodus begins with a recap of the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt, the total offspring of Israel numbering 70, as per Genesis. The names are: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher. These all die after Joseph, with the rest of the generation, “But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them” (Ex. 1.7).
The Israelites are Oppressed: Exodus 1.8-22
A new king arises in Egypt, one that doesn’t know Joseph and has a deep distrust of the numerous and powerful Israelites. Fearing that the Israelites will join Egypt’s enemies in a war against Egypt, the king has the Israelites enslaved. The Israelites build the supply cities Pithom and Rameses (not pyramids!) for Pharaoh. This is particularly interesting because Rameses is where Joseph’s family settles in Genesis 47.11. The Genesis reference is an anachronism; clearly it had not been built yet.
The more the Israelites are oppressed, the more they multiply and spread, and the Egyptians become ruthless in their enslavement, with harsh work bricklaying and in the field.
The king says to Shiphrah and Puah, the (presumably Egyptian) midwives to the Hebrews, that they should kill every boy that is born. But because they fear God, they do not kill any children. Rather, they tell Pharaoh that the Hebrew women, unlike Egyptian women, are “vigorous” and give birth without a midwife.
For their fear of God, God gives the midwives families of their own. God also continues to multiply the Hebrews. Then Pharaoh (as he is named at this point) commands his people that every boy born to the Hebrews should be thrown into the Nile, though girls may live.
Birth and Youth of Moses: Exodus 2.1-10
A Levite man marries a Levite woman and the two have a son. The mother hides the child for three months before placing him in a papyrus basket sealed with bitumen and pitch, which she puts in the reeds on the river bank. Notably, this particular word for “basket” only appears one other time in the bible: in the story of Noah (Gen. 6.14). That too was sealed with pitch. That too was placed in water. What happens hear is a little echo of the flood narrative. As all other Hebrew boys are drowning, the child is kept safe in his little ark.
The child’s sister stands at a distance, watching for what happens.
Pharaoh’s daughter comes to bathe in the river, and sees the basket. She sends a maid to retrieve it. When she opens it, Pharaoh’s daughter finds a crying boy inside. Correctly identifying it as a Hebrew, she takes pity on him.
The child’s sister approaches Pharaoh’s daughter and asks if she should get a nurse from among the Hebrew women. Of course, she returns with her own mother, but Pharaoh’s daughter does not know this. Pharaoh’s daughter tells the woman she will pay for the woman to nurse the child. When the child grows up, Pharaoh’s daughter takes him in as her own son. She names him Moses (Hebrew Mosheh, saying “I drew him out of the water” (Ex. 2.10). However, Mosheh literally means “the one who draws out.”)
By this fortuitous trick, the mother is able to raise (and not murder) her own son. Moses, like Joseph, soon finds himself an Egyptian. There is quite a difference in their status, however.
More Envelope Structure
Oh, and check out the envelope structure. Here it is not the same phrase demarking a section (as explored before), but successive phrases. Pharaoh commands the Egyptians, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile” (Ex. 1.22). The following section, which focuses on the boy who was saved, ends with Pharaoh’s daughter saying, “I drew him out of the water” (Ex. 2.10). The envelope structure advances the plot, moving from Pharaoh to his daughter and from throwing into the Nile to drawing out.
Moses Flees to Midian: Exodus 2.11-15a
A grown-up Moses goes out to see what his people suffer. He sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, “a kinsfolk.” Then he seeks (an unequal degree of) revenge for his kin: “He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand” (Ex. 2.12).
The next day he goes out and sees a variation of the scene: two Hebrews fighting. He asks the one who is in the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow Hebrew?” The answer comes, “Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” (Ex. 2.13-14). Moses realizes that his murder is known, and when Pharaoh hears of it, he seeks to kill Moses.
The man who replies to Moses raises a few interesting points regarding Moses’ future. Who made you ruler and judge over us? Well, no one, yet. But in the next scene we will see that it is God that makes Moses the leader of the Hebrews, a “ruler and judge,” if you will. His next question, Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian, raises the question of how murder shall be dealt with. This will be answered in the sixth commandment in Exodus 20.13: “You shall not murder.” And then there is the whole thing about conquering the land of Canaan…
Parallel Encounter and Typology: Exodus 2.15b-25
This section parallels an earlier story from the Bible: the marriage story of Jacob and Rachel. Compare these two encounters [Remember: when last we left our hero, Pharaoh sought to kill him…]
Moses
But Moses fled from Pharaoh. He settled in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well. The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. But some shepherds came and drove them away. Moses got up and came to their defense and watered their flock. When they returned to their father Reuel, he said, ‘How is it that you have come back so soon today?’ They said, ‘An Egyptian helped us against the shepherds; he even drew water for us and watered the flock.’ He said to his daughters, ‘Where is he? Why did you leave the man? Invite him to break bread.’ Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage. She bore a son, and he named him Gershom; for he said, ‘I have been an alien residing in a foreign land.’
Jacob
Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the people of the east. As he looked, he saw a well in the field and three flocks of sheep lying there beside it; for out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well’s mouth was large, and when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well, and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place on the mouth of the well.
Jacob said to them...[here follow many words] But they said, ‘We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together, and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.’
While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep; for she kept them. Now when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his mother’s brother Laban, and the sheep of his mother’s brother Laban, Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of his mother’s brother Laban. Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and wept aloud. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s kinsman, and that he was Rebekah’s son; and she ran and told her father.
When Laban heard the news about his sister’s son Jacob, he ran to meet him; he embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things, and Laban said to him, ‘Surely you are my bone and my flesh!’ And he stayed with him for a month. [Joseph ends up working for Laban 7 years and receiving Leah for his efforts. He must work another seven for Rachel. And then...well, it would be silly to recount here the epic son-begetting fest that follows.]
So What?
The narrative similarities are as follows: A man travels to a foreign land and finds himself at a well where shepherds are gathered. The man does some task to prove himself to his potential wife - and in the process waters her flock. The woman runs home and tells her family. The dominant male in the family goes out to the man and invites him home. The man agrees to stay with the family and marries the daughter. The daughter bears a son and names him ritually.
These two stories are the same type of story, containing many similar elements. I will explore this phenomenon more in later entries, but for now it is just important to note that these two stories contain a number of similar details, styles, and events. The encounter at the well, which is quite long-winded in Genesis, is fairly laconic in Exodus because the audience is already familiar with the story. Essentially both of these stories are the same, with different characters. Those encountering the stories chronologically within the bible will notice that the stories are very similar. Because of this, the narrator does not have to be quite as specific the second time around - the reader can fill in the details for himself.
Closing and Parallelism: Exodus 2.23-25
The king of Egypt dies, but the Israelites still cry out from under their slavery. Their cries are heard by God.
God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.(Ex. 2.24-25)
There is something special about the way this is written. It has a parallel structure of cause and effect, with a passive action of God (the cause) creating some specific change in God (the effect). When God hears the groaning, it causes him to remember his covenant. When God looks upon the Israelites, it causes him to take notice of them. The passive actions of hearing and looking create the active actions of remembering and taking notice. The effect is poetic:
God heard their groaning,and God remembered his covenant...God looked upon the Israelitesand God took notice of them.
The method of parallelism has remained an effective one through the years Check out this selection from John F. Kennedy’s inauguration speech:
[Note: The ellipses indicates that the paragraph continues, but I have cut out the majority of the paragraph to emphasize the parallelism that begins each paragraph, creating a link between all of them]
To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share,we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends…
To those new States whom we welcome to the ranks of the free,we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny…
To those peoples in the huts and villages across the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery,we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required…
The repeating structure is denoted by the phrases “To those / we pledge.” The structure is useful and effective in linking and presenting ideas. In a way, the repeated phrases function as bullet points around which information is arranged. Consider that the next time you are being inaugurated. Or giving a Power Point presentation. Or writing scripture.
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