Exodus 1:10

10 Come let us wisely oppress them, lest they multiply: and if any war shall rise against us, join with our enemies, and having overcome us, depart out of the land.

Exodus 1:10 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 1:10

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 ^F16 relates, and Artapanus {q}, an Heathen writer, also: Sir John Marsham ^F18 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

F16 Antiqu. l. 2. c. 10.
F17 Ut supra. (Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 27. p. 431.)
F18 Canon Chron. See 8. p. 107.

Exodus 1:10 In-Context

8 In the mean time there arose a new king over Egypt, that knew not Joseph:

9 And he said to his people: Behold the people of the children of Israel are numerous and stronger than we.

10 Come let us wisely oppress them, lest they multiply: and if any war shall rise against us, join with our enemies, and having overcome us, depart out of the land.

11 Therefore he set over them masters of the works, to afflict them with burdens: and they built for Pharao cities of tabernacles, Phithom, and Ramesses.

12 But the more they oppressed them, the more they were multiplied and increased.