Exodus — Chapter 1

The sons of Israel who descended into Egypt with Jacob were seventy souls in number. Lapide notes that Moses here recapitulates the genealogical connection to Genesis, showing that the affliction of Israel was foreseen in God's providence—the same God who multiplied the patriarchs now permits their oppression as both punishment for assimilation to Egyptian customs and as preparation for the Exodus miracle. The enumeration of seventy souls recalls the perfect number of the nations (Gen. 10), signifying that Israel, though small, was destined to outstrip all nations in fecundity of faith.

All the souls that came out of Jacob's thigh were seventy persons. Lapide notes the theological significance of the seventy: it matches the seventy nations listed in Genesis 10, suggesting that Israel was constituted as a counter-image of the whole Gentile world, destined to be the instrument of their salvation. The small number seventy contrasted with the three million who departed from Egypt demonstrates the extraordinary supernatural fruitfulness that God granted to His covenant people.

The children of Israel increased and multiplied greatly. Lapide explains that this extraordinary multiplication fulfilled the divine promise to Abraham (Gen. 22:17) that his seed would be as the stars of heaven. He cites Josephus that by the time of the Exodus the Hebrews numbered some three million, including women and children. This miraculous fruitfulness was the primary cause of Pharaoh's fear, and providentially prepared the great army of freed men.

There arose a new king in Egypt who knew not Joseph. Lapide discusses whether this was a different dynasty (Hyksos expelled) or simply a king who, by ingratitude, willfully ignored Joseph's benefactions. He favors the second interpretation, citing as moral warning the ease with which earthly memory of benefits perishes: ingratitude is the mother of persecution.

Pharaoh's counsel to afflict Israel lest they multiply further demonstrates, says Lapide, how human prudence without God turns to wickedness. \"Let us deal wisely with them\" (agamus eum sapienter) is the counsel of a worldly wisdom that is, as St. James says, earthly, sensual, and diabolical. The very means of oppression—hard labor—became the occasion of greater multiplication, thus confounding human malice by divine omnipotence.

The Egyptians set taskmasters over Israel to afflict them with burdens, building Pithom and Ramesses as treasure cities for Pharaoh. Lapide notes that the treasure cities built by Israel's forced labor were ultimately lost to Israel in the Exodus—the fruit of oppression did not profit the oppressor. He applies this historically: every empire built on the exploitation of God's people ultimately collapses under the weight of divine judgment. He cites Proverbs 13:23: \"The tillage of the poor is as good as a treasure to them.\"

They made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and brick, and in all manner of service in the field. Lapide takes this as the figure of the soul enslaved to sin and to the devil, who burdens it with servile works devoid of merit. The mortar and brick signify earthly cares which, though laborious, build nothing lasting; only the soul liberated by Christ, the true Moses, achieves the freedom of the children of God.

Pharaoh commands the Hebrew midwives to kill male infants at birth. Lapide observes the irony of Pharaoh's command: he, who has the power of state and army, is reduced to relying on midwives to accomplish what brute force cannot. This is the pattern of every persecution: the tyrant's apparent strength conceals a fundamental weakness before the providence of God, who uses the seemingly powerless (women, midwives) to confound the mighty.

The Hebrew midwives Shiphra and Puah feared God and did not carry out Pharaoh's command to kill the male infants. Lapide praises them as models of holy disobedience to unjust civil authority: when human law contradicts divine law, the creature must obey God rather than man (Acts 5:29). He refutes those who excuse lying to superiors by noting that the midwives were praised not for their pretext but for their fear of God and mercy.

Pharaoh commands all newborn Hebrew males to be cast into the Nile. Lapide notes the typological significance: as Pharaoh sought to destroy the male seed of Israel, so Herod sought to destroy Christ, the true Firstborn of the new Israel. Water, which was intended to be the instrument of death, becomes in divine providence the instrument of salvation—a type of holy Baptism, in which we die and rise in Christ.