Exodus opens with the names of the sons of the man Israel. This is important for both historical and literary reasons. To history, we’ll come to find out that it’s been a few hundred years since this family first came to settle in Goshen, within the territory of the Egyptian pharaoh. They had now spent many years in pagan surroundings. During that time, we get a sense that many of them have given up on the thought of a God that cares for them. As that iterates through subsequent generations, it’s quite possible that they know very little of the promises God has made through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. From a literary perspective, it reminds us, just like them, that this story isn’t in isolation.
The names of Israel’s sons are listed in birth order. We’re told the whole family is 70 strong, same figure given in Genesis 46, and that Joseph was already there. These are important to set the scene as both have relevance to the problems that are to come. We will go from an invited Israelite family who aren’t very big to an exceedingly strong nation that has been fruitful and greatly increasing (if we remember from Genesis, this is blessing language). The situation has changed.
As is prone to happen, Egypt eventually has a different leader than the one who was in charge and permitted Joseph’s family to settle there. It’s not super clear who this new pharaoh is, but it’s likely a native Egyptian who deposed the last of the Hyksos pharaohs. The Hyksos were, for all practical purposes, invaders from Asia who had settled in Egypt and taken the throne by force. After a couple of hundred years they are chased out. If this happens to be the right scenario, it’s easier to understand the threat that the new pharaoh potentially sees from the Israelites in Goshen. This is compounded by the general fear/mistrust Egyptians had of foreign peoples (driven likely by a sense of superiority).
The rendering of the pharaoh’s concern in v. 10, though, doesn’t make a ton of sense. The way it reads it sounds like he is concerned that the Israelites may get in league with an invading army and escape. Given that they don’t particularly care for this group that is blessed and massive within their borders, the fact that they might leave doesn’t seem like a problem. In fact, it’s probably a good thing in their eyes. A similar phrase is used in Hosea 1:11 and the NRSV recognizes it as “…and they shall take possession of the land, for great shall…”. That same type of rendering makes the most sense here as well. So, the concern is likely that Israel will join with an invading army and take over the land, not flee from it.
To combat this, the pharaoh decides to put heavy burdens on the Israelites. This is about population reduction, so the labor must be hard enough to kill the weak, weaken the strong, and likely reduce the amount of free time they have for the types of activities that produce more Israelites. This fails, and not just out of happenstance. The blessing that God shows here in multiplying the Israelites is proportionate to how much they were oppressed. This is in a sense difficult because it’s these blessings of God that actually lead them into further trouble with the Egyptians. We shouldn’t be surprised that there will be conflict when powerful humans try to exert control to suppress those things that God has designed for blessing.
Since the initial attempt at degrading their status and reducing their population didn’t work, pharaoh takes the next step and tries to enlist the Hebrew midwives to kill the male children as they are born and let the female children live. Obviously, things have escalated, now we’re talking straight up genocide. The fact that the midwives are named in the text is a strong testament to their bravery. They not only ignore pharaoh’s instructions but straight up sass him when asked why they aren’t doing it (Hebrew ladies don’t mess, they get the job done, unlike Egyptian ladies who seem to take their sweet time.) This was talking to a man who has commanded genocide. Who knows why he let them live (perhaps it’s implied God intervenes here), but they serve God above men, even in the face of danger. God blesses them in return.
Given that he can’t trust the midwives to enact his demands at the time of birth, Pharaoh changes the decree to not killing at birth but to throwing the male babies in the Nile after they are born. This is not only kind of a clean way (and one that can’t be argued with for access, even today 90% of Egypt’s population live within 5 miles of the Nile. Also, with the belief in the Nile as one of the gods, if the child is “received” by the water, it is more seen as a judgment of the gods than a blame on the person who put the child in there.) The stage is also set for the introduction of one of those babies who will somehow yet live as God continues to intervene for His people of promise.