Shemot (Exodus): Shemot > Ch 1

The children of Israel are fruitful & strong and the land becomes filled with them

  • Joseph died, as well as all his brothers and all that generation. The children of Israel were fruitful and swarmed and increased and became very very strong, and the land became filled with them.


A new Pharaoh comes and afflicts the children of Israel with increasing burdens. Pharaoh’s final command is for the Egyptians to kill all newborn boys

  • He appointed tax collectors over them and they built store cities for Pharaoh, namely Pithom and Raamses. But the children of Israel continued to multiply and gain strength.
  • He enslaved them with back breaking labor, with clay and with bricks and with all kinds of labor in the fields
  • He asked the Hebrew midwives Shifrah and Puah to kill newborn sons of the children of Israel. But midwifes feared G-d and disobeyed the order. G-d benefitted the midwives for that and made houses for them. The children of Israel continued to multiply and became very strong
  • Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, "Every son who is born you shall cast into the Nile, and every daughter you shall allow to live."