Keluaran 1:7

1:7 The Israelites, ¹  however, ²  were fruitful, increased greatly, multiplied, and became extremely strong, ³  so that the land was filled with them.

Keluaran 5:5

5:5 Pharaoh was thinking, ⁴  “The people of the land are now many, and you are giving them rest from their labor.”

Keluaran 32:13

32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and told them, ‘I will multiply your descendants ⁵  like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken about ⁶  I will give to your descendants, ⁷  and they will inherit it forever.’”

[1:7]  ¹ tn Heb “the sons of Israel.”

[1:7]  ² tn The disjunctive vav marks a contrast with the note about the deaths of the first generation.

[1:7]  ³ tn Using מְאֹד (mÿ’od) twice intensifies the idea of their becoming strong (see GKC 431-32 §133.k).

[1:7]  sn The text is clearly going out of its way to say that the people of Israel flourished in Egypt. The verbs פָּרָה (parah, “be fruitful”), שָׁרַץ (sharats, “swarm, teem”), רָבָה (ravah, “multiply”), and עָצַם (’atsam, “be strong, mighty”) form a literary link to the creation account in Genesis. The text describes Israel’s prosperity in the terms of God’s original command to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, to show that their prosperity was by divine blessing and in compliance with the will of God. The commission for the creation to fill the earth and subdue it would now begin to materialize through the seed of Abraham.

[5:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “And Pharaoh said.” This is not the kind of thing that Pharaoh is likely to have said to Moses, and so it probably is what he thought or reasoned within himself. Other passages (like Exod 2:14; 3:3) show that the verb “said” can do this. (See U. Cassuto, Exodus, 67.)

[32:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “your seed.”

[32:13]  ⁶ tn “about” has been supplied.

[32:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “seed.”