Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Exodus, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
God’s Identity and Power
Redemption and Deliverance
The Covenant
Mediators and the Priesthood
Summary
Analysis
The narrative lists which of Jacob’s sons traveled from Canaan to Egypt, where Joseph already lived: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. Jacob had a total of 70 offspring. After Joseph and his generation all died, the Israelites continued to multiply until Egypt was filled with them.
When the Book of Genesis left off, the Israelites’ ancestors—the founders of the twelve tribes named here—had moved from the land of Canaan to Egypt in order to escape famine, and they prospered there. Before he died, Joseph assured his family that someday God would lead them back to Canaan, the land God had promised to them by covenant.
Themes
A new king, unfamiliar with Joseph, comes to power in Egypt. He tells his people that the Israelites outnumber them, and so they must “deal shrewdly” with the Israelites in case they turn against the Egyptians in time of war. So the Egyptians enslave and oppress the Israelites, forcing them to build cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. However, the more the Israelites are oppressed, the more they multiply. And the more the Israelites multiply, the harder the Egyptians oppress them, embittering their lives with difficult labor.
Hundreds of years have passed. While Joseph had found favor with the Pharaoh of his day, the current Pharaoh doesn’t know that history, or doesn’t care. When Pharaoh oppresses the thriving minority of Israelites, he fulfills what God had told Abraham would happen in Genesis 15. Although it looks like God has forgotten his people, as they’re exiled from the promised land, their multiplication hints that God hasn’t forgotten them.
Themes
The king of Egypt instructs two Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, to kill all newborn Hebrew boys, but to let the girls live. However, the Hebrew midwives fear God, and they refuse to kill the baby boys. When Pharaoh asks Shiphrah and Puah why they’ve disobeyed his orders, they claim that the strong Hebrew women give birth quickly, before the midwives have an opportunity to reach them. Because of this, God blesses Shiphrah and Puah, and the Israelites continue to thrive. But Pharaoh tells the Egyptians to throw any newborn Hebrew boy into the Nile.
Since hard labor isn’t subduing the Israelites, Pharaoh tries to initiate genocide. Shiphrah and Puah are specifically recognized for their defiance—they fear God more than they fear the king, and their resistance helps thwart Pharaoh and preserve their people. Their heroism models the attitude the Israelites as a whole must aspire to: if the Israelites honor God instead of their oppressor, God will bless them.
Themes
