The Israelites' Tough Lives

Exodus 1 is short in terms of verse count, but there are a surprising number of items in the text that need some comment—so many that we need two episodes!  In this episode we look at the language describing Israel’s condition under bondage in Egypt long after the time of Joseph. We talk about the reasons the biblical author links his description with Genesis 11:1-9, the Babel story; why the description of the bondage is justifiable historical; how the earlier story of Joseph in Egypt could be congruent with Exod 1:11, and how what pharaoh commanded the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, has been regularly misunderstood.