Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born, you are to throw into the Nile, but every daughter, you are to keep alive.”
Parallel translations
- WEB Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “You shall cast every son who is born into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”
- KJV And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.
- BSB Then Pharaoh commanded all his people: “Every son born to the Hebrews you must throw into the Nile, but every daughter you may allow to live.”
- NKJV So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”
- NLT Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Throw every newborn Hebrew boy into the Nile River. But you may let the girls live.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Pharaoh commands all Egypt to throw every Hebrew boy into the Nile. The genocide becomes open and national.
Overview
Having failed with the midwives, Pharaoh enlists the whole population in mass murder, using the Nile, Egypt's source of life, as an instrument of death. This darkest decree sets the stage for the rescue of one particular baby through those very waters. The scene shows evil at its height just before God's deliverer is born.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Acts 7:19The same took advantage of our race, and mistreated our fathers, and forced them to throw out their babies, so that they wouldn’t stay alive.
- Prov 1:16for their feet run to evil. They hurry to shed blood.
- Rev 16:4–6The third poured out his bowl into the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood.
- Ps 105:25He turned their heart to hate his people, to conspire against his servants.
- Prov 4:16For they don’t sleep, unless they do evil. Their sleep is taken away, unless they make someone fall.
- Exod 1:16and he said, “When you perform the duty of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stool; if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”
- Gen 41:1At the end of two full years, Pharaoh dreamed: and behold, he stood by the river.
- Prov 27:4Wrath is cruel, and anger is overwhelming; but who is able to stand before jealousy?
- Exod 7:19–21Yahweh said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your rod, and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their streams, and over their pools, and over all their ponds of water, that they may become blood; and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 1:22 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.