how our fathers went down to Egypt, where we lived many years. The Egyptians mistreated us and our fathers,
Parallel translations
- WEB how our fathers went down into Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time. The Egyptians mistreated us and our fathers.
- KJV How our fathers went down into Egypt, and we have dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians vexed us, and our fathers:
- NKJV how our fathers went down to Egypt, and we dwelt in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians afflicted us and our fathers.
- NASB that our fathers went down to Egypt, and we stayed in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians treated us and our fathers badly.
- NLT Our ancestors went down to Egypt, and we lived there a long time, and we and our ancestors were brutally mistreated by the Egyptians.
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
The message recalled how Israel's fathers went to Egypt, lived there long, and were mistreated. It rehearsed their suffering to gain Edom's sympathy.
Overview
Moses summarizes the descent into Egypt and the bondage that followed, the shared backdrop of their family history. The retelling frames Israel as a people delivered from oppression, seeking only safe passage. It sets up the contrast between the Lord's faithfulness and Edom's hardness.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Exod 12:40Now the duration of the Israelites’ stay in Egypt was 430 years.
- Deut 26:6But the Egyptians mistreated us and afflicted us, putting us to hard labor.
- Gen 46:6They also took the livestock and possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and Jacob and all his offspring went to Egypt.
- Acts 7:15So Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our fathers died.
- Gen 15:13Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
- Exod 1:16“When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them on the birthstools. If the child is a son, kill him; but if it is a daughter, let her live.”
- Exod 1:11–14So the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. As a result, they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.
- Num 11:5We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.
- Acts 7:19He exploited our people and oppressed our fathers, forcing them to abandon their infants so they would die.
- Exod 1:22Then 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.”
- Exod 5:14Then the Israelite foremen, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over the people, were beaten and asked, “Why have you not fulfilled your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as you did before?”
- Num 16:13Is it not enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? Must you also appoint yourself as ruler over us?
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Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 20:15 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.