Exodus 1:7

INCREASE AND OPPRESSION OF ISRAEL, Exodus 1:7-22.

7. Here is an accumulation of figures to express the vast increase of the children of Israel .

Were fruitful A figure from the seed which multiplies a hundred or a thousand fold .

Increased abundantly Swarmed or teemed; a word applied to the myriad-fold spawn of fishes .

Multiplied… exceeding mighty Literally, multiplied and grew strong (in numbers) exceedingly exceedingly . The fat Nile-land greatly favours fruitfulness both in animals and men, as is attested by travellers from Aristotle and Strabo to Robinson; and Goshen was the “best of the land” for a pastoral people. It was, besides, a border land, where Israel was isolated from the Egyptians. This isolation aided in developing an independent national life, while the descendants of Jacob would in Canaan have become absorbed among the native Hamites. Natural causes are thus ever taken up into providential plans.