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“These are the names of the children of Israel who entered Egypt with Jacob... seventy... souls” (Exodus 1:1, 5). This shows that the promise God made to Abraham was truly fulfilled. For those who came into captivity and slavery in Egypt, numbering seventy souls, after two hundred and twenty-five years that they lived there, came out numbering six hundred thousand bearing arms, not including in this number those who were twenty years old or less. When Joseph and the sons of his family died, then a new king arose and gave the command to kill the children of the Jews. The king did this not without reason. And Satan, knowing that the four hundred years foretold to Abraham were already fulfilled, wanted to kill the savior of the Jews while killing the infants. And Pharaoh himself, seeing that the Jewish people had multiplied and that all of Egypt had been consumed by them, envied the multitude of Jews. Especially when their enemies, wanting to assure themselves that they knew the future, since the number of years determined for the Jews’ stay in Egypt was coming to an end, foreshadowed their speedy deliverance; then Pharaoh ordered that babies be killed and parents be burdened with vain labor in building granaries that were not needed. For if the granaries built by Joseph were enough to store grain for the Egyptians, Canaanites, and Amorites for seven years of famine, then, of course, there were enough of them to contain bread for Egypt alone. But the more Pharaoh tried to destroy Jewish babies, the more the number of those born increased. And the more the king intensified to oppress the Jews, the more worried he was about the proliferation of this people. Therefore, the Jews were hated by the Egyptians themselves. Since Pharaoh feared that the waters of his river would not be spoiled by the infant bodies being thrown into it, he called on the midwives and ordered them to become murderers, that is, with his power he forced them to act contrary to their name and from healers to become murderers. But the women did not listen to the king, although they promised. Instead of taking the lives of babies by order of the king, they were ready to sacrifice their lives to save them. But when they expected to receive the crown of confession for this, then God put a wise word into their mouths, and they were delivered from death. And it was “good” (Ex. 1:20) for them, that is, their houses spread, when they thought that for the salvation of many babies Pharaoh would betray them to final destruction. When the king was ridiculed by these wives (although he did not know it), then he decided to defile the waters in the river with the blood of babies and feed the fish with their flesh. But he was not successful in this either, because the number of Jews multiplied. He filled the river with the bodies of babies, as he wanted, but at the same time Egypt, which he did not want, was filled with Jews. Seeing that the river was rotten from infant bodies, Pharaoh rejoiced. Noticing that the Jews seemed to be destroying all of Egypt, he became very worried. The king's command was not canceled, but with its execution his desire was not fulfilled; and on the banks of the river, like locusts, lay many infant bodies, but, to the torment of the king, the streets in Egypt continued to be resounded with the voices of infants. You might be interested in: