Exode 1
La Bible du Semeur
L’oppression des Israélites en Égypte
1 Voici la liste des fils d’Israël qui ont accompagné Jacob en Egypte, chacun avec sa famille : 2 Ruben, Siméon, Lévi et Juda ; 3 Issacar, Zabulon et Benjamin ; 4 Dan et Nephtali, Gad et Aser. 5 Les descendants de Jacob étaient au nombre de soixante-dix en tout[a], Joseph étant déjà en Egypte à ce moment-là.
6 Joseph mourut, ainsi que tous ses frères et toute leur génération[b]. 7 Les Israélites furent féconds, proliférèrent, se multiplièrent et devinrent de plus en plus puissants, si bien que le pays en fut rempli[c].
8 Un nouveau roi[d] vint au pouvoir en Egypte ; il ne connaissait pas Joseph. 9 Il dit à ses sujets : Voyez, le peuple des Israélites est plus nombreux et plus puissant que nous. 10 Il est temps d’aviser à son sujet, pour qu’il cesse de se multiplier. Sinon, en cas de guerre, il risque de se ranger aux côtés de nos ennemis et de combattre contre nous pour quitter ensuite le pays.
11 Alors on imposa aux Israélites des chefs de corvée pour les accabler par des travaux forcés. C’est ainsi qu’ils durent bâtir pour le pharaon les villes de Pitom et de Ramsès[e] pour servir de centres d’approvisionnement. 12 Mais plus on les opprimait, plus ils devenaient nombreux et plus ils se répandaient, au point que les Egyptiens les prirent en aversion. 13 Alors ceux-ci les réduisirent à un dur esclavage 14 et leur rendirent la vie amère par de rudes corvées : fabrication de mortier, confection de briques, travaux en tous genres dans les champs[f], bref, toutes les tâches auxquelles on les asservit avec cruauté.
15 Il y avait deux sages-femmes pour les Hébreux. Elles se nommaient Shiphra et Poua[g]. Le pharaon leur donna cet ordre : 16 Quand vous accoucherez les femmes des Hébreux, et que vous aurez constaté le sexe de l’enfant, si c’est un garçon, mettez-le à mort, si c’est une fille, qu’on la laisse vivre.
17 Mais les sages-femmes craignaient Dieu ; elles n’obéirent pas au pharaon : elles laissèrent la vie sauve aux garçons. 18 Alors le pharaon les convoqua et leur demanda : Pourquoi avez-vous fait cela ? Pourquoi avez-vous laissé vivre les garçons ?
19 Les sages-femmes répondirent au pharaon : C’est que les femmes des Hébreux ne sont pas comme les Egyptiennes. Elles sont pleines de vie. Avant que la sage-femme arrive auprès d’elles, elles ont déjà mis leur enfant au monde.
20 Dieu fit du bien aux sages-femmes, et le peuple continua de se multiplier et devint extrêmement puissant. 21 Comme les sages-femmes avaient agi par crainte de Dieu, Dieu fit prospérer leurs familles.
22 Alors le pharaon ordonna à tous ses sujets : Jetez dans le fleuve tous les garçons nouveau-nés des Hébreux[h], mais laissez vivre toutes les filles !
Footnotes
- 1.5 Voir Gn 46.27. Un manuscrit hébreu trouvé à Qumrân, l’ancienne version grecque et Ac 7.14 ont : soixante-quinze.
- 1.6 Plusieurs siècles séparèrent la mort de Joseph de l’avènement du nouveau roi (v. 8).
- 1.7 Selon la promesse (Gn 46.3 ; voir 12.37). Les Israélites n’étaient pas seulement confinés au pays de Goshen, ils habitaient aussi au milieu des Egyptiens (3.22). Voir Ac 7.17.
- 1.8 Certains l’ont identifié à Amosis (1570-1546 av. J.-C.), fondateur de la XVIIIe dynastie, qui a chassé les Hyksos (d’origine asiatique, ils avaient envahi la Basse-Egypte pour la dominer de env. 1730 à 1580), d’autres à Thoutmosis III, pharaon de la XVIIIe dynastie, d’autres à Séti Ier (13041293–12901279 av. J.-C.).
- 1.11 Vers la frontière orientale de l’Egypte, près du canal qui reliait le Nil à la mer Rouge, près de l’actuel canal de Suez.
- 1.14 Surtout des travaux d’irrigation (Dt 11.10).
- 1.15 Sans doute les responsables des sages-femmes. Elles portent des noms égyptiens.
- 1.22 Selon le Pentateuque samaritain, l’ancienne version grecque et des traditions rabbiniques. Absent du texte hébreu traditionnel.
Exodus 1
New Catholic Bible
The Children of Israel in Egypt[a]
Oppression of the Israelites[b]
Chapter 1
1 [c]These are the names of the children of Israel who entered Egypt with Joseph, each of them arriving with his family: 2 [d]Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5 The total number of those born to Jacob was seventy.[e] Joseph was already in Egypt.
6 [f]Now Joseph died and then all his brothers and all that generation. 7 The children of Israel multiplied and grew numerous and very powerful and filled the land.
Harsh Condition of the Children of Israel.[g] 8 Then a new king arose in Egypt who had not known Joseph. 9 He said to his people, “Behold, the children of Israel are very numerous and more powerful than we are. 10 Let us deal wisely with them lest they continue to multiply. Otherwise, if there were a war, they would join our enemies and battle against us and then escape from the land.”
11 So taskmasters were set over the children of Israel to wear them down with forced labor. They built the supply cities[h] of Pithom and Raameses for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and grew beyond measure. The Egyptians began to dread the presence of the children of Israel 13 and therefore put them to work, treating them harshly. 14 They made their lives difficult and forced them to make clay bricks and to do all kinds of work in the fields. They forced them to do every type of harsh work.
15 Command to the Midwives. The king of Egypt said to the midwives of the Hebrews, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other named Puah, 16 “When you assist the Hebrew women who are in labor, look at the child while it is still on the birthing stool. If it is a boy, kill it. If it is a girl, you can let it live.” 17 But the midwives feared God. They did not do what the king of Egypt had ordered them to do. They let the babies live.
18 The king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this and let the babies live?” 19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptians. They are full of life. Before the midwife arrives, they have already given birth.”
20 God blessed the midwives. The people grew and became very numerous. 21 God gave the midwives numerous families because they had feared God. 22 Pharaoh therefore gave this command to all of his people: “Every male son who is born to the Hebrews is to be thrown into the Nile, but let the girl babies live.”
Footnotes
- Exodus 1:1 In this section, the Bible counterposes two peoples—the people of Pharaoh, who are cruel and oppressive, and the children of Israel, who are sorely oppressed. However, the more the latter are oppressed, the stronger they become. In their struggle to leave Egypt, the children of Israel will slowly become aware that they are a people chosen by God and set free to carry out an important task.
In carefully planning and preparing the salvation of the whole human race, the God of supreme love, by a special dispensation, chose for himself a people to whom he might entrust his promises. First, he entered into a Covenant with Abraham (see Gen 15:18) and, through Moses, with the people of Israel (see Ex 24:8). To this people that he acquired for himself, he so manifested himself through words and deeds as the one true and living God that Israel came to know by experience the ways of God with human beings, and with God himself speaking to them through the mouth of the Prophets, Israel daily gained a deeper and clearer understanding of his ways and made them more widely known among the nations (see Pss 22:28-29; 96:1-3; Isa 2:1-4; Jer 3:17). - Exodus 1:1 Scholars calculate that about three centuries separated the death of Joseph, with which Genesis ends, and the Exodus of the Hebrew people. From this lengthy period the Bible singles out only two facts that are important for linking the past with the coming religious history of Israel.
- Exodus 1:1 The children of Israel flourish in Egypt, fulfilling the promise God had made to the Patriarchs (Gen 12; 17; etc.). They lived in Egypt 430 years (see Ex 12:40). We pass from the story of the great ancestors to that of a people.
- Exodus 1:2 The sons of Jacob are given here according to their respective mothers (see Gen 29:31; 30:20; 35:16-26).
- Exodus 1:5 Seventy: Gen 46:27; Deut 10:22 have the same number. The Greek translation, however, and a manuscript from Qumran have “seventy-five,” as does Acts 7:14. The extra five persons are the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh; they are mentioned in the Greek translation of Gen 46:27.
- Exodus 1:6 Scholars estimate that it was more than 200 years from the death of Joseph to the advent of the new king.
- Exodus 1:8 The Pharaoh, probably Rameses II (1298–1232 B.C.), becomes worried when he sees the proliferation of the Hebrews and takes various measures to exterminate this race and doubtless other Asiatic populations. The children of Israel who left Egypt are said to number 600,000, “not including children” (Ex 12:37). Works of the kind that the Hebrews are compelled to do are illustrated in Egyptian paintings of that period, even if these do not picture actual groups of the Patriarchs’ descendants.
- Exodus 1:11 Supply cities is a military term (see 1 Ki 9:19). Pithom and Rameses are in the eastern part of the Nile Delta; Rameses is identified with either Tanis or El Qantara. Pharaoh: a royal title rather than a personal name.
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