Exodus 1:22
New International Version
Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

New Living Translation
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.”

English Standard Version
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”

Berean Standard Bible
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.”

King James Bible
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.

New King James Version
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.”

New American Standard Bible
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.”

NASB 1995
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive.”

NASB 1977
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive.”

Legacy Standard Bible
And Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive.”

Amplified Bible
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born [to the Hebrews] must be thrown into the Nile, but every daughter you shall keep alive.”

Christian Standard Bible
Pharaoh then commanded all his people, “You must throw every son born to the Hebrews into the Nile, but let every daughter live.”

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Pharaoh then commanded all his people: “You must throw every son born to the Hebrews into the Nile, but let every daughter live.”

American Standard Version
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.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And Pharaoh commanded all the people and said, “Every son who will be born, you will throw him into the river, and every daughter you will save.”

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And Pharao charged all his people, saying, Whatever male child shall be born to the Hebrews, cast into the river; and every female, save it alive.

Contemporary English Version
until finally, the king gave a command to everyone in the nation, "As soon as a Hebrew boy is born, throw him into the Nile River! But you can let the girls live."

Douay-Rheims Bible
Pharao therefore charged all his people, saying: Whatsoever shall be born of the male sex, ye shall cast into the river: whatsoever of the female, ye shall save alive.

English Revised Version
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.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people to throw into the Nile every [Hebrew] boy that was born, but to let every girl live.

Good News Translation
Finally the king issued a command to all his people: "Take every newborn Hebrew boy and throw him into the Nile, but let all the girls live."

International Standard Version
Meanwhile, Pharaoh continued commanding all of his people, "You're to throw every Hebrew son who is born into the Nile River, but you're to allow every Hebrew daughter to live."

JPS Tanakh 1917
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.'

Literal Standard Version
and Pharaoh lays a charge on all his people, saying, “Every son who is born—you cast him into the River, and every daughter you keep alive.”

Majority Standard Bible
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.”

New American Bible
Pharaoh then commanded all his people, “Throw into the Nile every boy that is born, but you may let all the girls live.”

NET Bible
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, "All sons that are born you must throw into the river, but all daughters you may let live."

New Revised Standard Version
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.”

New Heart English Bible
Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, "You are to cast every son who is born to the Hebrews into the river, but every daughter you are to keep alive."

Webster's Bible Translation
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.

World English Bible
Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “You shall cast every son who is born into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”

Young's Literal Translation
and Pharaoh layeth a charge on all his people, saying, 'Every son who is born -- into the River ye do cast him, and every daughter ye do keep alive.'

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Oppression by a New King
21And because the midwives feared God, He gave them families of their own. 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.”

Cross References
Acts 7:19
He exploited our people and oppressed our fathers, forcing them to abandon their infants so they would die.

Hebrews 11:23
By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after his birth, because they saw that he was a beautiful child, and they were unafraid of the king's edict.

Genesis 41:1
After two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream: He was standing beside the Nile,


Treasury of Scripture

And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.

A.

Exodus 1:16
And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.

Exodus 7:19-21
And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone…

Psalm 105:25
He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal subtilly with his servants.

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Exodus 1
1. The children of Israel, after Joseph's death, increase.
8. The more they are oppressed by a new king, the more they multiply.
15. The godliness of the midwives in saving the male children alive.
22. Pharaoh commands the male children to be cast into the river














(22) Every son that is born.--The LXX. add "to the Hebrews," but without any necessity, since the context shows that only Hebrew children are meant.

Ye shall cast into the river.--Infanticide, so shocking to Christians, has prevailed widely at different times and places, and been regarded as a trivial matter. In Sparta, the State decided which children should live and which should die. At Athens a law of Solon left the decision to the parent. At Rome, the rule was that infants were made away with, unless the father interposed, and declared it to be his wish that a particular child should be brought up. The Syrians offered unwelcome children in sacrifice to Moloch; the Carthaginians to Melkarth. In China infanticide is said to be a common practice at the present day. Heathen nations do not generally regard human life as sacred. On the contrary, they hold that considerations of expediency justify the sweeping away of any life that inconveniences the State. Hence infanticide is introduced by Plato into his model republic (Rep. v. 9). Almost all ancient nations viewed the massacre of prisoners taken in war as allowable. The Spartan crypteia was a system of licensed murder. The condemnation to death of all male Hebrew children by Pharaoh is thus in no respect improbable. On the other hand, the mode of the death presents difficulties. For, first, the Nile was viewed as a god; and to fill it with corpses would, one might have supposed, have been regarded as a pollution. Secondly, the Nile water was the only water drunk; and sanitary considerations might thus have been expected to have prevented the edict. Perhaps, however, the children were viewed as offerings to the Nile, or to Savak, the crocodile headed god, of whom each crocodile was an emblem. At any rate, as the Nile swarmed with crocodiles throughout its whole course, the bodies were tolerably sure to be devoured before they became putrescent.

Verse 22. - Every son that is born. The words are universal, and might seem to apply to the Egyptian, no less than the Hebrew, male children. But they are really limited by the context, which shows that there had never been any question as to taking the life of any Egyptian. With respect to the objection sometimes raised, that no Egyptian monarch would possibly have commanded such wholesale cold-blooded destruction of poor innocent harmless children, it is to be observed, first, that Egyptian monarchs had very little regard indeed for the lives of any persons who were not of their own nation. They constantly massacred prisoners taken in war - they put to death or enslaved persons cast upon their coasts (Diod. Sic. 1:67) - they cemented with the blood of their captives, as Lenormant says ('Manuel d'Hist. Anc.,' vol. 1. p. 423), each stone of their edifices. The sacredness of human life was not a principle with them. Secondly, that tender and compassionate regard for children which seems to us Englishmen of the present day a universal instinct is in truth the fruit of Christianity, and was almost unknown in the ancient world. Children who were "not wanted" were constantly exposed to be devoured by wild beasts, or otherwise made away with (Dollinger, ' Jew and Gentile,' vol. it. p. 246); and such exposition was defended by philosophers (Plat. 'Pep.' 5. p. 460 c). In Syria and Carthage they were constantly offered to idols. At Rome, unless the father interposed to save it, every child was killed. It would probably not have cost an Egyptian Pharaoh a single pang to condemn to death a number of children, any more than a number of puppies. And the rule "Salus publica suprema lex," which, if not formulated, still practically prevailed, would have been held to justify anything. The river. Though, in the Delta, where the scene is laid throughout the early part of Exodus, there were many branches of the Nile, yet we hear constantly of "the river" (Exodus 2:3, 5; Exodus 7:20, 21; Exodus 8:3, etc.), because one branch only, the Tanitic, was readily accessible. Tanks (Zoan) was situated on it.



Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Then Pharaoh
פַּרְעֹ֔ה (par·‘ōh)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 6547: Pharaoh -- a title of Egypt kings

commanded
וַיְצַ֣ו (way·ṣaw)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Piel - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 6680: To lay charge (upon), give charge (to), command, order

all
לְכָל־ (lə·ḵāl)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3605: The whole, all, any, every

his people:
עַמּ֖וֹ (‘am·mōw)
Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 5971: A people, a tribe, troops, attendants, a flock

“Every
כָּל־ (kāl-)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3605: The whole, all, any, every

son
הַבֵּ֣ן (hab·bên)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1121: A son

born [to the Hebrews]
הַיִּלּ֗וֹד (hay·yil·lō·wḏ)
Article | Adjective - masculine singular
Strong's 3209: Born

you must throw
תַּשְׁלִיכֻ֔הוּ (taš·lî·ḵu·hū)
Verb - Hifil - Imperfect - second person masculine plural | third person masculine singular
Strong's 7993: To throw out, down, away

into the Nile,
הַיְאֹ֙רָה֙ (hay·’ō·rāh)
Article | Noun - masculine singular | third person feminine singular
Strong's 2975: Nile -- a channel, a fosse, canal, shaft, the Nile, the Tigris

but every
וְכָל־ (wə·ḵāl)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3605: The whole, all, any, every

daughter
הַבַּ֖ת (hab·baṯ)
Article | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 1323: A daughter

you may allow to live.”
תְּחַיּֽוּן׃ (tə·ḥay·yūn)
Verb - Piel - Imperfect - second person masculine plural | Paragogic nun
Strong's 2421: To live, to revive


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OT Law: Exodus 1:22 Pharaoh commanded all his people saying You (Exo. Ex)
Exodus 1:21
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