Book of Exodus

The Book of Exodus (Hebrew: שְׁמוֹת, Shemot) is the second book of the Hebrew Bible. Book of Exodus is the record of Israel's birth as a nation. Within the protective "womb" of Egypt, the Jewish family of seventy rapidly multiplies. At the right time, accompanied with severe "birth pains," and infant nation, numbering between two and three million people, is brought into the world where it is divinely protected, fed, and nurtured. The Hebrew title, ‘‘We'elleh Shemoth’’, ‘‘Now These Are the Names,’’ comes from the first phrase in 1:1.

• Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
  • KJV, Exodus 1:1-4
    • The first sentence is the source of the Hebrew name of Exodus, Shemot (“names”)

• And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
• Exodus 3:2, KJV
• Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.
• And God said to Moses, "I AM THAT I AM." And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
  • NKJV: Exodus 3:14

• And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.
  • Exodus 5:1, KJV
• You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
  • 22:21 New American Standard Bible

• Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
  • Chapter 20, Verse 3
• Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
  • Chapter 20, Verse 4-6
• Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
  • Chapter 20, Verse 7
• Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
  • Chapter 20, Verse 8-11
• Honour thy father and thy mother.
  • Chapter 20, Verse 12
• Thou shalt, not murder.
  • Chapter 20, Verse 13
• Thou shalt not commit adultery.
  • Chapter 20, Verse 14
• Thou shalt not steal.
  • Chapter 20, Verse 15
• Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
  • Chapter 20, Verse 16
• Thou shalt not covet (neighbour's house).
  • Chapter 20, Verse 17 (a)
• Thou shalt not covet (neighbour's wife).
  • Chapter 20, Verse 17 (b)
• Thou shalt not covet (neighbour's slaves, animals, or anything else).
  • Chapter 20, Verse 17 (c)

• Reverend Barber, at one point during the debate, a fly landed on Pence’s head for nearly two-and-a-half minutes, prompting widespread commentary online. Professor Ibram X. Kendi, author of the best-selling book How to Be an Antiracist, tweeted, “As soon as Pence started denying the existence of systemic racism, the fly got him!” Amy Goodman
  You know, I couldn’t help but go to the Book of Exodus, where it talked about where God said, “If you don’t let my people go, I’m going to cause flies to come as a sign of what’s wrong. But I won’t let the flies be on the people, but the fly will be a symbol that you’re just wrong. You’re lying. Let my people go.” And Trump and Pence need to let the people go. They’ve been holding poor and low-wealth people hostage, essential workers hostage. It’s time for a change in this country.
  • Rev. William Barber II in Rev. William Barber on Voter Suppression: Republicans Know They Can’t Win If Everyone Casts a Ballot', Democracy Now!, (8 October 2020)

• As I said many times in this class: historicity is not important! What's important is what the text means, what is the text trying to say.
  • Shaye J. D. Cohen, http://ruml.com/thehebrewbible/ , The Exodus lecture, https://player.vimeo.com/video/76323651

• Jacob’s descendants, the Israelites, find their way to Egypt and become too numerous for the Pharaoh’s liking, so he enslaves them and orders that all the boys be killed at birth. Moses escapes the mass infanticide and grows up to challenge the Pharaoh to let his people go. God, who is omnipotent, could have softened Pharaoh’s heart, but he hardens it instead, which gives him a reason to afflict every Egyptian with painful boils and other miseries before killing every one of their firstborn sons. (The word Passover alludes to the executioner angel’s passing over the households with Israelite firstborns.) God follows this massacre with another one when he drowns the Egyptian army as they pursue the Israelites across the Red Sea. The Israelites assemble at Mount Sinai and hear the Ten Commandments, the great moral code that outlaws engraved images and the coveting of livestock but gives a pass to slavery, rape, torture, mutilation, and genocide of neighboring tribes. The Israelites become impatient while waiting for Moses to return with an expanded set of laws, which will prescribe the death penalty for blasphemy, homosexuality, adultery, talking back to parents, and working on the Sabbath. To pass the time, they worship a statue of a calf, for which the punishment turns out to be, you guessed it, death. Following orders from God, Moses and his brother Aaron kill three thousand of their companions.
  • Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature (2012)

• Encyclopedic article on Book of Exodus on Wikipedia
• Media related to Book of Exodus on Wikimedia Commons