Exodus 1:12 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Bible Comments

The more they multiplied To the grief and vexation of the Egyptians. The original expression, rendered grew, is very emphatical, יפרצ jiphrots.

They broke forth and expanded themselves with impetuosity, like a river swollen with the rains, whose waters increase and gain strength by being confined, Here we see how vain and fruitless the devices of men are against the designs of God: and how easily he, in his providence, can turn their counsels against themselves, and cause the very means which they employ to oppress his people, to become the greatest helps and advantages to them. Times of persecution and affliction have often been the church's growing times: Christianity spread most when it was most persecuted.

Exodus 1:12

12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.