Exodus 1:7 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

The children of Israel were fruitful, &c.— A variety of terms, nearly synonimous, are used in this verse, to express the prodigious increase of the children of Israel; with whom, says the sacred writer, the land, i.e. of Goshen, was filled. Great increase of people naturally produces power; and so we read, that they not only increased abundantly, but also waxed exceeding mighty: so that the fears of the Egyptians were awakened. Moses, both here and in Deuteronomy 10:22 remarks this increase as miraculous, and owing to the providence of GOD, who made them thus fruitful amidst all the oppression and efforts of their enemies to prevent it. Population however, in Egypt, was naturally very rapid, according to the testimony of the best writers; and there was no country in the world, where children were more easily brought up, says Diodorus, both on account of the good temperature of the air, and the great abundance of all things necessary to life. Let it be remembered that upwards of six hundred thousand fighting men of the children of Israel, (Numbers 1:46.) came out of Egypt; and, in this view, it will be deemed no hyperbole to say, that the land was filled with them. Calculators have shewn, that from seventy persons, within two hundred and fifteen years, such a number as the Mosaic history relates, separate from any thing miraculous, might very easily have been produced.