Exodus 1:22
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.
Open Exodus 1:22 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →In the palace
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Præcepit ergo Pharao omni populo suo, dicens : Quidquid masculini sexus natum fuerit, in flumen projicite : quidquid feminini, reservate.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Συνέταξεν δὲ Φαραὼ παντὶ τῷ λαῷ αὐτοῦ λέγων Πᾶν ἄρσεν ὃ ἐὰν τεχθῇ τοῖς Ἐβραίοις εἰς τὸν ποταμὸν ῥίψατε, καὶ πᾶν θῆλυ, ζωογονεῖτε αὐτό.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיְצַ֣ו פַּרְעֹ֔ה לְכָל עַמּ֖וֹ לֵאמֹ֑ר כָּל הַבֵּ֣ן הַיִּלּ֗וֹד הַיְאֹ֨רָה֙ תַּשְׁלִיכֻ֔הוּ וְכָל הַבַּ֖ת תְּחַיּֽוּן
Haydock's commentary
The river Nile, where the persecuting successor of this king found his end. (Haydock)
It seems this inhuman decree was not published till after Aaron was born, and it was probably revoked soon after the birth of Moses; for if it had been rigorously put in execution, there would have been nothing but old men 80 years after, when Moses led the people out of Egypt. (Calmet)
But perhaps even the Egyptians abhorred and refused to execute this edict. (Menochius)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, Homily LIV on Acts xxviii. 1
(Recapitulation.) “And the barbarians,” etc. ( v. 2 .) The Jews then, beholding all the many miracles they did, persecuted and harassed (Paul); but the barbarians, who had seen none, merely on the ground of his misfortune, were kind to him. “No doubt,” say they, “this man is a murderer:” ( v. 4 ). They do not simply pronounce their judgment, but say, “No doubt,” (i.e.) as any one may see “and vengeance,” say they, “suffereth him not to live.” Why then, they held also the doctrine of a Providence, and these barbarians were far more philosophic than the philosophers, who allow not the benefit of a Providence to extend to things “below the moon:” whereas (these barbarians) suppose God to be present everywhere, and that although a (guilty) man may escape many (a danger), he will not escape in the end. …
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).