Exodus 1:9
And he said to his people: Behold the people of the children of Israel are numerous and stronger than we.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et ait ad populum suum : Ecce, populus filiorum Israël multus, et fortior nobis est.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- εἶπεν δὲ τῷ ἔθνει αὐτοῦ Ἰδοὺ τὸ γένος τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ μέγα πλῆθος, καὶ ἰσχύει ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς·
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיֹּ֖אמֶר אֶל עַמּ֑וֹ הִנֵּ֗ה עַ֚ם בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל רַ֥ב וְעָצ֖וּם מִמֶּֽנּוּ
Haydock's commentary
Numerous. Calvisius observes, that from Ephraim alone might have sprung 4,112,323,729 people. See St. Augustine, q. 43, &c. (Haydock)
In the space of 215 years, 70 people may produce an immense multitude, as Bonfrere shews by an accurate calculation. God also was pleased to bless the Hebrews with fecundity, so that they sprung up (ebullierunt) like frogs or fishes, ver. 7. In Egypt, the women had sometimes seven at a birth (Pliny, Natural History vii. 3,) and Aristotle (Anim. vii. 4,) mentions one woman who had 20 children at four births. (Tirinus)
Stronger. This might easily be true, if this king had only Thebais under his command. But if he was king of all Egypt, it seems an exaggeration. (Calmet)
Indeed, human policy often gives birth to all kinds of wickedness. The king justifies his cruelty on this pretext of self-defence. He wishes to keep the Hebrews under; yet he is not willing to let them depart, as he knew they intended, according to Joseph's prediction. (Haydock)
God permitted this disposition, in order to punish his people for their idolatry, (Ezechiel xxiii. 8,) to admonish them not to fix their abode in Egypt, and to manifest his power and glory in the destruction of the impious. (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.