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This chapter sets the stage for what is to follow. It tells who needs deliverance (vv.1-7), why (vv.8-10), and from what specific oppression (vv.11-22). As the chapter proceeds, it becomes clear that nothing less than their obliteration as a people is threatened.
Assuming the reader’s knowledge of the book of Genesis, Exodus begins with a simple recapping of the names of the persons involved in the entry into Egypt. But this recapping makes a significant point in the light of Genesis. God’s promises of family and name to Abraham (Ge 12:3), Isaac (Ge 26:4-5), and Jacob (Ge 28:13-15) have so far been fulfilled that now seventy persons are involved. God is faithful. Moreover, that faithfulness continued into the next generations so that the Israelites multiplied and expanded at an unusual rate (vv.6-7).
This pharaoh (vv.8-10) was probably the new kingdom monarch Thutmose III, if we accept the early date of the Exodus (see the introduction). The Egyptians' anxieties concerning this large Semitic population would have been heightened because Semitic peoples had controlled the entire Nile Delta area during the period known as the Second Intermediate as late as one hundred years prior to this. Pithom and Rameses (v.11) have been identified with the sites of Tell el-Maskhuta and Tell el-Ratabah in the Delta area. Archaeologists have reported that it is possible to detect a shift from mud bricks with straw to ones without straw in succeeding levels of these cities (see 5:6-19).
The first intimation of conflict between the Lord, the true God, and Pharaoh, who believed himself to be God, appears in vv.15-22. The Lord has promised that Israel will be a great nation, a source of blessing to all humanity (Ge 12:3); Pharaoh proposes to destroy them as a people by killing all the male babies. Who will triumph? Thus we see that while the need for deliverance is indeed a human problem, it is also a divine one: can God keep his promises of blessing?
There is no reason to think that the two women mentioned in v.15 were the only midwives for the Hebrews. They are simply representative of the entire group. The response of these women is indicative of the ultimate outcome of the contest: powerful as Pharaoh is, if a conflict arises between obeying him and obeying God, there really is no contest. To “fear God” is to live in obedience to him because we have an accurate understanding of his power and righteousness.