John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Exodus 1 This chapter begins with an account of the names and number of the children of Israel that came into Egypt with Jacob, Exodus 1:1 and relates that increase of them after the death of Joseph, and the generation that went down to Egypt, Exodus 1:6 and what methods the Egyptians took to diminish them, but to no purpose, as by obliging to cruel bondage and hard service; and...
John Gill
And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage,.... So that they had no ease of body nor peace of mind; they had no comfort of life, their lives and mercies were embittered to them: in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service of the field; if Pelusium was one of the cities they built, that had its name from clay, the soil about it being clayish, and where the Israelites might be...
Matthew Henry
The Israelites Oppressed in Egypt. (b. c. 1588.) 1 Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob. 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4 Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. 5 And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already. 6 And Joseph...