Exodus 1:1–7
Israel multiplies in Egypt
Exodus names Jacob’s sons who came to Egypt and notes that Joseph’s generation dies. The descendants of Israel nevertheless become extraordinarily numerous and fill the land.
Open scene →Exodus 1 · visual collection
Israel grows in Egypt, oppression intensifies and two midwives resist Pharaoh in four visual scenes.
Exodus opens generations after Joseph. The family that entered Egypt has become a numerous people, and that growth is interpreted by a new king as a political threat. The chapter moves from fear to forced labor, from forced labor to a secret order against newborn boys, and finally to a public decree.
The four scenes
Exodus 1:8–14
A new Pharaoh imposes forced labor
A king who does not know Joseph fears Israel’s numbers and decides to control the population through forced labor. Taskmasters make life bitter with construction and field work, yet the people continue to multiply.
Open scene →Exodus 1:15–21
The Hebrew midwives refuse Pharaoh’s order
Pharaoh orders the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah to kill newborn boys while allowing girls to live. The midwives fear God, refuse the order and preserve the children.
Open scene →Exodus 1:22
Pharaoh issues a decree against newborn boys
Pharaoh commands his people to throw every Hebrew newborn boy into the Nile while allowing girls to live.
Open scene →How the four scenes were chosen
The boundaries follow changes in speaker, location, action or narrative purpose rather than equal verse counts. SacraScenes keeps a longer passage together when it functions as one movement and starts a new scene when the chapter clearly changes direction. That makes the visual sequence useful for reading rather than merely slicing the source into matching-sized blocks. Each card links to an editorial page and then to the immersive reader at the exact Scripture range.
The opening conflict is about fear turning into policy
SacraScenes separates population growth, forced labor, the midwives’ resistance and Pharaoh’s final decree. Violence against infants and the beating or degradation of enslaved workers are never depicted graphically; the images focus on power, labor, courage and the danger surrounding Hebrew families.
Image and source boundary
The artwork is an original generated interpretation, not a photograph, archaeological reconstruction or doctrinal authority. Clothing, architecture and landscape are kept broadly appropriate to the biblical setting while uncertain details remain intentionally restrained. The Scripture panel is separate and labelled World English Bible (Catholic), so readers can compare the visual retelling with the public-domain source instead of receiving a blended paraphrase as though it were Bible text.
Language availability
English visual edition first. The complete Scripture source is available in English for this scene collection. Slovenian and German remain disabled here until their historical Catholic source text has been reviewed rather than silently replaced with English.
Read the source or continue visually
Read complete Exodus 1 source textBack to Genesis 50Start Exodus 1 →Continue to Exodus 2 →
Editorial overview updated 30 September 2026.