Acts 7:19

Syriac Peshitta (NT Only)

ܘܶܐܨܛܰܢܰܥ ܥܰܠ ܛܽܘܗܡܰܢ ܘܰܐܒ݂ܶܐܫ ܠܰܐܒ݂ܳܗܳܬ݂ܰܢ ܘܰܦ݂ܩܰܕ݂ ܕ݁ܢܶܗܘܽܘܢ ܡܶܫܬ݁ܕ݂ܶܝܢ ܝܰܠܽܘܕ݂ܰܝܗܽܘܢ ܕ݁ܠܳܐ ܢܺܚܽܘܢ ܀

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Exodus 1:9-22, Psalms 83:4, Psalms 83:5, Psalms 105:25, Psalms 129:1-3, Revelation 12:4, Revelation 12:5

Reciprocal: Exodus 1:10 - wisely Exodus 1:14 - their lives Exodus 1:22 - Every son Exodus 2:3 - could not Numbers 20:15 - vexed us Matthew 2:13 - for Matthew 26:4 - by Acts 9:2 - desired

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The same dealt subtilly with our kindred,.... See Exodus 1:10 he took crafty, and yet cruel methods, to diminish the children of Israel, and to humble them; weakening their strength by labour, that they might not be able to beget children; ordering the Hebrew midwives to kill all the males that were born; and charging all his people to drown such male children that should escape the hands of the midwives;

and evil entreated our fathers; keeping them to hard labour, in mortar and brick, and all rural service; in which he made them to serve with rigour, and thereby made their lives bitter to them; employing them in building cities, pyramids, walls, and towers; making ditches, throwing up trenches, cutting watercourses, and turning rivers, with other things; which he added, setting taskmasters over them, to afflict them with burdens:

so that they cast out their young children, or "by making their children cast outs": or as the Arabic version renders it, "by making that their children should be cast out": that is, by ordering his people to expose them to ruin, and to cast them in the rivers; and so the Syriac version, "and he commanded that their children be cast out"; for this refers to Pharaoh, and his orders to his officers and people, to cast out the male children of the Israelites; and not to the parents of the children, which our version and the Vulgate Latin incline to: for though Moses's mother, after she had hid him three months, put him into an ark of bulrushes, and laid him among the flags by the river's side, yet that was in order to save his life: whereas the end of the casting out of these young children was as follows,

to the end they might not live: for this has not respect unto the parents of the children, that they might not increase or multiply their offspring, but to the young children, that they being cast into the waters, might perish, and not live and become men; the Ethiopic version is rather a paraphrase, "and he commanded that they should kill every male that was born".

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Dealt subtilly - He acted deceitfully; he used fraud. The cunning or deceitful attempt which is referred to, is his endeavour to weaken and destroy the Jewish people by causing their male children to be put to death, Exodus 1:22.

Our kindred - Our nation, or our ancestors.

And evil-entreated - Was unjust and cruel toward them.

So that ... - For that purpose, or to “cause” them to cast them out. He dealt with them in this cruel manner, hoping that the Israelites themselves would destroy their own sons, that they might not grow up to experience the same sufferings as their fathers had. The cunning or subtilty of Pharaoh extended to everything that he did to oppress, to keep under, and to destroy the children of Israel.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Acts 7:19. The same dealt subtilty — ουτος κατασοφισαμενος, A word borrowed from the Septuagint, who thus translate the Hebrew נהחכמה לו nithchokmah lo, let us deal wisely with it, i.e. with cunning and deceit, as the Greek word implies; and which is evidently intended by the Hebrew. See Genesis 27:35, Thy brother came with subtilty, which the Targumist explains by בחוכמא be-chokma, with wisdom, that is, cunning and deceit. For this the Egyptians were so remarkable that αιγυπτιαζειν, to Egyptize, signified to act cunningly, and to use wicked devices. Hence the Jews compared them to foxes; and it is of them that Canticles, Song of Solomon 2:15, is understood by the rabbins: Take us the little foxes which spoil our vines; destroy the Egyptians, who, having slain our male children, sought to destroy the name of Israel from the face of the earth.

To the end they might not live. — Might not grow up and propagate, and thus build up the Hebrew nation.