Chapter Overview
Summary
Exodus 1 in the LXX is close to the MT in narrative content but diverges at two points that connect directly to New Testament texts: the count of Jacob's descendants who entered Egypt (1:5, seventy-five vs. seventy) and the named store-cities Pharaoh builds (1:11, with a third city On/Heliopolis added in the Alexandrian tradition). The chapter's midwife narrative (1:15–22) and the Pharaoh's decree against the Hebrew male infants set up the Moses-birth narrative of chapter 2 and, by extension, the Matthew 2 infanticide-echo in the Herod narrative.
Notable Variants
The 'seventy-five souls' at 1:5 that Stephen quotes at Acts 7:14 against the MT's 'seventy'; the possible LXX plus of 'On' (Heliopolis) as a third store-city at 1:11; the slight LXX specification at 1:22 of 'every male born to the Hebrews' to be cast into the Nile (adding the ethnic qualifier missing in MT).
Structural Notes
LXX Exodus 1 preserves MT's 22-verse structure. The LXX's name transliterations (Roubēn, Symeōn, Leui, Ioudas, etc.) are the forms that the NT genealogies inherit.
These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each man with his household:
The opening list of Jacob's sons follows MT's order and count; LXX differs only in Greek transliteration conventions.
namely Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
Masoretic (WLC)
רְאוּבֵן שִׁמְעוֹן לֵוִי וִיהוּדָה
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah
Septuagint (LXX)
Ρουβην Συμεων Λευι Ιουδας
Rouben, Symeon, Leui, Ioudas
LXX preserves the standard Greek transliterations that carried into the NT (e.g., Matt 1:2 Iouda, Rev 7:5–7 Rouben, Symeon, Leui). Transliteration conventions only; no substantive variant.
Issachar and Zebulun and Benjamin,
Name list continues with Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin in LXX as in MT.
Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher.
Name list concludes (Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher) identically across MT and LXX.
All the persons who came from Jacob's own line were seventy in all, and Joseph was already in Egypt.
Masoretic (WLC)
וַיְהִי כָּל־נֶפֶשׁ יֹצְאֵי יֶרֶךְ־יַעֲקֹב שִׁבְעִים נָפֶשׁ
All the persons who came from Jacob's own line were seventy in all
Septuagint (LXX)
ἦσαν δὲ πᾶσαι ψυχαὶ ἐξ Ιακωβ πέντε καὶ ἑβδομήκοντα
And all the souls from Jacob were seventy-five
The LXX reads seventy-five, matching Genesis 46:27 LXX, which adds five additional descendants of Joseph. MT reads seventy in both Genesis 46:27 and Exodus 1:5.
Stephen's speech at Acts 7:14 cites the seventy-five figure: 'Jacob and all his kindred, seventy-five souls.' This is one of the clearest NT dependencies on an LXX numerical variant against the MT.
4QExod-a from Qumran appears to support the seventy-five reading in Hebrew, confirming that the LXX variant reflects an early Hebrew textual tradition rather than a Greek innovation.
Then Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation.
The death of Joseph and his generation is rendered identically in LXX and MT.
But the sons of Israel were fruitful and swarmed and multiplied and became exceedingly strong, and the land was filled with them.
Masoretic (WLC)
פָּרוּ וַיִּשְׁרְצוּ וַיִּרְבּוּ וַיַּעַצְמוּ בִּמְאֹד מְאֹד
the sons of Israel were fruitful and swarmed and multiplied and became exceedingly strong
Septuagint (LXX)
ηὐξήθησαν καὶ ἐπληθύνθησαν καὶ χυδαῖοι ἐγένοντο καὶ κατίσχυον σφόδρα σφόδρα
they increased and multiplied and became abundant and grew exceedingly strong
LXX replaces Hebrew va-yishretzu ('they swarmed' — using the animal-fertility verb sharatz of the creation narrative) with the milder chydaioi egenonto ('they became abundant/common'). The Hebrew's deliberate creation-echo vocabulary is softened in Greek.
The Hebrew here deliberately evokes Genesis 1's creation blessing on the animals and humans — the Israelites in Egypt are a new creation. The LXX's paraphrase loses this intertextual force.
Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.
LXX renders 'a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph' in direct Greek equivalent.
He said to his people, "Look, the people of the sons of Israel are too many and too strong for us.
Pharaoh's speech to his people is rendered closely in LXX; no substantive variant.
Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and leave the land."
Masoretic (WLC)
פֶּן־יִרְבֶּה וְהָיָה כִּי־תִקְרֶאנָה מִלְחָמָה
lest they multiply, and if war breaks out
Septuagint (LXX)
μήποτε πληθυνθῇ καὶ ἡνίκα ἂν συμβῇ ἡμῖν πόλεμος
lest they multiply, and if war comes upon us
LXX's hēmin ('upon us') makes explicit what the Hebrew leaves implicit — that the war in Pharaoh's fear is a war that would come against Egypt. Minor interpretive specification.
So they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens, and they built supply cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses.
Masoretic (WLC)
אֶת־פִּתֹם וְאֶת־רַעַמְסֵס
Pithom and Raamses
Septuagint (LXX)
τήν τε Πιθωμ καὶ Ραμεσση καὶ Ων ἥ ἐστιν Ἡλίου πόλις (in some MSS)
Pithom and Raamses and On (which is the city of Helios) [in some LXX manuscripts]
A textual tradition within the LXX adds a third city — On, glossed as Heliou polis ('Heliopolis, city of the sun') — to the list of store-cities. The addition is absent from the main LXX manuscripts but present in some Alexandrian witnesses.
The plus may reflect a local Alexandrian interest in Heliopolis (near Alexandria) as connected to the Israelite building projects, or it may derive from an older Hebrew Vorlage.
The Vulgate preserves the two-city MT list. TCR's two-city form follows MT.
But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and spread out, so the Egyptians came to dread the sons of Israel.
The paradox of affliction leading to multiplication is rendered closely in LXX.
Then the Egyptians forced the sons of Israel to serve with harshness.
The Egyptians' harsh enslavement of Israel is rendered directly in LXX.
They made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and brick and in every kind of field work. In all their labor they forced them to serve with brutality.
The enumeration of labors (mortar, brick, field work) follows MT in LXX.
Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one named Shiphrah and the other named Puah.
Masoretic (WLC)
שִׁפְרָה וְשֵׁם הַשֵּׁנִית פּוּעָה
Shiphrah and the other named Puah
Septuagint (LXX)
Σεπφωρα καὶ τὸ ὄνομα τῆς δευτέρας Φουα
Sepphōra and the name of the second Phoua
LXX transliterates Shiphrah as Sepphōra — suspiciously close to the name Zipporah (LXX Sepphōra for Moses' wife at Exod 2:21 etc.). The two names are kept distinct in Hebrew but nearly merge in Greek transliteration.
He said, "When you help the Hebrew women give birth and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, put him to death; if it is a daughter, let her live."
Pharaoh's infanticide command to the midwives is preserved in LXX with no substantive variant. The verb 'see on the birthstool' (eidēte epi tōn avnayim) preserves the Hebrew obscurity of avnayim ('twin-stones, birthstool').
But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them; they let the boys live.
The midwives' fear of God and their defiance of Pharaoh's command is rendered closely in LXX.
So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this and let the boys live?"
Pharaoh's interrogation of the midwives tracks MT in LXX.
The midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. They are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them."
The midwives' explanation (the Hebrew women give birth quickly) is rendered directly in LXX.
So God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very strong.
God's blessing on the midwives and on Israel tracks MT in LXX.
And because the midwives feared God, He made households for them.
Masoretic (WLC)
וַיַּעַשׂ לָהֶם בָּתִּים
He made households for them
Septuagint (LXX)
ἐποίησαν ἑαυταῖς οἰκίας
they made households for themselves
The Hebrew is ambiguous about the subject of 'made' and the referent of 'for them.' MT vocalization supports God as subject making households for the midwives (a blessing). LXX reads the midwives as subject making households for themselves.
Both readings are grammatically possible; the theological texture differs. TCR follows the MT-traditional reading (God-as-subject, blessing the midwives).
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, "Every son that is born you must throw into the Nile, but every daughter you shall let live."
Masoretic (WLC)
כָּל־הַבֵּן הַיִּלּוֹד הַיְאֹרָה תַּשְׁלִיכֻהוּ
Every son that is born you must throw into the Nile
Septuagint (LXX)
πᾶν ἄρσεν ὃ ἐὰν τεχθῇ τοῖς Εβραίοις εἰς τὸν ποταμὸν ῥίψατε
Every male born to the Hebrews throw into the river
LXX adds tois Ebraiois ('to the Hebrews') specifying the ethnic scope of Pharaoh's decree — the MT is ambiguous about whether it targets all newborn males (Hebrew and Egyptian alike) or Hebrew males specifically.
The LXX's specification aligns with the narrative logic (Pharaoh's goal is to suppress the Hebrews) and removes the MT's puzzling universal scope. Samaritan Pentateuch also reads 'to the Hebrews.'
The LXX reading is almost certainly closer to the original Hebrew; the MT appears to have lost the qualifier.