SEV Biblia, Chapter 1:11
Entonces pusieron sobre él comisarios de tributos que los molestasen con sus cargas; y edificaron al Faraón las ciudades de los bastimentos: Pitón y Ramesés.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Exodus 1:11
Verse 11. Set over them task-masters] µysm yr sarey missim, chiefs or princes of burdens, works, or tribute; epistatav twn ergwn, Sept.overseers of the works. The persons who appointed them their work, and exacted the performance of it. The work itself being oppressive, and the manner in which it was exacted still more so, there is some room to think that they not only worked them unmercifully, but also obliged them to pay an exorbitant tribute at the same time. Treasure cities] twnksm yr[ arey miscenoth, store cities- public granaries. Calmet supposes this to be the name of a city, and translates the verse thus: "They built cities, viz., Miscenoth, Pithom, and Rameses." Pithom is supposed to be that which Herodotus calls Patumos. Raamses, or rather Rameses, (for it is the same Hebrew word as in Gen. xlvii. 11, and should be written the same way here as there,) is supposed to have been the capital of the land of Goshen, mentioned in the book of Genesis by anticipation; for it was probably not erected till after the days of Joseph, when the Israelites were brought under that severe oppression described in the book of Exodus. The Septuagint add here, kai wn, h estin Ĉhlioupoliv? and ON, which is Heliopolis; i.e., the city of the Sun.The same reading is found also in the Coptic version.
Some writers suppose that beside these cities the Israelites built the pyramids. If this conjecture be well founded, perhaps they are intended in the word twnksm miscenoth, which, from ks sachan, to lay up in store, might be intended to signify places where Pharaoh laid up his treasures; and from their structure they appear to have been designed for something of this kind. If the history of the pyramids be not found in the book of Exodus, it is nowhere else extant; their origin, if not alluded to here, being lost in their very remote antiquity. Diodourus Siculus, who has given the best traditions he could find relative to them, says that there was no agreement either among the inhabitants or the historians concerning the building of the pyramids. - Bib. Hist., lib. 1., cap. lxiv.Josephus expressly says that one part of the oppression suffered by the Israelites in Egypt was occasioned by building pyramids. See the note on "ver. 14".
In the book of Genesis, and in this book, the word Pharaoh frequently occurs, which, though many suppose it to be a proper name peculiar to one person, and by this supposition confound the acts of several Egyptian kings, yet is to be understood only as a name of office.
It may be necessary to observe that all the Egyptian kings, whatever their own name was, took the surname of Pharaoh when they came to the throne; a name which, in its general acceptation, signified the same as king or monarch, but in its literal meaning, as Bochart has amply proved, it signifies a crocodile, which being a sacred animal among the Egyptians, the word might be added to their kings in order to procure them the greater reverence and respect.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 8-14 - The land of Egypt became to Israel a house of bondage. The place wher we have been happy, may soon become the place of our affliction; an that may prove the greatest cross to us, of which we said, This sam shall comfort us. Cease from man, and say not of any place on this sid heaven, This is my rest. All that knew Joseph, loved him, and were kin to his brethren for his sake; but the best and most useful services man does to others, are soon forgotten after his death. Our great car should be, to serve God, and to please him who is not unrighteous whatever men are, to forget our work and labour of love. The offence of Israel is, that he prospers. There is no sight more hateful to a wicke man than the prosperity of the righteous. The Egyptians feared lest the children of Israel should join their enemies, and get them up out of the land. Wickedness is ever cowardly and unjust; it makes a man fear where no fear is, and flee, when no one pursues him. And human wisdo often is foolishness, and very sinful. God's people had task-master set over them, not only to burden them, but to afflict them with their burdens. They not only made them serve for Pharaoh's profit, but s that their lives became bitter. The Israelites wonderfully increased Christianity spread most when it was persecuted: the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church. They that take counsel against the Lord and his Israel, do but imagine a vain thing, and create greate vexation to themselves.
Original Hebrew
וישׂימו 7760 עליו 5921 שׂרי 8269 מסים 4522 למען 4616 ענתו 6031 בסבלתם 5450 ויבן 1129 ערי 5892 מסכנות 4543 לפרעה 6547 את 853 פתם 6619 ואת 853 רעמסס׃ 7486
