Exodus 1:22 — Evaluating the Variant “to the Hebrews”

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Exodus 1:22 stands at a pivotal point in the narrative of Israel’s oppression in Egypt, concluding the chapter that introduces Pharaoh’s policy of population control through infanticide. The Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT) reads with a terse yet forceful decree from Pharaoh: “Every son who is born you will throw into the Nile, and every daughter you will let live.” However, notable textual witnesses, including the Septuagint (LXX), the Samaritan Pentateuch (SP), and the Aramaic Targums (Tg.), supply an additional phrase not found in the MT: “to the Hebrews” (τοῖς Ἑβραίοις in the LXX). This variant bears significant implications for interpretation, as it clarifies the scope of Pharaoh’s decree.

This textual commentary will explore this variation from a textual-critical and philological perspective, evaluating the evidence of the MT, the LXX, the SP, and the Targums, considering the implications for the transmission of the Old Testament text, and seeking to determine the most original reading based on external and internal criteria, all within a framework that maintains the high view of Scripture and the reliability of the preserved Hebrew text.

Masoretic Text (MT)

The MT, represented by Codex Leningradensis (1008 C.E.) and supported by the Aleppo Codex, reads:

כָּל־הַבֵּן הַיִּלּוֹד הַיְאֹרָה תַשְׁלִיכֻהוּ וְכָל־הַבַּת תְּחַיּוּן

“Every son who is born you will throw into the Nile, and every daughter you will let live.”

This form lacks any ethnic qualifier such as “of the Hebrews.” The syntax is direct and general. While the context of Exodus 1 makes it clear that the oppression is focused on the Hebrews (see Exod. 1:9, 1:15-16), the phrase “every son” (kol-haben) is syntactically absolute and could potentially imply a broader scope if not limited by context. This generality could either reflect deliberate editorial terseness or a loss of an original clarifying phrase.

Septuagint (LXX)

The Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures produced in the 3rd–2nd centuries B.C.E., contains an important variant:

πᾶν τὸ ἀρσενικὸν τὸ τεχθὲν τοῖς Ἑβραίοις ῥίπτετε εἰς τὸν ποταμόν, καὶ πᾶσαν θυγατέρα ζωογονεῖτε

“Every male born to the Hebrews, you shall cast into the river, but every daughter you shall preserve alive.”

The addition of τοῖς Ἑβραίοις (“to the Hebrews”) functions as a dative of reference, clarifying the ethnic target of the decree. From a translational perspective, this phrase would represent an interpretive gloss by the translator to reflect the broader narrative context of chapter 1, particularly verses 9 and 16, where the Hebrews are clearly in view. However, from a textual-critical perspective, this reading could reflect an underlying Hebrew Vorlage (base text) different from the MT or a harmonizing addition by the translator to clarify the referent.

Samaritan Pentateuch (SP)

The Samaritan Pentateuch likewise includes the phrase “to the Hebrews,” supporting the LXX reading. The SP is known for preserving readings that sometimes harmonize or clarify difficult or ambiguous readings in the MT. The SP’s inclusion of this phrase could either represent a preservation of an earlier Hebrew reading that has been lost in the MT or an interpretive expansion.

While the SP frequently exhibits theological and grammatical expansions that reflect the Samaritan community’s interpretive priorities, its agreement with the LXX in this case provides converging external support for the variant.

Targums (Tg.)

The Aramaic Targum Onkelos (Tg. Onq.) and other Palestinian Targums also reflect the inclusion of the ethnic qualifier. Targum Onkelos reads:

“כל בר דיתיליד מן עמהון דישראל תשלכון במיא”

“Every son who is born from among the people of Israel, you shall cast into the water.”

This paraphrastic rendering offers clear ethnic identification of the victims of Pharaoh’s command, consistent with the targumic tradition of interpretive translation. As with the LXX and SP, the Targum reflects a concern to remove ambiguity and to reinforce the contextually assumed target of Pharaoh’s genocidal policy.

Though the Targums are not direct translations, their witness to this phrase’s inclusion supports the idea that early Jewish interpretive traditions understood the target to be Hebrew infants and were willing to make that explicit in translation.

Internal Evidence: Lectio Difficilior and Contextual Probability

From the standpoint of internal evidence, the principle of lectio difficilior potior (the more difficult reading is to be preferred) can be considered. The shorter MT reading, which lacks the phrase “to the Hebrews,” could be viewed as the more difficult reading due to its apparent generality, making it more likely to be original. The presence of “to the Hebrews” in the LXX, SP, and Tg. could then represent an attempt to clarify the text for readers less familiar with the narrative’s context.

Contextually, Exodus 1:15-16 already narrows the focus to the Hebrew women and their children. Pharaoh’s instructions to the midwives are explicitly targeted:

“When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women…” (Exod. 1:16, UASV)

Therefore, a later scribe or translator might feel compelled to maintain consistency by adding “to the Hebrews” in verse 22 to make the target explicit again.

However, it must also be considered that the addition is not merely an interpretive gloss but potentially preserves a more original form of the text. That three distinct textual traditions (LXX, SP, Tg.) include this phrase is noteworthy. If these represent independent streams of transmission, the weight of external evidence increases. Yet if these sources are drawing from each other or share a common ancestor that introduced the phrase, the case is weaker.

Historical and Scribal Considerations

The transmission history of Exodus, especially chapters 1 and 2, reflects scribal tendencies toward clarification and harmonization, especially in the LXX and SP. Given the MT’s preservation by the Masoretes, who were committed to transmitting the consonantal text as received, its brevity and simplicity often preserve the more original form.

Scribes and translators in the Hellenistic and post-exilic periods may have felt a theological or pedagogical necessity to insert “to the Hebrews” to prevent misreading, particularly for a diasporic audience or Greek-speaking Jews who might not have been as attuned to Hebrew contextual markers. This tendency to add explanatory glosses is a known phenomenon in both the LXX and SP traditions.

Evaluation and Conclusion

When weighing the evidence:

The MT lacks “to the Hebrews,” offering a syntactically complete and contextually sufficient reading.
The LXX, SP, and Tg. each contain “to the Hebrews,” representing a strong external tradition, likely rooted in an interpretive expansion to clarify the scope of Pharaoh’s decree.
Internal considerations favor the shorter MT reading as original due to its difficulty and simplicity.
The context of Exodus 1 itself clearly limits the decree to Hebrew male infants, even without the explicit phrase.

Thus, from a conservative textual-critical standpoint, the addition of “to the Hebrews” in the LXX, SP, and Tg. is best understood as an explanatory gloss rather than a reflection of the original Hebrew text. The MT reading should be preferred as the authentic text, and the variant serves as a valuable window into early interpretive tendencies.

While the variant does not introduce any theological inconsistency, it illustrates how scribes and translators operated with a view to clarity and pastoral usefulness, albeit at the risk of conflating interpretation with transmission. The overall reliability of the Masoretic Text is affirmed, and this case underscores its integrity in preserving the more difficult, yet contextually coherent, reading.

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About the Author

EDWARD D. ANDREWS (AS in Criminal Justice, BS in Religion, MA in Biblical Studies, and MDiv in Theology) is CEO and President of Christian Publishing House. He has authored over 220+ books. In addition, Andrews is the Chief Translator of the Updated American Standard Version (UASV).