(5) You*you See note at 12.7. shall then recite as follows before your God ה׳: “My father was a fugitive Aramean. He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there; but there he became a great and very populous nation.

(1) These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each coming with his household:

(8) These are the names of the Israelites, Jacob and his descendants, who came to Egypt. Jacob’s first-born Reuben;

(1) AND THESE ARE THE NAMES OF …. The meaning [of the connective vav — v’eileh, (‘and’ these are) — when it would have sufficed to say, “These are the names of …,”] is that Scripture desires to reckon the subject of the exile from the time they went down to Egypt. It was then that they were the first of the exiles to go into exile,16Amos 6:7. as I have explained.17See Note 7 above. It is for this reason that He returns to the beginning of the subject [stated in the Book of Genesis], which is the verse, And all his seed he [Jacob] brought with him into Egypt.18Genesis 46:7. There it is written afterward, And these are the names of the children of Israel, who came into Egypt, etc.19Ibid., Verse 8. This is the very same verse that He repeats here. Even though they are two separate books, the narrative is connected with subjects which follow one another successively.

(7) But the Israelites were fertile and prolific; they multiplied and increased very greatly, so that the land was filled with them.

(28) God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it; and rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that creep on earth.”

(2) The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw how beautiful he was, she hid him for three months.

She saw him—that he was goodly, *goodly: Handsome (so Ibn Ezra, among others), although others interpret the Hebrew tov as “healthy,” given the context. What is important is the Genesis connection just mentioned. trans and note Everret Fox

It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Meir says: “Tov” is his, Moses’, real name, as it was given to him by his parents when he was born. Rabbi Yehuda says: His name was Toviya. Rabbi Neḥemya says: They said he was good because they saw that he was fit for prophecy. Others say: They said he was good because he was born when he was already circumcised.

And the Rabbis say: At the time when Moses was born, the entire house was filled with light, as it is written here: “And when she saw him that he was a goodly [tov] child,” and it is written there: “And God saw the light, that it was good [tov]” (Genesis 1:4).

(3) When she could hide him no longer, she got a wicker basket for him and caulked it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child into it and placed it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile.

And [when] she was no longer able to hide him, she took for him a little-ark *little-ark: The term used to designate the little basket/boat, teiva, has clearly been chosen to reflect back to Noah’s ark in Genesis. The implication is that just as God saved Noah and thus humanity from destruction by water, so will he now save Moshe and the Israelites from the same. of papyrus,
she loamed it with loam and with pitch,
and placed the child in it,
and placed it in the reeds by the shore of the Nile. trans and note: Everett Fox

(20) The children you thought you had lostfyou thought you had lost Lit. “of your bereavement.”
Shall yet say in your hearing,
“The place is too crowded for me;
Make room for me to settle.”(21) And you will say to yourself,
“Who bore these for me
When I was bereaved and barren,
Exiled and disdainedgdisdained Meaning of Heb. uncertain. —
By whom, then, were these reared?
I was left all alone—
And where have these been?”(22) Thus said my Sovereign GOD:
I will raise My hand to nations
And lift up My ensign to peoples;
And they shall bring your sons in their bosoms,
And carry your daughters on their backs.

(21) Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Have you not been told
From the very first?
Have you not discerned
How the earth was founded?gHow the earth was founded Meaning of Heb. uncertain.(22) It is [God] who is enthroned above the vault of the earth,
So that its inhabitants seem as grasshoppers;
Who spread out the skies like gauze,
Stretched them out like a tent to dwell in—(23) Bringing potentates to naught,
Making rulers of the earth as nothing.(24) Hardly are they planted,
Hardly are they sown,
Hardly has their stem
Taken root in earth,
When [God] blows upon them and they dry up,
And the storm bears them off like straw.(25) To whom, then, can you liken Me,
To whom can I be compared?
—says the Holy One.(26) Lift high your eyes and see:
Who created these?
The One who sends out their host by count,
Who calls them each by name:
Given such great might and vast power,
Not a single one fails to appear.(27) Why do you say, O Jacob,
Why declare, O Israel,
“My way is hid from GOD,
My cause is ignored by my God”?(28) Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The ETERNAL is God from of old,
Creator of the earth from end to end,
Who never grows faint or weary,
Whose wisdom cannot be fathomed—

The breathtaking poetry of Second Isaiah features the major themes of the biblical narrative: creation, the patriarchs and matriarchs, the exodus, and so on. Many of the poems date to the time of the Persian Empire, which conquered Babylon in 539 bce, reversed many of its imperial policies, and cleared the way for Judah’s new beginning.

Wright, Jacob L.. Why the Bible Began: An Alternative History of Scripture and its Origins (p. 156). Cambridge University Press.

(7) And ה׳ continued, “I have marked well the plight of My people in Egypt and have heeded their outcry because of their taskmasters; yes, I am mindful of their sufferings.(8) I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the region of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.(9) Now the cry of the Israelites has reached Me; moreover, I have seen how the Egyptians oppress them.(10) Come, therefore, I will send you to Pharaoh, and you shall free My people, the Israelites, from Egypt.”(11) But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and free the Israelites from Egypt?”