Exodus 3:7

And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) The Lord said.—Heb., Jehovah said. The “God” of Exodus 3:6 is “Jehovah” here, and again “God” in Exodus 3:11. (See the Note on Exodus 3:4.)

I have surely seen.—Heb., seeing I have seen. It is not so much certainty as continued looking that is implied. (Comp. Exodus 2:25.)

Taskmasters.—A different word from that similarly translated in Exodus 1:11, and one that implies cruel usage. It is sometimes rendered “oppressors” (Zechariah 9:8).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:7-10 God notices the afflictions of Israel. Their sorrows; even the secret sorrows of God's people are known to him. Their cry; God hears the cries of his afflicted people. The oppression they endured; the highest and greatest of their oppressors are not above him. God promises speedy deliverance by methods out of the common ways of providence. Those whom God, by his grace, delivers out of a spiritual Egypt, he will bring to a heavenly Canaan.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Taskmasters - Oppressors. A different word from that in Exodus 1:11.

I know - The expression implies personal feeling, tenderness, and compassion (compare Exodus 2:25 margin).

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6-8. I am the God … come down to deliver—The reverential awe of Moses must have been relieved by the divine Speaker (see Mt 22:32), announcing Himself in His covenant character, and by the welcome intelligence communicated. Moreover, the time, as well as all the circumstances of this miraculous appearance, were such as to give him an illustrious display of God's faithfulness to His promises. The period of Israel's journey and affliction in Egypt had been predicted (Ge 15:13), and it was during the last year of the term which had still to run that the Lord appeared in the burning bush.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I have surely seen; Heb. In seeing, I have seen, i.e. I have seen and observed it diligently, accurately, and certainly; for so much the doubling of the verb signifies.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt,.... Or, "in seeing I have seen", which not only denotes the certainty of it, as we express it; but the clear, distinct, and full sight he had of it, with sympathy towards them, an affectionate concern for them, and a fixed, settled, determination in his mind to deliver them; he had long took notice of, and had thoroughly observed their affliction, and was afflicted with them in it, and was bent upon their deliverance out of it:

and have heard their cry, by reason of their taskmasters; who were set over them to see that they did their work, and to lay heavy burdens on them, and afflict them by all manner of ways and methods they could devise; and who abused and beat them for not doing what was not to be done, which made them cry out because of their barbarous usage of them, and cry unto God for help and deliverance:

for I know their sorrows; the pains of body they were put unto, and the inward grief and trouble of their minds on account of them.

Geneva Study Bible

And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their {h} taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;

(h) Whose cruelty was intolerable.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. seen the affliction] Exodus 4:31; Genesis 31:42; Deuteronomy 26:7 al.

taskmasters] The Egyptian superintendents of the labour-gangs, or corvée (see on Exodus 1:11). Properly hard-pressers, rendered driver in Job 39:7; oppressor in Isaiah 3:12; Isaiah 9:4; Isaiah 14:2; and exactor in Daniel 11:20 (cf. exact for the cognate verb, Deuteronomy 15:2-3): LXX. here ἐργοδιωκταί. So ch. Exodus 5:6; Exodus 5:10; Exodus 5:13-14. Not the expression used in Exodus 1:11.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - I have surely seen. Literally "Seeing I have seen" - an expression implying continuance. On the force of the anthropomorphic terms "seeing, hearing, knowing," as used of God, see the comment on Exodus 2:24-25. Taskmasters. Not the general superintendents of Exodus 1:11, but subordinate officials, who stood over the labourers and applied the rod to their backs. (See above, Exodus 2:11.) Exodus 3:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Jehovah had seen the affliction of His people, had heard their cry under their taskmasters, and had come down (ירד, vid., Genesis 11:5) to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up to a good and broad land, to the place of the Canaanites; and He was about to send Moses to Pharaoh to bring them forth. The land to which the Israelites were to be taken up is called a "good" land, on account of its great fertility (Deuteronomy 8:7.), and a "broad" land, in contrast with the confinement and oppression of the Israelites in Egypt. The epithet "good" is then explained by the expression, "a land flowing with milk and honey" (זבת, a participle of זוּב in the construct state; vid., Ges. 135); a proverbial description of the extraordinary fertility and loveliness of the land of Canaan (cf. Exodus 3:17; Exodus 13:5; Exodus 16:14, etc.). Milk and honey are the simplest and choicest productions of a land abounding in grass and flowers, and were found in Palestine in great abundance even when it was in a desolate condition (Isaiah 7:15, Isaiah 7:22; see my Comm. on Joshua 5:6). The epithet broad is explained by an enumeration of the six tribes inhabiting the country at that time (cf. Genesis 10:15. and Genesis 15:20, Genesis 15:21).