The book of Exodus is the story of God rescuing the children of Israel from Egypt and forging a special relationship with them. Exodus is the second book of the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses), and it’s where we find the stories of the Ten Plagues, the first Passover, the parting of the Red Sea, and the Ten Commandments. The book gets its name from the nation of Israel’s mass emigration from Egypt, but that’s only the first part of the story.
This book follows Israel out of Egypt into the desert, where the nation is specifically aligned with God (as opposed to the idols of Egypt and the surrounding nations). This is the book in which God first lays out his expectations for the people of Israel-we know these expectations as the 10 Commandments. Most of the Old Testament is about how Israel meets (or fails to meet) these expectations. So if you want to understand any other book of the Old Testament, you’ll need a basic understanding of what happens in Exodus.
The Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt by David Roberts
Important Characters in Exodus
Exodus has a tight cast of important characters to keep an eye on.
- God (Yahweh)-the creator of heaven and earth and the divine being who chooses the nation of Israel to represent him on earth. God goes to war against the gods of Egypt, frees Israel from their tyranny, and then makes a pact with the new nation. While the rest of the nations serve lesser gods, Yahweh selects the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as the people group that will serve him and him alone.
- Moses-the greatest of the Old Testament prophets who serves as a go-between for God and the other humans in the book of Exodus. Moses negotiates with Pharaoh for Israel’s freedom, passes God’s laws on to the people of Israel, and even pleads for mercy on Israel’s behalf when they anger God.
- Aaron-Moses’ brother and right hand. Aaron assists Moses as a spokesperson, and eventually is made the high priest of the nation of Israel.
- Pharaoh-the chief antagonist in the Exodus story. Pharaoh enslaves the nation of Israel, commits genocide, and is generally a huge jerk. Pharaoh is worshiped as part of the Egyptian pantheon: a lesser god laying an illegitimate claim to God’s people. God defeats Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt by sending a series of ten devastating plagues, and finally destroying Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea.
Key Themes in Exodus
Exodus is all about God making Israel his own. God rescues the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (whom he made some important promises to back in Genesis). Then, he gives them his expectations-a list of dos and don’ts. Finally, God sets up camp in the midst of the new nation: they are his people, and he is their God.
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When God gives Israel the Ten Commandments, he frames them by stating his relationship to the Hebrews. This verse sums up the themes of Exodus nicely:
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” (Ex 20:2)
Redemption
It’s hard to miss this one! The entire book is about God hearing Israel’s cries for help, rescuing them from their oppressors, and making them his own.
Covenant
Like the rest of the Torah, covenant is a big theme here. God makes a solemn, binding agreement with the people of Israel, establishing himself as their god and them as his people. This relationship comes with certain expectations, with benefits for the Israelites if they uphold their end of the agreement, and consequences if they do not.
God’s Presence
Toward the beginning of the book, the cries of Israel rise up to God, who hears them and remembers his promises to Abraham back in Genesis. In the middle of the book, God meets Israel in the wilderness: he is high atop a mountain, and they are on the plain below. God is closer to the people, but still a ways off. However, by the end of the book, God is dwelling in the middle of Israel’s camp in the wilderness. Moses believes that it is God’s presence among the people that sets Israel apart from every other nation in the world (Exod 33:16).
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Law
This is related to the theme of covenant-specifically, the expectations God has for the people of Israel. From chapter 20 onward, we start seeing more and more directives for the people on how to live as the people of God.
10 Plagues of Egypt | AI Animation
An Overview of Exodus’ Story and Structure
Act 1: Prologue (Exodus 1-2)
Exodus picks up where Genesis leaves off: the young nation of Israel is in Egypt (they were invited by Joseph, the one with the famous coat). A new Pharaoh notices the Israelites multiplying, and enslaves them. Afraid of an uprising, he orders that all Hebrew sons should be cast into the Nile at birth.
But one baby boy escapes this fate: the Hebrew Moses grows up in Pharaoh’s household. When adult Moses kills an abusive Egyptian slave driver, he flees the country.
Act 2: God Saves Israel (Exodus 3-19)
Forty years later, God appears to Moses as a burning bush and sends him to deliver Israel from the hand of Pharaoh. Moses, with the help of his brother Aaron, confronts Pharaoh on God’s behalf: “Let My people go” (Ex 5:1). Pharaoh refuses, and so God sends those famous 10 plagues upon the Egyptians. When the last plague kills Pharaoh’s son, he finally allows Israel to leave.
The Israelites celebrate the first-ever Passover, and then set out into the wilderness. Pharaoh changes his mind and sends his army to recapture them. God saves Israel miraculously by parting the Red Sea and allowing Israel to escape their would-be captors-and then uses the sea to wash away Pharaoh’s army. The Israelites leave Egypt and make their way to the foot of Mount Sinai in the wilderness. God descends on the top of the mountain, and then, something amazing happens.
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Act 3: God Makes a Covenant with Israel (Exodus 20-40)
The Israelites leave Egypt and make their way to Mount Sinai, where God gives His laws to Moses. God makes a covenant with the nation of Israel and the generations to come: because He rescued them from Egypt, Israel is to observe His rules. God speaks the Ten Commandments directly to the whole nation of Israel, and He relays specific ordinances to Moses on the mountain. And the people agree to it!
After this, God makes plans for a place of worship. He’s going to come down from the mountaintop and dwell in the midst of the people of Israel-but in order for this to happen, the people need to prepare a portable tabernacle for him. God gives Moses the plans for the tabernacle, the sacred furniture, and the garments for the priests.
But already things aren’t going as planned. While God is giving Moses laws for the people, the people start worshiping a golden calf … not cool. Moses pleads with God on Israel’s behalf, and the nation is given another go at keeping God’s commands.
And so Israel builds the tabernacle: a holy tent. The book of Exodus ends with the glory of the LORD filling the tabernacle. God is now dwelling among His chosen people, Israel. However, now there’s another problem: how will the people live in the presence of such a holy and powerful being?
That’s what the next book, Leviticus is all about.
Who Wrote Exodus?
The whole Torah is a carefully, intentionally edited work. Moses is traditionally credited as the human author of the Old-Testament book of Exodus. This is because Exodus is part of the Torah, which is known as the Law of Moses. That doesn’t necessarily mean Moses penned every single word of this book-but since Moses is the main human character in these books, and since Moses is the one receiving directives from God, the books are usually attributed to him. In Hebrew the book is known as Sefer Shemot (“Book of Names”), because it opens with the verse, “These are the names of the children of Israel . . .” On a deeper level, this reflects the fact that it is the book in which our identity (name) as a nation is forged.
Sefer Shemot opens with the names of the sons of Israel who settle in Egypt under the protection of their brother Joseph. After they die, Pharaoh enslaves the Hebrews (throughout the exodus narrative, our people are referred to as “Hebrews” and “Israelites”), and commands the Jewish midwives to kill all newborn Hebrew boys. One mother seeks to save her baby by hiding him in a basket in the the Nile River. Pharaoh’s daughter finds the baby and names him Moses (Moshe). Following a lost sheep from his flock, Moses encounters a burning bush. Moses and his brother, Aaron, repeatedly approach Pharaoh with the famous demand, “Let my people go.”
When Pharaoh refuses, G‑d brings ten plagues on Egypt: blood, frogs, lice, wild beasts, pestilence, boils, hail, grasshoppers, darkness, and death of the firstborn. Finally, after the tenth plague, Pharaoh agrees, and they are off. At the last minute, Pharaoh has a change of heart and leads his army into the desert to retrieve his former slaves. Israel is trapped between the Egyptian army and the Red Sea. G‑d makes a miracle: the sea splits and the Jews pass through on dry land. When the Egyptians follow, the sea covers them and they drown.
Israel arrives at Mount Sinai; they begin to purify themselves, and Moses goes up the mountain. On the third day, G‑d appears and proclaims the Ten Commandments to the entire nation. Perhaps as a sign of their renewed relationship, following the sin of the golden calf (see Sin and Forgiveness),1 G‑d commands that Israel build Him a Tabernacle, in which they will worship Him and He will dwell among them. It is to be made of tapestries and hides draped over wooden beams. It shall include an inner room, containing the ark in which the tablets are stored, and an outer room, containing the showbread table, the menorah (lamp) and the incense altar. Moses ascends Mt. Sinai for 40 days, after which he is to descend with two tablets bearing the Ten Commandments. The people fear that he will not return, and create and worship a golden calf. Upon seeing what has happened, Moses shatters the tablets on the ground.
The Tabernacle is made, and Moses erects it according to G‑d’s specifications.
Historical Context
Most mainstream scholars do not accept the biblical Exodus account as history for a number of reasons. Most agree that the Exodus stories were written centuries after the apparent setting of the stories. Scholars argue that the Book of Exodus itself attempts to ground the event firmly in history, reconstructing a date for the exodus as the 2666th year after creation (Exodus 12:40-41), the construction of the tabernacle to year 2667 (Exodus 40:1-2, 17), stating that the Israelites dwelled in Egypt for 430 years (Exodus 12:40-41), and specifying place names such as Goshen (Gen. 46:28), Pithom, and Ramesses (Exod. Ramesses II, one of several suggested pharaohs in the Exodus narrative. Created c.
Despite the absence of any archaeological evidence, according to Avraham Faust, "most scholars agree that the narrative has a historical core" made up of a probable reconstruction of an Exodus based on similar collective memories, with biblical scholar Kenton Sparks referring to it as "mythologized history". Faust specifies that the result of his assessment is unlikely if it is solely based on either Egyptian presence in Late Bronze Age Canaan or the foreign Hyksos rulers of Egypt, and rules out Midian human activity "which cannot help in dating the Exodus" in identification of the proto-Israelites. Agreeing in treating the expulsion of the Hyksos "not as related to the flight of a group of slaves[,]" Manfred Bietak points out that the portrayal of the Hyksos as a ruling elite with a background in trade and seafaring conflicts with the biblical portrayal of the Israelites as oppressed in Egypt.
Most scholars posit that a small group of Egyptian origin may have joined the early Israelites, and contributed their own Egyptian Exodus story to all of Israel. Many other scholars reject this view, and instead see the biblical exodus traditions as the invention of the exilic and post-exilic Jewish community, with little to no historical basis. Lester Grabbe, for instance, argues that "[t]here is no compelling reason that the exodus has to be rooted in history", and that the details of the story more closely fit the seventh through the fifth centuries BCE than the traditional dating to the second millennium BCE. Some scholars also hold that the Israelites originated in Canaan and from the Canaanites, although others disagree.
Evidence from the Bible suggests that the Exodus from Egypt formed a "foundational mythology" or "state ideology" for the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The northern psalms 80 and 81 state that God "brought a vine out of Egypt" (Psalm 80:8) and record ritual observances of Israel's deliverance from Egypt as well as a version of part of the Ten Commandments (Psalm 81:10-11). The Books of Kings records the dedication of two golden calves in Bethel and Dan by the Israelite king Jeroboam I, who uses the words "Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt" (1 Kings 12:28). Scholars relate Jeroboam's calves to the golden calf made by Aaron of Exodus 32. Both include a nearly identical dedication formula ("These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt", Exodus 32:8). This episode in Exodus is "widely regarded as a tendentious narrative against the Bethel calves".
Egyptologist Jan Assmann suggests that event, which would have taken placec. 931 BCE, may be partially historical due to its association with the historical pharaoh Sheshonq I (the biblical Shishak). Stephen Russell dates this tradition to "the eighth century BCE or earlier", and argued that it preserves a genuine Exodus tradition from the Northern Kingdom, but in a Judahite recension. Russell and Frank Moore Cross argue that the Israelites of the Northern Kingdom may have believed that the calves at Bethel and Dan were made by Aaron. Some of the earliest evidence for Judahite traditions of the exodus is found in Psalm 78, which portrays the Exodus as beginning a history culminating in the building of the temple at Jerusalem.
A Judahite cultic object associated with the exodus was the brazen serpent or nehushtan: according to 2 Kings 18:4, the brazen serpent had been made by Moses and was worshiped in the temple in Jerusalem until the time of king Hezekiah of Judah, who destroyed it as part of a religious reform, possiblyc. 727 BCE. In the Pentateuch, Moses creates the brazen serpent in Numbers 21:4-9. The revelation of God on Sinai appears to have originally been a tradition unrelated to the Exodus.
Scholars broadly agree that the publication of the Torah (or of a proto-Pentateuch) took place in the mid-Persian period (the 5th century BCE), echoing a traditional Jewish view which gives Ezra, the leader of the Jewish community on its return from Babylon, a pivotal role in its promulgation. Many theories have been advanced to explain the composition of the first five books of the Bible, but two have been especially influential. The first of these, Persian Imperial authorisation, advanced by Peter Frei in 1985, is that the Persian authorities required the Jews of Jerusalem to present a single body of law as the price of local autonomy. Frei's theory was demolished at an interdisciplinary symposium held in 2000, but the relationship between the Persian authorities and Jerusalem remains a crucial question.
Cultural Significance
Commemoration of the Exodus is central to Judaism, and Jewish culture. For Jews, the Passover celebrates the freedom of the Israelites from captivity in Egypt, the settling of Canaan by the Israelites, and the "passing over" of the angel of death during the death of the first-born. Passover involves a ritual meal called a Seder during which parts of the exodus narrative are retold. In the Hagaddah of the Seder it is written that every generation is obliged to remind and identify itself in terms of the Exodus.
The Christian ritual of the eucharist and the holiday of Easter draw directly on the imagery of the Passover and the Exodus. In the New Testament, Jesus is frequently associated with motifs of the Exodus. The Gospel of Mark has been suggested to be a midrash on the Exodus, though the scholar Larry J. Perkins thinks this unlikely. Mark suggests that the outpouring of Jesus' blood creates a new covenant (Mark 14:24) in the same way that Moses' sacrifice of bulls had created a covenant (Exodus 24:5). In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus reverses the direction of the Exodus by escaping from the Massacre of the Innocents committed by Herod the Great before himself returning from Egypt (Matt 2:13-15).
Other parallels in Matthew include that he is baptized by water (Matt 3:13-17), and tested in the desert; unlike the Israelites, he is able to resist temptation (Matt. 4.1-3). The Gospel of John repeatedly calls Jesus the Passover lamb (John 1:29, 13:1, 19:36), something also found in 1 Peter (1 Pet 1:18-20), and 1 Corinthians (1 Cor 5:7-8). Biblical scholar Michael Graves calls Paul's discussion of the exodus in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 and his comparison of the early church in Corinth to the Israelites in the desert "[t]he two most significant NT passages touching on the exodus". John also refers to Jesus as manna (John 6:31-5), water flowing from a rock in the desert (John 7:37-9), and as a pillar of fire (John 8:12).
The story of the Exodus is also recounted in the Quran, in which Moses is one of the most prominent prophets and messengers.
Key Figures and Events
| Figure/Event | Description |
|---|---|
| Moses | Leader of the Israelites, received the Ten Commandments. |
| Pharaoh | Egyptian ruler who enslaved the Israelites. |
| Passover | Celebration of the Israelites' deliverance from Egypt. |
| Ten Plagues | Calamities sent by God to convince Pharaoh to release the Israelites. |
| Red Sea Crossing | Miraculous parting of the sea, allowing Israelites to escape. |
| Ten Commandments | Fundamental laws given to Moses on Mount Sinai. |
| Tabernacle | Portable sanctuary for God's presence among the Israelites. |
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