Sources: Exodus 1–2; the Ipuwer Papyrus; Semitic labor records from the eastern delta; the Leiden Papyrus 348.

After Joseph and his generation die, the Israelites multiply rapidly in Egypt — threatening to the Egyptians, who respond with increasingly harsh measures: forced labor on construction projects, then a command to kill all newborn Israelite males. The store cities Pithom and Raamses (Exod 1:11) have been identified with sites in the eastern delta associated with the building programs of Ramesses II (~1279–1213 BC), suggesting a late 13th century date for the events. The Leiden Papyrus 348 records the distribution of grain to Hapiru workers making bricks — “Hapiru” is a social class designation for stateless, marginalized laborers across the ancient Near East that may overlap with “Hebrew.” The theological meaning of the bondage is set by the text itself: this is the condition from which liberation will be necessary and meaningful. The Exodus cannot be understood except against the background of this slavery. The ethics that emerge from this experience are specific: because Israel was a slave in Egypt, Israel must not oppress strangers, must release slaves, must remember the vulnerability of the powerless (Exod 22:21, 23:9, Deut 24:17–22). The memory of bondage becomes the ethical foundation of the covenant law that follows.