He exploited our people and oppressed our fathers, forcing them to abandon their infants so they would die.
19. Dealt subtilely. The old interpreter did not translate this amiss, to deceive. “Circumvenire,” to circumvent. For Stephen meaneth that the king of Egypt did craftily invent new shifts and wicked pretenses, that he might every now and then lay heavier burdens upon the people, like as almost all tyrants do; for how unjustly soever they vex their subjects, they are [but] too witty to invent excuses.
Stephen here goes on to relate, I. The wonderful increase of the people of Israel in Egypt; it was by a wonder of providence that in a little time they advanced from a family into a nation. 1. It was when the time of the promise drew nigh - the time when they were to be formed into a people.
Commenting on Acts 7:17-29
The same dealt subtilly with our kindred,.... See Exo 1:10 he took crafty, and yet cruel methods, to diminish the children of Israel, and to humble them; weakening their strength by labour, that they might not be able to beget children; ordering the Hebrew midwives to kill all the males that were born; and charging all his people to drown such male children that should...