Exodus 1:8-14

8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. 13 So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves 14 and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.

A new, nameless Pharaoh arises who has no connection to Joseph and his first act is to divide between “us” and “them.” He is afraid of the Hebrews and at the same time he needs them for labor. But his oppression is turned back against himself. Not for the last time in Exodus—or the Bible—will we see that evil actions turn back and hurt those that take them. Here, the more Pharaoh tries to hurt the children of Israel, the more they prosper.