Bible Strands
Exodus 2:25
God saw the Israelites and took notice.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrative describes God’s response to the Israelites immediately following Exodus 2:24, where He heard their groaning and recalled His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This occurs during the period of Egyptian bondage, prior to the commissioning of Moses.
The words — The text records וַיֵּדַע (va/i.Ye.da'), rendered as "and he knew" or "took notice." Literally, it signifies God’s deliberate recognition of the Israelites’ condition, functioning as the verbal counterpart to His prior act of seeing.
The thread — This pattern of divine observation precedes intervention in Exodus 3:7, where God declares He has seen the affliction of His people, and in Exodus 4:31, where the Israelites believe after learning the LORD attended to them.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to acknowledge that divine attention is the necessary precondition for deliverance. It demands a clear-eyed recognition that God’s awareness of suffering initiates the historical sequence of rescue.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.
Cross-references
- Exodus 4:31 and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD had attended to the Israelites and had seen their affliction, they bowed down and worshiped.
- Psalms 55:22 Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken.
- Exodus 3:7 The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the affliction of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I am aware of their sufferings.
- Psalms 1:6 For the LORD guards the path of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
- Luke 1:25 “The Lord has done this for me. In these days He has shown me favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”
- 2 Samuel 16:12 Perhaps the LORD will see my affliction and repay me with good for the cursing I receive today.”
- Matthew 7:23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’
- 1 Samuel 1:11 And she made a vow, saying, “O LORD of Hosts, if only You will look upon the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, not forgetting Your maidservant but giving her a son, then I will dedicate him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall ever touch his head.”
- Job 33:27 Then he sings before men with these words: ‘I have sinned and perverted what was right; yet I did not get what I deserved.
- Exodus 1:8 Then a new king, who did not know Joseph, came to power in Egypt.