Exodus 2:24

Exo 2:24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

Ver. 24. God heard their groaning.] Yea, their breathing. {Lam 3:56} Men’s very misery cries to God, as Hagar’s did.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Exo 2:24-25. And God heard their groaning — That is, he made it to appear that he took notice of their complaints. The groans of the oppressed cry loud in the ears of the righteous God, to whom vengeance belongs; especially the groans of God’s children, the burdens they groan under, and the blessings they groan after. And God remembered his covenant —

Which he seemed to have forgotten, but really is ever mindful of. This God had an eye to, and not to any merit of theirs, in what he did for them. And God looked upon the children of Israel — Moses looked upon them and pitied them, but now God looked upon them and helped them. And God had respect unto them — A favourable respect to them as his own. The frequent repetition of the name of God intimates that now we are to expect something great. His eyes, which run to and fro through the earth, are now fixed on Israel, to show himself strong, to show himself a God in their behalf.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2:24-25 The verbs here speak of a God who is sensitive to his people’s needs (heard . . . looked down), who is faithful and reliable (remembered his covenant promise), and who accepts his obligations in a relationship (knew it was time to act).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 24. God remembered his covenant] God's covenant is God's engagement; he had promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give their posterity a land flowing with milk and honey, &c. They are now under the most oppressive bondage, and this was the most proper time for God to show them his mercy and power in fulfilling his promise. This is all that is meant by God's remembering his covenant, for it was now that he began to give it its effect.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

24. their groaning] Exo_6:5 a (P).

and God … remembered] cf. Exo_6:5 b; also Gen_8:1; Gen_19:29 (all P).

his covenant with Abraham, &c.] The covenant concluded with Abraham and Isaac (Gen_17:7-8; Gen_17:19 P), and implicitly with Jacob (Gen_35:12 P), which in Exo_6:4-5 b also is represented by P as the motive for the deliverance of Israel from Egypt: cf. p. 176.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And God heard their groaning,.... The petitions they put up to him with groans and cries:

and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob; that he would bring their seed out of a land not theirs, in which they were strangers, and were afflicted, into the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Remembered - This means that God was moved by their prayers to give effect to the covenant, of which an essential condition was the faith and contrition involved in the act of supplication. The whole history of Israel is foreshadowed in these words: God heard, remembered, looked upon, and knew them. It evidently indicates the beginning of a crisis marked by a personal intervention of God.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

24, 25. God heard… remembered… looked… had respect — Through all those generations of heart-break, to the eye and ear of flesh God had seemed deaf, dumb, dead; yet all the while he remembered his covenant, saw each tear, heard each groan, knew his children with all the energy of love. In this graphic and emphatic way does the sacred writer picture our Father, and help every sufferer everywhere to get within the everlasting arms.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 24, 25. God heard their groaning. God is said to "hear" the prayers which he accepts and grants; to "be deaf" to those which he does not grant, but rejects. He now "heard" (i.e. accepted) the supplications of oppressed Israel; and on account of the covenant which he had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob a covenant always remembered by him he looked upon his people, made them the objects of his special regard, and entered on a course, which was abnormal, irregular, miraculous, in order to carry out his purposes of mercy towards them It is observed that anthropomorphic expressions are here accumulated; but this is always the case when the love and tenderness of God towards man are spoken of, since they form the only possible phraseology in which ideas of love and tenderness can be expressed so as to be intelligible to bureau beings. And God regarded them. Literally, "and God knew." God kept the whole in his thoughts bore in mind the sufferings, the wrongs, the hopes, the fears, the groans, the despair, the appeal to him, the fervent supplications and prayers knew all, remembered all-counted every word and sigh gathered the tears into his bottle noted all things in his book and for the present endured, kept silence but was preparing for his foes a terrible vengeance for his people a marvellous deliverance

Vers. 24, 25. God is never deaf to earnest prayer for deliverance.

It was eighty years since the cruel edict went forth, "Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river (Exo_1:22) ninety, or perhaps a hundred, since the severe oppression began (ib. 11-14). Israel had sighed and groaned during the whole of this long period, and no doubt addressed many a prayer to God, which seemed unheard. But no earnest faithful prayer during the whole of the long space was unheard. God treasured them all up in his memory. He was "not slack, as men count slackness" He had to wean his people from their attachment to Egypt he had to discipline them, to form their character to prepare them to endure the hardships of the desert, and to face the fierce tribes of Canaan. When this was done when they were fit-he gave effect to their prayers their groaning and just as they were on the point of despairing, delivered them. The lesson to us here is, that we never despair, never grow weary and listless, never cease our prayers, strive to make them more and more fervent. We can never know how near we are to the time when God will show forth his power grant and accomplish our prayers.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And God heard their groaning - That is, he made it to appear that he took notice of their complaints. The groans of the oppressed cry loud in the ears of the righteous God, to whom vengeance belongs; especially the groans of God's children, the burdens they groan under, and the blessings they groan after. And God remembered his covenant - Which he seemed to have forgotten, but really is ever mindful of. This God had an eye to, and not to any merit of theirs in what he did for them. And God looked upon the children of Israel - Moses looked upon them and pitied them, but now God looked upon them and helped them. And God had respect unto them - A favourable respect to them as his own. The frequent repetition of the name of God intimates, that now we are to expect something great. His eyes which run to and fro through the earth, are now fixed on Israel, to shew himself strong, to shew himself a God in their behalf.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

נאקתם means THEIR CRY. Similar is, (Job 24:12) “from out of the populous city men groan (ינאקו)”.

‎ את בריתו את אברהם — The words את אברהם, are the same as עם אברהם, with Abraham (i. e. the word את means “with”, whilst in the preceding phrase, את בריתו, it is the sign of the accusative).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.