Midrash for Exodus 1:3

(Exod. 1:1, cont.:) WHO ARE COMING (haba'im) TO EGYPT.¹⁷A traditional translation would read, “Who came to Egypt,” but the midrash insists that the participle be understood as a present tense in accord with later Hebrew. They had already been there a long time.¹⁸Tanh., Exod. 1:3; Exod. R. 1:4. The problem here concerns the position of this record of names. Why are they listed here in Exod. 1:1–5, when the descent to Egypt has already occurred in Gen. 46 with a much fuller name listing? Then why does it say <here> (in Exod. 1:1): WHO ARE COMING (haba'im)? It is simply that as long as Joseph was alive, the burden of the Egyptians did not come upon them; but, as soon as Joseph was dead, the burden of the Egyptians was set upon them. Ergo: WHO ARE COMING (haba'im). <It was> as if all WHO CAME (haba'im) TO EGYPT had entered Egypt on that very day.

R. Joshua of Sikhnin said in the Name of R. Levi: The names of the tribes are the same in every place, except that sometimes one takes precedence and sometimes another.²⁵The parallel version in Exod R. 1:6 reads: “Why are not the names of the tribes the same in every place, but sometimes….” Similarly, Tanh., Exod. 1:3. Why so? Lest the sons of the wives²⁶Literally: “ladies.” (Leah and Rachel) be written first and the sons of the bondmaidens (Zilpah and Bilhah) written last. So why does one <name> sometimes take precedence and sometimes come later? To teach you that the former were not greater than the latter. Then why do some take precedence over others? Because they are the ceiling of the world, and whoever puts in a proper roof sets the top (i.e. the thin end) of one beam next to the top of the other.²⁷The text is probably corrupt. Cf. the parallel in Tanh., Exod. 1:3: “And whoever prepares a proper ceiling sets the thick end of one beam next to the top of another since they are not equal.” So also Exod. R. 1:6. See Buber’s note here. Some < tribes >, therefore, take precedence over others. And where is it shown that they are the ceiling (rt.: QRH) of the world? Where it is stated (in Is. 48:12): LISTEN TO ME, O JACOB, EVEN ISRAEL, WHOM I HAVE CALLED (rt.: QR').