Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Mga Hukom 1:34

וגם ראיתי את הלחץ אשר מצרים לוחצים אותם. The pressure mentioned resulted from the fact that the family of Yaakov who numbered only seventy souls when they came to Egypt and were settled by Joseph in the region of Goshen, increased and multiplied so that this region became far too small to contain them and to offer them a livelihood. It was G’d’s blessing which led to this eventual problem as the Egyptians were not willing to cede additional parts of their land to the Israelites. This phenomenon of artificially forcing a large population into an inadequate amount of land is also described in Judges 1,34, where the Emorite is described as trying to compress the increasing numbers of the tribe of Dan into a mountainous region, not allowing them to take up residence in the plains below.

וגם ראיתי את הלחץ, “and I have also seen the pressure, etc.” Rabbeinu Chananel comments on the word לחץ that this pressure was due to the fact that Joseph at the time had assigned the province of Goshen to a family comprising only 70 souls. He had not realised that the population explosion that was to follow would result in the province of Goshen being far too small to contain all the Israelites and to provide them with a livelihood. At the same time, the Egyptians had not been prepared to make allowance for this and to allocate additional land to the Israelites. The Rabbi supports his view of the meaning of the word לחץ by citing Judges 1,34: וילחצו האמורי את בני דן ההרה כי לא נתנו לרדת לעמק, “the Emorites squeezed the Danites into the hill country; they would not let them come down to the plain.”