After his failed attempt to use the midwives, Pharaoh makes an open attack on the Israelite boys. He now gives a command to all his people, rather than to just two midwives, telling them to throw every Israelite boy into the Nile. The river whose fresh water brought life to Egypt was to bring death to the Israelites.
22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”