Exodus 1

Israel Oppressed in Egypt

¹These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; each came with his family:²

³Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;⁴

⁵Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;⁶

⁷Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.⁸

⁹The total number of Jacob’s descendants was seventy; Joseph was already in Egypt.¹⁰

¹¹Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation eventually died.¹²¹³But the Israelites were fruitful, increased rapidly, multiplied, and became extremely numerous so that the land was filled with them.¹⁴

¹⁵A new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt.¹⁶¹⁷He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and powerful than we are.¹⁸¹⁹Come, let’s deal shrewdly with them; otherwise they will multiply further, and when war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”²⁰²¹So the Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh.²²²³But the more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.²⁴²⁵They worked the Israelites ruthlessly²⁶²⁷and made their lives bitter with difficult labor in brick and mortar and in all kinds of fieldwork. They ruthlessly imposed all this work on them.²⁸

²⁹The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives — the first, whose name was Shiphrah, and the second, whose name was Puah —³⁰³¹“When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them as they deliver. If the child is a son, kill him, but if it’s a daughter, she may live.”³²³³The midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.³⁴³⁵So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this and let the boys live?”³⁶

³⁷The midwives said to Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.”³⁸

³⁹So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very numerous.⁴⁰⁴¹Since the midwives feared God, he gave them families.⁴²⁴³Pharaoh then commanded all his people, “You must throw every son born to the Hebrews into the Nile, but let every daughter live.”⁴⁴