Exodus 1


Israel Multiplies in Egypt

Now these are the anames of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; they came each one 1with his household:
2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; 4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5 And all the 1persons who came from the loins of Jacob were aseventy 2in number, but Joseph was already in Egypt. 6 aThen Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. 7 But the sons of Israel awere fruitful and 1increased and multiplied and became exceedingly 2mighty, so that the land was filled with them.
8 And a new aking arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
9 aAnd he said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are 1more and mightier than we. 10 Come, let us adeal wisely with them, lest they multiply and it be 1in the event of war, that they also join themselves to those who hate us and fight against us and bgo up from the land.” 11 So they appointed ataskmasters over them to afflict them with 1bhard labors. And they built for Pharaoh cstorage cities, Pithom and dRaamses. 12 But the more they afflicted them, athe more they multiplied and the more they 1spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel. 13 So the Egyptians brutally compelled the sons of Israel ato slave labor; 14 and they made atheir lives bitter with 1hard slave labor in mortar and bricks and in all kinds of slave labor in the field, all their slave labor which they brutally 2compelled them to do.
15 Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom 1was named Shiphrah and the other 1was named Puah;
16 and he said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, aif it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” 17 But the midwives 1afeared God and bdid not do as the king of Egypt had spoken to them, but let the boys live. 18 So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and let the boys live?” 19 Then the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can come to them.” 20 So aGod was good to the midwives, and bthe people multiplied and became very 1mighty. 21 Now it happened that because the midwives 1afeared God, He bmade 2households for them. 22 And Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “aEvery son who is born 1you are to cast into bthe Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive.”
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