EXODUS 1

The Israelites in Egypt

Verse 1:
These are the names of the sons of Israel (that is, Jacob) who moved to Egypt with their father, each with his family:

Verse 2:
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, 3Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, 4Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. 5In all, Jacob had seventy descendants in Egypt, including Joseph, who was already there.
6In time, Joseph and all of his brothers died, ending that entire generation.

Verse 7:
But their descendants, the Israelites, had many children and grandchildren. In fact, they multiplied so greatly that they became extremely powerful and filled the land.

Verse 8:
Eventually, a new king came to power in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done.

Verse 9:
He said to his people, “Look, the people of Israel now outnumber us and are stronger than we are.

Verse 10:
We must make a plan to keep them from growing even more. If we don’t, and if war breaks out, they will join our enemies and fight against us. Then they will escape from the country.”

Verse 11:
So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labor. They forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king.

Verse 12:
But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread, and the more alarmed the Egyptians became.

Verse 13:
So the Egyptians worked the people of Israel without mercy.

Verse 14:
They made their lives bitter, forcing them to mix mortar and make bricks and do all the work in the fields. They were ruthless in all their demands.

Verse 15:
Then Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, gave this order to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah:

Verse 16:
“When you help the Hebrew women as they give birth, watch as they deliver. If the baby is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.”

Verse 17:
But because the midwives feared God, they refused to obey the king’s orders. They allowed the boys to live, too.

Verse 18:
So the king of Egypt called for the midwives. “Why have you done this?” he demanded. “Why have you allowed the boys to live?”

Verse 19:
“The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women,” the midwives replied. “They are more vigorous and have their babies so quickly that we cannot get there in time.”

Verse 20:
So God was good to the midwives, and the Israelites continued to multiply, growing more and more powerful.

Verse 21:
And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

Verse 22:
Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Throw every newborn Hebrew boy into the Nile River. But you may let the girls live.”



Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.