1:1 | These are the names of the sons of Israel (that is, Jacob) who came with him to Egypt with their families: |
1:2 | Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; |
1:3 | Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; |
1:4 | Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. |
1:5 | Joseph was already in Egypt. The total number of Jacob's descendants was 70. |
1:6 | Eventually, Joseph, all his brothers, and that entire generation died. |
1:7 | But the descendants of Israel had many children. They became so numerous and strong that the land was filled with them. |
1:8 | Then a new king, who knew nothing about Joseph, began to rule in Egypt. |
1:9 | He said to his people, "There are too many Israelites, and they are stronger than we are. |
1:10 | We have to outsmart them, or they'll increase in number. Then, if war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country." |
1:11 | So the Egyptians put slave drivers in charge of them in order to oppress them through forced labor. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh. |
1:12 | But the more the Israelites were oppressed, the more they increased in number and spread out. The Egyptians couldn't stand them any longer. |
1:13 | So they forced the Israelites to work hard as slaves. |
1:14 | They made their lives bitter with backbreaking work in mortar and bricks and every kind of work in the fields. All the jobs the Egyptians gave them were brutally hard. |
1:15 | Then the king of Egypt told the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, |
1:16 | "When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth, look at the child when you deliver it. If it's a boy, kill it, but if it's a girl, let it live." |
1:17 | However, the midwives feared God and didn't obey the king of Egypt's orders. They let the boys live. |
1:18 | So the king of Egypt called for the midwives. He asked them, "Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?" |
1:19 | The midwives answered Pharaoh, "Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women. They are so healthy that they have their babies before a midwife arrives." |
1:20 | God was good to the midwives. So the people increased in number and became very strong. |
1:21 | Because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. |
1:22 | Then Pharaoh commanded all his people to throw into the Nile every Hebrew boy that was born, but to let every girl live. |