Exodus 1
1
1These are the names of the Israelites who came to Egypt with Jacob along with their households: 2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5The total number in Jacob’s family was seventy. Joseph was already in Egypt. 6Eventually, Joseph, his brothers, and everyone in his generation died. 7But the Israelites were fertile and became populous. They multiplied and grew dramatically, filling the whole land.
Israel is oppressed
8Now a new king came to power in Egypt who didn’t know Joseph. 9He said to his people, “The Israelite people are now larger in number and stronger than we are. 10Come on, let’s be smart and deal with them. Otherwise, they will only grow in number. And if war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and then escape from the land.” 11As a result, the Egyptians put foremen of forced work gangs over the Israelites to harass them with hard work. They had to build storage cities named Pithom and Rameses for Pharaoh. 12But the more they were oppressed, the more they grew and spread, so much so that the Egyptians started to look at the Israelites with disgust and dread. 13So the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites. 14They made their lives miserable with hard labor, making mortar and bricks, doing field work, and by forcing them to do all kinds of other cruel work.
15The king of Egypt spoke to two Hebrew midwives named Shiphrah and Puah: 16“When you are helping the Hebrew women give birth and you see the baby being born, if it’s a boy, kill him. But if it’s a girl, you can let her live.” 17Now the two midwives respected God so they didn’t obey the Egyptian king’s order. Instead, they let the baby boys live.
18So the king of Egypt called the two midwives and said to them, “Why are you doing this? Why are you letting the baby boys live?”
19The two midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because Hebrew women aren’t like Egyptian women. They’re much stronger and give birth before any midwives can get to them.” 20So God treated the midwives well, and the people kept on multiplying and became very strong. 21And because the midwives respected God, God gave them households of their own.
22Then Pharaoh gave an order to all his people: “Throw every baby boy born to the Hebrews into the Nile River, but you can let all the girls live.”
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Exodus 1: CEB
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Exodus 1
1
Israel Oppressed
1#Ge 46:8–26; 35:23–26Now these are the names of the sons of Israel, which came into Egypt (each man and his household came with Jacob): 2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; 3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; 4Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. 5#Ge 46:26–27; Dt 10:22All the people who came from the seed of Jacob were seventy people, but Joseph was in Egypt already.
6#Ge 50:26Joseph died, as did all his brothers, and all that generation. 7#Ge 46:3; Dt 26:5Nevertheless, the sons of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty,#Or numerous; also in v. 20. so that the land was filled with them.
8#Ac 7:18Now there rose up a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9#Ps 105:24–25He said to his people, “Surely, the people of the sons of Israel are more numerous and powerful than we. 10#Ac 7:19; Ps 83:3–4Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass that when any war breaks out, they also join our enemies, and fight against us, and escape from the land.”
11#Ge 15:13; 47:11Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their labor. They built for Pharaoh storage cities: Pithom and Rameses. 12But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew so that as a result they abhorred the sons of Israel. 13The Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor, 14#Ex 2:23; 6:9and they made their lives bitter with hard service—in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field, all their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.
15The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah, 16and he said, “When you perform the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the stools, if it is a son, then you must kill him, but if it is a daughter, then she may live.” 17#Ac 5:29; Pr 16:6; Da 3:16–18However, the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but kept the male children alive. 18The king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing and preserved the male children’s lives?”
19The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives come to them.”
20#Ex 1:12; Pr 11:18Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. 21#1Sa 2:35; 1Ki 11:38So it happened that because the midwives feared God, He gave them families.
22#Ac 7:19Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, “You must cast every son that is born into the river, and you must preserve every daughter’s life.”
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