Exodus 1
1
Jacob’s Family Grows Strong
1When Jacob went to Egypt, he took his sons, and each son took his own family with him. These are the names of the sons of Israel: 2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, 3Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, 4Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. 5There was a total of seventy people who were descendants of Jacob. Jacob’s son Joseph was already in Egypt.
6Some time later, Joseph and his brothers died, along with all the people who had lived at that same time. 7But the people of Israel had many children, and their number grew greatly. They became very strong, and the country of Egypt was filled with them.
Trouble for the People of Israel
8Then a new king began to rule Egypt, who did not know who Joseph was. 9This king said to his people, “Look! The people of Israel are too many and too strong for us to handle! 10If we don’t make plans against them, the number of their people will grow even more. Then if there is a war, they might join our enemies and fight us and escape from the country!”
11So the Egyptians made life hard for the Israelites. They put slave masters over them, who forced the Israelites to build the cities Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king. 12But the harder the Egyptians forced the Israelites to work, the more the Israelites grew in number and spread out. So the Egyptians became very afraid of them 13and demanded even more of them. 14They made their lives bitter. They forced the Israelites to work hard to make bricks and mortar and to do all kinds of work in the fields. The Egyptians were not merciful to them in all their painful work.
15Two Hebrew nurses, named Shiphrah and Puah, helped the Israelite women give birth to their babies. The king of Egypt said to the nurses, 16“When you are helping the Hebrew women give birth to their babies, watch! If the baby is a girl, let her live, but if it is a boy, kill him!” 17But the nurses feared God, so they did not do as the king told them; they let all the boy babies live. 18Then the king of Egypt sent for the nurses and said, “Why did you do this? Why did you let the boys live?”
19The nurses said to him, “The Hebrew women are much stronger than the Egyptian women. They give birth to their babies before we can get there.” 20God was good to the nurses. And the Hebrew people continued to grow in number, so they became even stronger. 21Because the nurses feared God, he gave them families of their own.
22So the king commanded all his people, “Every time a boy is born to the Hebrews, you must throw him into the Nile River, but let all the girl babies live.”
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Exodus 1: NCV
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The Holy Bible, New Century Version, Copyright © 2005 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Exodus 1
1
Israel’s Suffering in Egypt
1Now #Gen. 46:8–27; Ex. 6:14–16these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt; each man and his household came with Jacob: 2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; 3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; 4Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. 5All those who were descendants of Jacob were #Gen. 46:26, 27; (Deut. 10:22)seventy persons (for Joseph was in Egypt already). 6And #Gen. 50:26; Acts 7:15Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation. 7#Gen. 12:2; 28:3; 35:11; 46:3; 47:27; 48:4; Num. 22:3; Deut. 1:10, 11; 26:5; Ps. 105:24; Acts 7:17But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.
8Now there arose a new king over Egypt, #Acts 7:18, 19who did not know Joseph. 9And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and #Gen. 26:16mightier than we; 10#Ps. 83:3, 4come, let us #Ps. 105:25; (Prov. 16:25); Acts 7:19deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.” 11Therefore they set taskmasters over them #Gen. 15:13; Ex. 3:7; 5:6to afflict them with their #Ex. 1:14; 2:11; 5:4–9; 6:6burdens. And they built for Pharaoh #1 Kin. 9:19; 2 Chr. 8:4supply cities, Pithom #Gen. 47:11and Raamses. 12But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel. 13So the Egyptians made the children of Israel #Gen. 15:13; Ex. 5:7–19serve with rigor. 14And they #Ex. 2:23; 6:9; Num. 20:15; (Acts 7:19, 34)made their lives bitter with hard bondage—#Ps. 81:6in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.
15Then the king of Egypt spoke to the #Ex. 2:6Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah; 16and he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a #Matt. 2:16; Acts 7:19son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” 17But the midwives #Ex. 1:21; Prov. 16:6feared God, and did not do #Dan. 3:16, 18; Acts 4:18–20; 5:29as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive. 18So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and saved the male children alive?”
19And #Josh. 2:4; 2 Sam. 17:19, 20the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.”
20#Gen. 15:1; Ruth 2:12; (Prov. 11:18); Eccl. 8:12; (Is. 3:10); Heb. 6:10Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. 21And so it was, because the midwives feared God, #1 Sam. 2:35; 2 Sam. 7:11, 13, 27, 29; 1 Kin. 2:24; 11:38; (Ps. 127:1)that He provided households for them.
22So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, #Acts 7:19“Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.