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.”
Currently Selected:
Exodus 1: NCV
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
The Holy Bible, New Century Version, Copyright © 2005 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Exodus 1
1
CHAPTER 1
1These be the names of the sons of Israel, that entered into Egypt with Jacob; all entered with their households;
2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah,
3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
4Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
5Therefore all the souls of them that went out of the hip of Jacob were seventy and five. Forsooth Joseph was in Egypt;
6and when he was dead, and all his brethren, and all his kindred,
7the sons of Israel#1:7 The phrase ‘sons of Israel’ at times refers to the twelve sons of Jacob (whose name God changed to ‘Israel’), at times to only the Israelite men, and other times to all of the people of Israel, the twelve tribes of Israel, ‘the Israelites’. increased, and were multiplied as burgeoning, and they were made strong greatly, and filled the land.
8A new king, that knew not Joseph, rose [up] in the meantime on Egypt,
9and said to his people, Lo! the people of the sons of Israel is much, and stronger than we;
10come ye, wisely oppress we it, lest peradventure it be multiplied; and lest, if battle riseth against us, it be added to our enemies, and go out of the land, when we be overcome.
11And so he made masters of works sovereigns to them, that they should torment them with charges. And they made [the] cities of tabernacles, either of treasures, as it is in Hebrew, to Pharaoh, Pithom, and Raamses.
12And by how much they oppressed them, by so much they were multiplied, and increased the more.
13And the Egyptians hated the sons of Israel, and tormented, and scorned them;
14and they brought their life to bitterness, by hard works of clay and of tilestone, and by all servage, by which they were oppressed in the works of [the] earth.
15Forsooth the king of Egypt said to the midwives of Hebrews, of which one was called Shiphrah, [and] the tother Puah;
16and he commanded to them, When ye shall do the office of midwives to [the] Hebrew women, and the time of child-bearing shall come, if it is a knave child, slay ye him; if it is a woman child, keep ye it.
17But the midwives dreaded God, and did not by the commandment of the king of Egypt, but kept the knave children.
18To the which called to him, the king said, What is this thing that ye would do, that ye would keep the knave children?
19The which answered, Hebrew women be not as the women of Egypt, for they have knowing of the craft of midwifing, and childed before that we come to them.
20Therefore God did well to the midwives; and the people increased, and was comforted greatly.
21And for the midwives dreaded God, God builded them houses.
22Therefore Pharaoh commanded all his people, and said, Whatever thing of male kind is born to Hebrews, cast ye into the flood; whatever thing of women kind, keep ye.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Wycliffe’s Bible with Modern Spelling ©2017
Wycliffe’s Apocrypha ©2013, 2015
Wycliffe’s Bible © 2012, 2015
Wycliffe’s New Testament ©2001, 2011
Wycliffe’s Old Testament ©2001, 2010