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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Exodus 1: NKJV
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Exodus 1
1
Chapter 1
Israel's family go to Egypt
1Here are the names of the Israelites who went to Egypt with Jacob. #1:1 God gave Jacob a new name, ‘Israel’. See Genesis 32:28; 35:10. So Jacob's descendants were called Israelites. Each one went there with his family.
2Jacob's sons were Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah, 3Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin, 4Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5Jacob himself had 70 descendants. His other son, Joseph, was already in Egypt.
6After some time, Joseph died. Joseph's brothers and all his generation also died. 7But the Israelites had many children, so they grew into a very large family. They became very powerful. They were everywhere in the whole country.
8Later, a new king began to rule in Egypt. He did not know anything about Joseph. #1:8 The new king did not know what had happened before. He did not know that Joseph had given food to the Egyptians in a time of famine. See Genesis 37—50. 9He said to his people, ‘Look! The Israelites have become too many for us. They are more powerful than we are. 10We must find a clever way to stop them. If we do nothing, their families will become even bigger. Then, if there is a war, they will join our enemies and they will fight against us. That will give the Israelites a chance to leave our country.’
11So the Egyptians made the Israelites work as their slaves. The Egyptian masters made the Israelites do very hard work. They had to build cities for the king, Pharaoh, where he could store food for his people. The names of the cities were Pithom and Rameses.
12The Egyptians made the Israelites work more and more. But the Israelites still became more in number. They had many children and they lived in every part of the country. Because of this, the Egyptians began to be afraid of them. 13So the Egyptians made the Israelites work without any rest. 14The Israelites became very upset because of all the difficult work. They had to build houses with bricks and mortar. #1:14 ‘mortar’ is a mixture of sand and other materials used to fix bricks together. They also did many different kinds of work in the fields. The Egyptians made the Israelites do all this difficult work.
15There were two Israelite women who helped the other women when they were giving birth. These two women were called Shiphrah and Puah. The king of Egypt said to them, 16‘When you help the Israelite women at the birth of their children, this is what you must do. If she gives birth to a son, kill him. But if the child is a daughter, you may let her live.’
17But the two women respected God. So they did not do what the king of Egypt had told them. They obeyed God and they let the boys live.
18Then the king of Egypt called the two women to come to him. He asked them, ‘Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?’ 19The two women said to Pharaoh, ‘Israelite women are not like Egyptian women. Israelite women are very strong. They give birth to their babies very quickly, before we arrive at the house.’
20Because the two women respected God, he was kind to them. The Israelite people continued to grow in number. They became very strong. 21Because the two women obeyed God, he gave them families of their own.
22Then Pharaoh spoke to all the Egyptian people. He said, ‘When an Israelite boy is born, you must throw him in the river Nile. But you can let the baby girls live.’
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