Shemot 1
1
[SHEMOS]
1Now these are the Shemot Bnei Yisroel, which came into Mitzrayim; every ish and his bais came with Ya'akov:
2Reuven, Shim'on, Levi, and Yehudah,
3Yissakhar, Zevulun, and Binyamin,
4Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
5And all the nefesh that came out of the loins of Ya'akov were seventy nefesh; for Yosef was in Mitzrayim already.
6And Yosef died, and all his achim, and all that generation.
7And the Bnei Yisroel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and became exceeding strong; and the land was filled with them.
8Now there arose a melech chadash over Mitzrayim, which had no da'as of Yosef.
9And he said unto his people, Hinei, the Am Bnei Yisroel are more and stronger than we.
10Come, let us outsmart them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any milchamah, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.
11Therefore they did set over them sarei missim (taskmasters) to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pitom and Ra'meses.
12But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and spread out. And they were in dread because of the Bnei Yisroel.
13And the Egyptians made the Bnei Yisroel to serve with rigor;
14And they made their lives bitter with avodah kashah (hard bondage), in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of avodah in the sadeh; all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigor.
15And Melech Mitzrayim spoke to the meyalledot HaIvriyyot (Hebrew midwives), of which the shem of the one was Shiphrah, and of the other Puah;
16And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to HaIvriyyot (the Hebrew women) and see them upon the delivery stool; if it be a ben, then ye shall kill him; but if it be a bat, then she shall live.
17But the meyalledot feared HaElohim, and did not as Melech Mitzrayim commanded them, but saved the yeladim alive.
18So Melech Mitzrayim called for the meyalledot, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the yeladim alive?
19And the meyalledot said unto Pharaoh, Because HaIvriyyot are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous, and are delivered before the meyalledot come in unto them.
20Therefore Elohim dealt well with the meyalledot; and the people multiplied, and grew very strong.
21And it came to pass, because the meyalledot feared HaElohim, that He established them batim.
22And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every ben that is born ye shall cast into the Nile, and every bat ye shall save alive.
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Shemot 1: TOJB2011
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THE ORTHODOX JEWISH BIBLE
FOURTH EDITION © Artists For Israel Intl Inc., 2002-2011, 2021.
Exodus 1
1
The people of Israel become slaves
The people of Israel suffer
1-5When Jacob went to Egypt, his son Joseph was already there. So Jacob took his eleven other sons and their families. They were: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. Altogether, Jacob had seventy children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren#1.1-5 seventy children…great-grandchildren: See Genesis 46.8-27. who went with him.#Gn 46.8-27.
6After Joseph, his brothers, and everyone else in that generation had died, 7the people of Israel became so numerous that the whole region of Goshen was full of them.#Ac 7.17.
8Many years later a new king came to power. He did not know what Joseph had done for Egypt,#Ac 7.18. 9and he told the Egyptians:
There are too many of those Israelites in our country, and they are becoming more powerful than we are. 10If we don't outsmart them, their families will keep growing larger. And if our country goes to war, they could easily fight on the side of our enemies and escape from Egypt.#Ac 7.19.
11The Egyptians put slave bosses in charge of the people of Israel and tried to wear them down with hard work. Those bosses forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses,#1.11 Pithom and Rameses: This is the only mention of Pithom in the Bible; its exact location is unknown, though it was probably in the northern Delta of Egypt. Rameses is the famous Delta city that was the home of Rameses II; its exact location is also unknown. where the king#1.11 the king: The Hebrew text has “Pharaoh”, a Hebrew word sometimes used for the title of the king of Egypt. could store his supplies. 12But even though the Israelites were ill-treated, their families grew larger, and they took over more land. Because of this, the Egyptians hated them more than before 13and made them work so hard 14that their lives were miserable. The Egyptians were cruel to the people of Israel and forced them to make bricks and to mix mortar and to work in the fields.
15Finally, the king called in Shiphrah and Puah, the two women who helped the Hebrew#1.15 Hebrew: An earlier term for “Israelite”. mothers when they gave birth. 16He told them, “If a Hebrew woman gives birth to a girl, let the child live. If the baby is a boy, kill him!”
17But the two women were faithful to God and did not kill the boys, even though the king had told them to. 18The king called them in again and asked, “Why are you letting those baby boys live?”
19They answered, “Hebrew women have their babies much quicker than Egyptian women. By the time we arrive, their babies are already born.” 20-21God was good to the two women because they truly respected him, and he blessed them with children of their own.
The Hebrews kept increasing 22until finally, the king gave a command to everyone in the nation, “As soon as a Hebrew boy is born, throw him into the River Nile! But you can let the girls live.”#Ac 7.19.
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© British and Foreign Bible Society 2012