Exodus 1
1
Jacob’s Family in Egypt
1When Jacob, also called Israel, 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 70 people who were descendants of Jacob. Jacob’s son Joseph was already in Egypt.
6By some time later, Joseph and his brothers had 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. He did not know who Joseph was. 9This king said to his people, “Look! The people of Israel are too many! And they are too strong for us to handle! 10We must make plans against them. If we don’t, the number of their people will grow even more. Then if there is a war, they might join our enemies. Then they could fight us and escape from the country!”
11So the Egyptians made life hard for the people of Israel. They put slave masters over the Israelites. The slave masters forced the Israelites to build the cities Pithom and Rameses for the king. These cities were supply centers in which the Egyptians stored things. 12The Egyptians forced the Israelites to work even harder. But this made the Israelites grow in number and spread more. So the Egyptians became more afraid of them. 13They forced the Israelites to work even harder. 14The Egyptians made life hard for the Israelites. They forced the Israelites to work very hard making bricks and mortar. They also forced them to do all kinds of hard work in the fields. The Egyptians were not merciful to them in all their hard work.
15There were two Hebrew nurses named Shiphrah and Puah. These nurses 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 the baby live. But if it is a boy, kill it!” 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. He 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: ICB
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Copyright © 2015 by Tommy Nelson™, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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.
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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