Exodus 1
1
1These are the names of the Israelites who came to Egypt with Jacob along with their households: 2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5The total number in Jacob’s family was seventy. Joseph was already in Egypt. 6Eventually, Joseph, his brothers, and everyone in his generation died. 7But the Israelites were fertile and became populous. They multiplied and grew dramatically, filling the whole land.
Israel is oppressed
8Now a new king came to power in Egypt who didn’t know Joseph. 9He said to his people, “The Israelite people are now larger in number and stronger than we are. 10Come on, let’s be smart and deal with them. Otherwise, they will only grow in number. And if war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and then escape from the land.” 11As a result, the Egyptians put foremen of forced work gangs over the Israelites to harass them with hard work. They had to build storage cities named Pithom and Rameses for Pharaoh. 12But the more they were oppressed, the more they grew and spread, so much so that the Egyptians started to look at the Israelites with disgust and dread. 13So the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites. 14They made their lives miserable with hard labor, making mortar and bricks, doing field work, and by forcing them to do all kinds of other cruel work.
15The king of Egypt spoke to two Hebrew midwives named Shiphrah and Puah: 16“When you are helping the Hebrew women give birth and you see the baby being born, if it’s a boy, kill him. But if it’s a girl, you can let her live.” 17Now the two midwives respected God so they didn’t obey the Egyptian king’s order. Instead, they let the baby boys live.
18So the king of Egypt called the two midwives and said to them, “Why are you doing this? Why are you letting the baby boys live?”
19The two midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because Hebrew women aren’t like Egyptian women. They’re much stronger and give birth before any midwives can get to them.” 20So God treated the midwives well, and the people kept on multiplying and became very strong. 21And because the midwives respected God, God gave them households of their own.
22Then Pharaoh gave an order to all his people: “Throw every baby boy born to the Hebrews into the Nile River, but you can let all the girls live.”
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Exodus 1: CEB
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2011 Common English Bible. All rights reserved.
Exodus 1
1
1And these [are] the names of the sons of Israel who are coming into Egypt with Jacob; a man and his household have they come;
2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
4Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
5And all the persons coming out of the thigh of Jacob are seventy persons; as to Joseph, he was in Egypt.
6And Joseph dieth, and all his brethren, and all that generation;
7and the sons of Israel have been fruitful, and they teem, and multiply, and are very very mighty, and the land is filled with them.
8And there riseth a new king over Egypt, who hath not known Joseph,
9and he saith unto his people, ‘Lo, the people of the sons of Israel [is] more numerous and mighty than we;
10give help! let us act wisely concerning it, lest it multiply, and it hath come to pass, when war happeneth, that it hath been joined, even it, unto those hating us, and hath fought against us, and hath gone out up of the land.’
11And they set over it princes of tribute, so as to afflict it with their burdens, and it buildeth store-cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses;
12and as they afflict it, so it multiplieth, and so it breaketh forth, and they are vexed because of the sons of Israel;
13and the Egyptians cause the sons of Israel to serve with rigour,
14and make their lives bitter in hard service, in clay, and in brick, and in every [kind] of service in the field; all their service in which they have served [is] with rigour.
15And the king of Egypt speaketh to the midwives, the Hebrewesses, (of whom the name of the one [is] Shiphrah, and the name of the second Puah),
16and saith, ‘When ye cause the Hebrew women to bear, and have looked on the children; if it [is] a son — then ye have put him to death; and if it [is] a daughter — then she hath lived.’
17And the midwives fear God, and have not done as the king of Egypt hath spoken unto them, and keep the lads alive;
18and the king of Egypt calleth for the midwives, and saith to them, ‘Wherefore have ye done this thing, and keep the lads alive?’
19And the midwives say unto Pharaoh, ‘Because the Hebrew women [are] not as the Egyptian women, for they [are] lively; before the midwife cometh in unto them — they have borne!’
20And God doth good to the midwives, and the people multiply, and are very mighty;
21and it cometh to pass, because the midwives have feared God, that He maketh for them households;
22and Pharaoh layeth a charge on all his people, saying, ‘Every son who is born — into the River ye do cast him, and every daughter ye do keep alive.’
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