Exodus 1
1
1-5These are the names of the Israelites who went to Egypt with Jacob, each bringing his family members:
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
Seventy persons in all generated by Jacob’s seed. Joseph was already in Egypt.
6-7Then Joseph died, and all his brothers—that whole generation. But the children of Israel kept on reproducing. They were very prolific—a population explosion in their own right—and the land was filled with them.
“A New King . . . Who Didn’t Know Joseph”
8-10A new king came to power in Egypt who didn’t know Joseph. He spoke to his people with alarm, “There are way too many of these Israelites for us to handle. We’ve got to do something: Let’s devise a plan to contain them, lest if there’s a war they should join our enemies, or just walk off and leave us.”
11-14So they organized them into work-gangs and put them to hard labor under gang-foremen. They built the storage cities Pithom and Rameses for Pharaoh. But the harder the Egyptians worked them the more children the Israelites had—children everywhere! The Egyptians got so they couldn’t stand the Israelites and treated them worse than ever, crushing them with slave labor. They made them miserable with hard labor—making bricks and mortar and back-breaking work in the fields. They piled on the work, crushing them under the cruel workload.
15-16The king of Egypt had a talk with the two Hebrew midwives; one was named Shiphrah and the other Puah. He said, “When you deliver the Hebrew women, look at the sex of the baby. If it’s a boy, kill him; if it’s a girl, let her live.”
17-18But the midwives had far too much respect for God and didn’t do what the king of Egypt ordered; they let the boy babies live. The king of Egypt called in the midwives. “Why didn’t you obey my orders? You’ve let those babies live!”
19The midwives answered Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women aren’t like the Egyptian women; they’re vigorous. Before the midwife can get there, they’ve already had the baby.”
20-21God was pleased with the midwives. The people continued to increase in number—a very strong people. And because the midwives honored God, God gave them families of their own.
22So Pharaoh issued a general order to all his people: “Every boy that is born, drown him in the Nile. But let the girls live.”
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
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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