Exodus 1:1-14

1These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; each came with his family:

2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;

3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;

4Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.

5The total number of Jacob’s descendants was seventy; Joseph was already in Egypt.

6Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation eventually died.

7But the Israelites were fruitful, increased rapidly, multiplied, and became extremely numerous so that the land was filled with them.

8A new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt.

9He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and powerful than we are.

10Come, let’s deal shrewdly with them; otherwise they will multiply further, and when war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”

11So the Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh.

12But the more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.

13They worked the Israelites ruthlessly

14and made their lives bitter with difficult labor in brick and mortar and in all kinds of fieldwork. They ruthlessly imposed all this work on them.