Exodus 1

Israel Multiplies in Egypt

1Now these are the 1names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; they came, each one 2with his household: 2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; 3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; 4Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 53All the people who descended from Jacob were 4seventy 5people, but Joseph was already in Egypt. 6And 6Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. 7But the sons of Israel 7were fruitful and 8increased greatly, and multiplied, and became exceedingly 9mighty, so that the land was filled with them.

8Now a new 10king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9And 11he said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are 12too many and too mighty for us. 10Come, let us 13deal 14shrewdly with them, otherwise they will multiply, and 15in the event of war, they will also join those who hate us, and fight against us and 16depart from the land.” 11So they appointed 17taskmasters over them to oppress them with 1819hard labor. And they built for Pharaoh 20storage cities, Pithom and 21Raamses. 12But the more they oppressed them, 22the more they multiplied and the more they 23spread out, so that they dreaded the sons of Israel. 13The Egyptians 24used violence to compel the sons of Israel 25to labor; 14and they made 26their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they violently had them perform as slaves.

15Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom 27was named Shiphrah, and the other 28was named Puah; 16and he said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, 29if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” 17But the midwives 3031feared God, and 32did not do as the king of Egypt had 33commanded them, but let the boys live. 18So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and let the boys live?” 19The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife 34can get to them.” 20So 35God was good to the midwives, and 36the people multiplied, and became very 37mighty. 21And because the midwives 3839feared God, He 4041established 42households for them. 22Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “43Every son who is born, 44you are to throw into 45the Nile, but every daughter, you are to keep alive.”