Exodus 1:1-14

1Now these are the names of Bnei-Yisrael who came into Egypt with Jacob, each man with his family:

2Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah;

3Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin;

4Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

5The souls that came out of the line of Jacob numbered 70 in all, while Joseph was already in Egypt.

6Then Joseph died, as did all his brothers and all that generation.

7Yet Bnei-Yisrael were fruitful, increased abundantly, multiplied and grew extremely numerous—so the land was filled with them.

8Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

9He said to his people, “Look, the people of Bnei-Yisrael are too numerous and too powerful for us.

10Come, we must deal shrewdly with them, or else they will grow even more numerous, so that if war breaks out, they may join our enemies, fight against us, and then escape from the land.”

11So they set slave masters over them to afflict them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Raamses as storage cities for Pharaoh.

12But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread. So the Egyptians dreaded the presence of Bnei-Yisrael.

13They worked them harshly,

14and made their lives bitter with hard labor with mortar and brick, doing all sorts of work in the fields. In all their labors they worked them with cruelty.