Parashah 13: Sh’mot (Names) 1:1–6:1

1 These are the names of the sons of Isra’el who came into Egypt with Ya‘akov; each man came with his household: ² Re’uven, Shim‘on, Levi, Y’hudah, ³ Yissakhar, Z’vulun, Binyamin, ⁴ Dan, Naftali, Gad and Asher. ⁵ All told, there were seventy descendants of Ya‘akov; Yosef was already in Egypt.

⁶ Yosef died, as did all his brothers and all that generation. ⁷ The descendants of Isra’el were fruitful, increased abundantly, multiplied and grew very powerful; the land became filled with them.

⁸ Now there arose a new king over Egypt. He knew nothing about Yosef ⁹ but said to his people, “Look, the descendants of Isra’el have become a people too numerous and powerful for us. ¹⁰ Come, let’s use wisdom in dealing with them. Otherwise, they’ll continue to multiply; and in the event of war they might ally themselves with our enemies, fight against us and leave the land altogether.”

¹¹ So they put slavemasters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built for Pharaoh the storage cities of Pitom and Ra‘amses. ¹² But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more they multiplied and expanded, until the Egyptians came to dread the people of Isra’el ¹³ and worked them relentlessly, ¹⁴ making their lives bitter with hard labor — digging clay, making bricks, all kinds of field work; and in all this toil they were shown no mercy.

¹⁵ Moreover, the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was called Shifrah and the other Pu‘ah. ¹⁶ “When you attend the Hebrew women and see them giving birth,” he said, “if it’s a boy, kill him; but if it’s a girl, let her live.” ¹⁷ However, the midwives were God-fearing women, so they didn’t do as the king of Egypt ordered but let the boys live. (ii) ¹⁸ The king of Egypt summoned the midwives and demanded of them, “Why have you done this and let the boys live?” ¹⁹ The midwives answered Pharaoh, “It’s because the Hebrew women aren’t like the Egyptian women — they go into labor and give birth before the midwife arrives.” ²⁰ Therefore God prospered the midwives, and the people continued to multiply and grow very powerful. ²¹ Indeed, because the midwives feared God, he made them founders of families. ²² Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every boy that is born, throw in the river; but let all the girls live.”