⁹ “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous^(A) for us.^{(B) 10} Come, we must deal shrewdly^(C) with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”^(D)

¹¹ So they put slave masters^(E) over them to oppress them with forced labor,^(F) and they built Pithom and Rameses^(G) as store cities^(H) for Pharaoh. ¹² But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites

²³ During that long period,^(A) the king of Egypt died.^(B) The Israelites groaned in their slavery^(C) and cried out, and their cry^(D) for help because of their slavery went up to God. ²⁴ God heard their groaning and he remembered^(E) his covenant^(F) with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. ²⁵ So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned^(G) about them.

⁷ The Lord said, “I have indeed seen^(A) the misery^(B) of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned^(C) about their suffering.^{(D) 8} So I have come down^(E) to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land,^(F) a land flowing with milk and honey^(G)—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites^(H) and Jebusites.^{(I) 9} And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing^(J) them.