The Oppression. ^8 (A)Then a new king, who knew nothing of Joseph,^[a] rose to power in Egypt. ⁹ He said to his people, “See! The Israelite people have multiplied and become more numerous than we are! ¹⁰ Come, let us deal shrewdly with them to stop their increase;^[b] otherwise, in time of war they too may join our enemies to fight against us, and so leave the land.”

¹¹ Accordingly, they set supervisors over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor.^(B) Thus they had to build for Pharaoh^[c] the garrison cities of Pithom and Raamses. ¹² Yet the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians began to loathe the Israelites. ¹³ So the Egyptians reduced the Israelites to cruel slavery, ¹⁴ making life bitter for them with hard labor, at mortar^[d] and brick and all kinds of field work—cruelly oppressed in all their labor.

Command to the Midwives. ¹⁵ The king of Egypt told the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was called Shiphrah and the other Puah, ¹⁶ “When you act as midwives for the Hebrew women, look on the birthstool:^[e] if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she may live.” ¹⁷ The midwives, however, feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt had ordered them, but let the boys live. ¹⁸ So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this, allowing the boys to live?” ¹⁹ The midwives answered Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. They are robust and give birth before the midwife arrives.” ²⁰ Therefore God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and grew very numerous. ²¹ And because the midwives feared God, God built up families for them. ²² Pharaoh then commanded all his people, “Throw into the Nile every boy that is born,^(C) but you may let all the girls live.”

II. The Call and Commission of Moses

The Burning Bush. ²³ A long time passed, during which the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their bondage and cried out, and from their bondage their cry for help went up to God.^{(A) 24} God heard their moaning and God was mindful of his covenant^(B) with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ²⁵ God saw the Israelites, and God knew….^[a]

The Call and Commission of Moses. ⁷ But the Lord said: I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry against their taskmasters, so I know well what they are suffering. ⁸ Therefore I have come down^[a] to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them up from that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.^{(A) 9} Now indeed the outcry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen how the Egyptians are oppressing them. ¹⁰ Now, go! I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.

⁹ But when Moses told this to the Israelites, they would not listen to him because of their dejection and hard slavery.

¹⁵ how our ancestors went down to Egypt, and we stayed in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians treated us and our ancestors harshly. ¹⁶ When we cried to the Lord,^(A) he heard our cry and sent an angel who led us out of Egypt. Now here we are at Kadesh, a town at the edge of your territory.