Exodus 1:8-2:10

21st Century King James Version

⁸ Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph.

⁹ And he said unto his people, “Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we.

¹⁰ Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply and it come to pass, when there befalleth any war, that they join also unto our enemies and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.”

¹¹ Therefore they set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.

¹² But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew; and they were grieved because of the children of Israel.

¹³ And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor.

¹⁴ And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick and in all manner of service in the field; all their service wherein they made them serve was with rigor.

¹⁵ And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah.

¹⁶ And he said, “When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women and see them upon the birthstools, if it be a son then ye shall kill him; but if it be a daughter then she shall live.”

¹⁷ But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.

¹⁸ And the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said unto them, “Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive?”

¹⁹ And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them.”

²⁰ Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and waxed very mighty.

²¹ And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that He made them houses.

²² And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, “Every son who is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.”

2 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took for a wife a daughter of Levi.

² And the woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.

³ And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the reeds by the river’s brink.

⁴ And his sister stood afar off to learn what would be done to him.

⁵ And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and her maidens walked along by the riverside; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to fetch it.

⁶ And when she had opened it, she saw the child; and behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”

⁷ Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?”

⁸ And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” And the maid went and called the child’s mother.

⁹ And Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her, “Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages.” And the woman took the child, and nursed it.

¹⁰ And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses [that is, Drawn out], and she said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”