⁸ Then a new king came to power in Egypt. Joseph didn’t mean anything to him. ⁹ “Look,” he said to his people. “The Israelites are far too many for us. ¹⁰ Come. We must deal with them carefully. If we don’t, there will be even more of them. Then if war breaks out, they’ll join our enemies. They’ll fight against us and leave the country.”

¹¹ So the Egyptians put slave drivers over the people of Israel. The slave drivers treated them badly and made them work hard. The Israelites built the cities of Pithom and Rameses so Pharaoh could store things there. ¹² But the worse the slave drivers treated the Israelites, the more Israelites there were. So the Egyptians became afraid of them. ¹³ They made them work hard. They didn’t show them any pity.

²² Then Pharaoh gave an order to all his people. He said, “You must throw every Hebrew baby boy into the Nile River. But let every Hebrew baby girl live.”