Exodus 1
Legacy Standard Bible
Israel Multiplies in Egypt
1 Now these are the (A)names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; they came each one [a]with his household: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; 4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5 And all the [b]persons who came from the loins of Jacob were (B)seventy [c]in number, but Joseph was already in Egypt. 6 (C)Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. 7 But the sons of Israel (D)were fruitful and [d]increased and multiplied and became exceedingly [e]mighty, so that the land was filled with them.
8 And a new (E)king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 (F)And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are [f]more and mightier than we. 10 Come, let us (G)deal wisely with them, lest they multiply and it be [g]in the event of war, that they also join themselves to those who hate us and fight against us and (H)go up from the land.” 11 So they appointed (I)taskmasters over them to afflict them with [h](J)hard labors. And they built for Pharaoh (K)storage cities, Pithom and (L)Raamses. 12 But the more they afflicted them, (M)the more they multiplied and the more they [i]spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel. 13 So the Egyptians brutally compelled the sons of Israel (N)to slave labor; 14 and they made (O)their lives bitter with [j]hard slave labor in mortar and bricks and in all kinds of slave labor in the field, all their slave labor which they brutally [k]compelled them to do.
15 Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom [l]was named Shiphrah and the other [m]was named Puah; 16 and he said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, (P)if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” 17 But the midwives [n](Q)feared God and (R)did not do as the king of Egypt had spoken to them, but let the boys live. 18 So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and let the boys live?” 19 Then the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can come to them.” 20 So (S)God was good to the midwives, and (T)the people multiplied and became very [o]mighty. 21 Now it happened that because the midwives [p](U)feared God, He (V)made [q]households for them. 22 And Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “(W)Every son who is born [r]you are to cast into (X)the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive.”
Footnotes
- Exodus 1:1 Lit and
- Exodus 1:5 Lit souls
- Exodus 1:5 Lit as to souls
- Exodus 1:7 Lit swarmed, cf. Gen 1:21; Ex 8:2
- Exodus 1:7 Or numerous
- Exodus 1:9 Or too many and too mighty for us
- Exodus 1:10 Lit when war befalls that
- Exodus 1:11 Lit their burdens
- Exodus 1:12 Lit broke forth
- Exodus 1:14 Lit stiff
- Exodus 1:14 Lit worked through them
- Exodus 1:15 Lit the name was
- Exodus 1:15 Lit the name was
- Exodus 1:17 Or reverenced
- Exodus 1:20 Or numerous
- Exodus 1:21 Or reverenced
- Exodus 1:21 Or families
- Exodus 1:22 Some versions insert to the Hebrews
Exodus 1
Common English Bible
1 These are the names of the Israelites who came to Egypt with Jacob along with their households: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5 The total number in Jacob’s family was seventy. Joseph was already in Egypt. 6 Eventually, Joseph, his brothers, and everyone in his generation died. 7 But the Israelites were fertile and became populous. They multiplied and grew dramatically, filling the whole land.
Israel is oppressed
8 Now a new king came to power in Egypt who didn’t know Joseph. 9 He said to his people, “The Israelite people are now larger in number and stronger than we are. 10 Come on, let’s be smart and deal with them. Otherwise, they will only grow in number. And if war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and then escape from the land.” 11 As a result, the Egyptians put foremen of forced work gangs over the Israelites to harass them with hard work. They had to build storage cities named Pithom and Rameses for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they grew and spread, so much so that the Egyptians started to look at the Israelites with disgust and dread. 13 So the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites. 14 They made their lives miserable with hard labor, making mortar and bricks, doing field work, and by forcing them to do all kinds of other cruel work.
15 The king of Egypt spoke to two Hebrew midwives named Shiphrah and Puah: 16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women give birth and you see the baby being born, if it’s a boy, kill him. But if it’s a girl, you can let her live.” 17 Now the two midwives respected God so they didn’t obey the Egyptian king’s order. Instead, they let the baby boys live.
18 So the king of Egypt called the two midwives and said to them, “Why are you doing this? Why are you letting the baby boys live?”
19 The two midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because Hebrew women aren’t like Egyptian women. They’re much stronger and give birth before any midwives can get to them.” 20 So God treated the midwives well, and the people kept on multiplying and became very strong. 21 And because the midwives respected God, God gave them households of their own.
22 Then Pharaoh gave an order to all his people: “Throw every baby boy born to the Hebrews into the Nile River, but you can let all the girls live.”
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