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
New Living Translation
The Israelites in Egypt
1 These are the names of the sons of Israel (that is, Jacob) who moved to Egypt with their father, each with his family: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, 4 Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. 5 In all, Jacob had seventy[a] descendants in Egypt, including Joseph, who was already there.
6 In time, Joseph and all of his brothers died, ending that entire generation. 7 But their descendants, the Israelites, had many children and grandchildren. In fact, they multiplied so greatly that they became extremely powerful and filled the land.
8 Eventually, a new king came to power in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done. 9 He said to his people, “Look, the people of Israel now outnumber us and are stronger than we are. 10 We must make a plan to keep them from growing even more. If we don’t, and if war breaks out, they will join our enemies and fight against us. Then they will escape from the country.[b]”
11 So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labor. They forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king. 12 But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread, and the more alarmed the Egyptians became. 13 So the Egyptians worked the people of Israel without mercy. 14 They made their lives bitter, forcing them to mix mortar and make bricks and do all the work in the fields. They were ruthless in all their demands.
15 Then Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, gave this order to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah: 16 “When you help the Hebrew women as they give birth, watch as they deliver.[c] If the baby is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.” 17 But because the midwives feared God, they refused to obey the king’s orders. They allowed the boys to live, too.
18 So the king of Egypt called for the midwives. “Why have you done this?” he demanded. “Why have you allowed the boys to live?”
19 “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women,” the midwives replied. “They are more vigorous and have their babies so quickly that we cannot get there in time.”
20 So God was good to the midwives, and the Israelites continued to multiply, growing more and more powerful. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Throw every newborn Hebrew boy into the Nile River. But you may let the girls live.”
Legacy Standard Bible Copyright ©2021 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org For Permission to Quote Information visit https://www.LSBible.org.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
