1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household:^{(A) 2} Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, ³ Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, ⁴ Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. ⁵ The total number of people born to Jacob was seventy. (Joseph was already in Egypt.)^{(B) 6} Then Joseph died, and all his brothers, and that whole generation.^{(C) 7} But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.^(D)

The Israelites Are Oppressed

⁸ Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.^{(E) 9} He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we.^{(F) 10} Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” ¹¹ Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh.^{(G) 12} But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. ¹³ The Egyptians subjected the Israelites to hard servitude ¹⁴ and made their lives bitter with hard servitude in mortar and bricks and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.^(H)

¹⁵ The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, ¹⁶ “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.”^{(I) 17} But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live.^{(J) 18} So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this and allowed the boys to live?” ¹⁹ The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” ²⁰ So God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very strong.^{(K) 21} And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.^{(L) 22} Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews^[a] you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”^(M)

Birth and Youth of Moses

2 Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman.^{(N) 2} The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months.^{(O) 3} When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. ⁴ His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.^(P)

⁵ The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. ⁶ When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. ⁷ Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” ⁸ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. ⁹ Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. ¹⁰ When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses,^[b] “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”^(Q)

Moses Flees to Midian

¹¹ One day after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.^{(R) 12} He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. ¹³ When he went out the next day, he saw two Hebrews fighting, and he said to the one who was in the wrong, “Why do you strike your fellow Hebrew?”^{(S) 14} He answered, “Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “Surely the thing is known.”^{(T) 15} When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses.

So Moses fled from Pharaoh. He settled in the land of Midian and sat down by a well.^{(U) 16} The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. ¹⁷ But some shepherds came and drove them away. Moses got up and came to their defense and watered their flock.^{(V) 18} When they returned to their father Reuel, he said, “How is it that you have come back so soon today?”^{(W) 19} They said, “An Egyptian helped us against the shepherds; he even drew water for us and watered the flock.” ²⁰ He said to his daughters, “Where is he? Why did you leave the man? Invite him to share a meal.”^{(X) 21} Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage.^{(Y) 22} She bore a son, and he named him Gershom,^[c] for he said, “I have been an alien residing in a foreign land.”^(Z)

²³ After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery and cried out. Their cry for help rose up to God from their slavery.^{(AA) 24} God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.^{(AB) 25} God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.^(AC)

Psalm 8

Divine Majesty and Human Dignity

To the leader: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David.

The Parable of Weeds among the Wheat

²⁴ He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field,^{(A) 25} but while everybody was asleep an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and then went away. ²⁶ So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. ²⁷ And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ ²⁸ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ ²⁹ But he replied, ‘No, for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. ³⁰ Let both of them grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ”^(B)

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

³¹ He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field;^{(C) 32} it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”^(D)

The Parable of the Yeast

³³ He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with^[a] three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”^(E)

The Use of Parables

³⁴ Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing.^{(F) 35} This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet:^[b]

Jesus Explains the Parable of the Weeds

³⁶ Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” ³⁷ He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; ³⁸ the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one,^{(H) 39} and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.^{(I) 40} Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.^{(J) 41} The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin^[d] and all evildoers,^{(K) 42} and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.^{(L) 43} Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears^[e] listen!^(M)

Three Parables

⁴⁴ “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and reburied; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.^(N)

⁴⁵ “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; ⁴⁶ on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

⁴⁷ “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind;^{(O) 48} when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. ⁴⁹ So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous^{(P) 50} and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.^(Q)

Treasures New and Old

⁵¹ “Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” ⁵² And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” ⁵³ When Jesus had finished these parables, he left that place.^(R)

The Rejection of Jesus at Nazareth

⁵⁴ He came to his hometown and began to teach the people^[f] in their synagogue, so that they were astounded and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power?^{(S) 55} Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?^{(T) 56} And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?” ⁵⁷ And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor except in their own hometown and in their own house.”^{(U) 58} And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief.