Chapter 1
1
These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob. Each man came with his house.
2
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah.
3
Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin.
4
Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
5
All the souls who came out of the thigh of Jacob were seventy souls, and Joseph was in Egypt.
6
Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation.
7
The sons of Israel bore fruit and swarmed and multiplied and became very very strong, and the land was filled with them.
8
A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.
9
He said to his people, "Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are many and mighty more than us."
10
Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happens that war is called, and they are joined also to our enemies and fight against us and go up from the land.
11
They set rulers of forced labor over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built store cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses.
12
But the more they afflicted him, the more he multiplied and broke out, and they dreaded the sons of Israel.
13
Egypt made the sons of Israel serve with harshness.
14
They embittered their lives with hard service in mortar and bricks and all service in the field, all their service which they served in them with ruthless oppression.
15
The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives—one named Shiphrah and the other named Puah.
16
And he said, "When you deliver the Hebrew women and you see them on the stones, if it is a son, then kill him; if it is a daughter, then let her live."
17
The midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them. So they let the children live.
18
The king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this thing and let the boys live?"
19
The midwives said to Pharaoh, "The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are life-givers. Behold, before the midwife comes to them, they have given birth."
20
God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very strong.
21
It was that when the midwives feared God, he made houses for them.
22
Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, "Every son who is born you shall cast into the Nile, and every daughter shall live."