Exodus 1

Israel Oppressed in Egypt

1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; each came with his family:  * 1:1 Gn 46:8

2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;

3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;

4 Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.

5 The total number of Jacob’s descendants  * 1:5 Lit of people issuing from Jacob’s loins was seventy;  * 1:5 LXX, DSS read 75; Gn 46:27; Ac 7:14,* 1:5 Gn 46:26–27; Dt 10:22 Joseph was already in Egypt.

6 Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation eventually died.  * 1:6 Gn 50:267 But the Israelites were fruitful, increased rapidly, multiplied, and became extremely numerous  * 1:7 Gn 12:2; 46:3; Dt 26:5; Ac 7:17 so that the land was filled with them.

8 A new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. 9 He said to his people, "Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and powerful than we are.  * 1:9 Ps 105:2410 Come, let’s deal shrewdly with them; otherwise they will multiply further, and when war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country."  * 1:10 Ps 83:3–4; Ac 7:1911 So the Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor.  * 1:11 Gn 15:13; Ex 2:11; 3:7; 5:4–5; 6:6; Dt 26:6 They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities  * 1:11 Gn 47:11; 1Kg 9:19; 2Ch 8:4 for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread so that the Egyptians came to dread  * 1:12 Or Egyptians loathed the Israelites. 13 They worked the Israelites ruthlessly  * 1:13 Dt 4:2014 and made their lives bitter with difficult labor in brick and mortar and in all kinds of fieldwork. They ruthlessly imposed all this work on them.  * 1:14 Ex 2:23; Nm 20:15; Ac 7:19

15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives — the first, whose name was Shiphrah, and the second, whose name was Puah —  16 "When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them as they deliver. If the child is a son, kill him, but if it’s a daughter, she may live." 17 The midwives, however, feared God  * 1:17 Ex 1:21; Pr 16:6 and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them;  * 1:17 Dn 3:16–18; Ac 4:18–20; 5:29 they let the boys live. 18 So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, "Why have you done this and let the boys live? "

19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, "The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them."  * 1:19 Jos 2:4; 2Sm 17:20

20 So God was good to the midwives,  * 1:20 Pr 11:18; Is 3:10 and the people multiplied and became very numerous. 21 Since the midwives feared God, he gave them families.  * 1:21 1Sm 2:35; 2Sm 7:11,27; 1Kg 11:38; Ps 127:122 Pharaoh then commanded all his people, "You must throw every son born to the Hebrews into the Nile, but let every daughter live."  * 1:22 Gn 41:1; Ac 7:19