Xuất Ai Cập Ký 1

Israel grows in Egypt

¹These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each one bringing his household: ²Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, ³Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, ⁴Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. ⁵Seventy people in all were descended from Jacob. Joseph himself was already in Egypt.^{a 6}In time Joseph died, and so did all his brothers and everyone of that generation. ⁷But the Israelites were fruitful; they teemed and multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, until the land was full of them.

A new king oppresses Israel

⁸Then a new king came to the throne of Egypt, one who had never heard of Joseph. ⁹He said to his people, “See how the people of the Israelites have become too many and too strong for us. ¹⁰Come, we must outwit them, or they will grow even more numerous. Then, if there is a war, they could side with our enemies, fight us, and escape from the land.”^{b 11}So the Egyptians put taskmasters over them to crush them with heavy loads, and the Israelites built supply cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Rameses. ¹²Yet the harder they were oppressed, the more they increased and spread out, until the Egyptians came to loathe and fear the Israelites. ¹³The Egyptians forced the Israelites to work without mercy, ¹⁴and made their lives bitter with hard labor, mixing mortar, making bricks, and doing every kind of work in the fields. In all this labor they drove them without mercy. ¹⁵The king of Egypt also spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one named Shiphrah and the other Puah.^{c 16}He said, “When you attend the Hebrew women in childbirth, watch as they kneel on the birthstones. If it is a son, put him to death; if a daughter, she may live.”^{d 17}But the midwives feared God. They did not obey the king of Egypt’s order; they kept the boys alive. ¹⁸So the king of Egypt sent for the midwives and demanded, “Why have you acted like this, keeping the boys alive?” ¹⁹The midwives told Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are different from Egyptian women. They are strong and quick, and they have their babies before the midwife gets there.” ²⁰So God was good to the midwives, and the people kept growing in number and became very strong. ²¹And because the midwives feared God, he provided them with households of their own. ²²Then Pharaoh gave an order to all his people: “Every boy that is born must be thrown into the Nile, but every girl is to be spared.”^e