GodsWord - Exodus - 1

1:1  These are the names of the sons of Israel (that is, Jacob) who came with him to Egypt with their families:

1:2  Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;

1:3  Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;

1:4  Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.

1:5  Joseph was already in Egypt. The total number of Jacob's descendants was 70.

1:6  Eventually, Joseph, all his brothers, and that entire generation died.

1:7  But the descendants of Israel had many children. They became so numerous and strong that the land was filled with them.

1:8  Then a new king, who knew nothing about Joseph, began to rule in Egypt.

1:9  He said to his people, "There are too many Israelites, and they are stronger than we are.

1:10  We have to outsmart them, or they'll increase in number. Then, if war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country."

1:11  So the Egyptians put slave drivers in charge of them in order to oppress them through forced labor. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh.

1:12  But the more the Israelites were oppressed, the more they increased in number and spread out. The Egyptians couldn't stand them any longer.

1:13  So they forced the Israelites to work hard as slaves.

1:14  They made their lives bitter with back-breaking work in mortar and bricks and every kind of work in the fields. All the jobs the Egyptians gave them were brutally hard.

1:15  Then the king of Egypt told the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah,

1:16  "When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth, look at the child when you deliver it. If it's a boy, kill it, but if it's a girl, let it live."

1:17  However, the midwives feared God and didn't obey the king of Egypt's orders. They let the boys live.

1:18  So the king of Egypt called for the midwives. He asked them, "Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?"

1:19  The midwives answered Pharaoh, "Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women. They are so healthy that they have their babies before a midwife arrives."

1:20  God was good to the midwives. So the people increased in number and became very strong.

1:21  Because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

1:22  Then Pharaoh commanded all his people to throw into the Nile every Hebrew boy that was born, but to let every girl live.