1:1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob,
each with his household:
1:2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
1:3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
1:4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
1:5 The total number of people born to Jacob was seventy. Joseph was already
in Egypt.
1:6 Then Joseph died, and all his brothers, and that whole generation.
1:7 But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific; they multiplied and grew
exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.
1:8 Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
1:9 He said to his people, "Look, the Israelite people are more numerous
and more powerful than we.
1:10 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."
1:11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced
labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh.
1:12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread,
so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.
1:13 The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites,
1:14 and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in
every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed
on them.
1:15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named
Shiphrah and the other Puah,
1:16 "When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the
birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live."
1:17 But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt
commanded them, but they let the boys live.
1:18 So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, "Why
have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?"
1:19 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."
1:20 So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and
became very strong.
1:21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.
1:22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, "Every boy that is born to
the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl
live."
2:1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman.
2:2 The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine
baby, she hid him three months.
2:3 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.
2:4 His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.
2:5 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.
2:6 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.
2:7 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?"
2:8 Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Yes." So the girl went and
called the child's mother.
2:9 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.
2:10 When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and she
took him as her son. She named him Moses, "because," she said, "I
drew him out of the water."
