Exodus 1 — Legacy Standard Bible

Israel Multiplies in Egypt

1Now these are the ^anames of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; they came each one ¹with his household: ²Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; ³Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; ⁴Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. ⁵And all the ¹persons who came from the loins of Jacob were ^aseventy ²in number, but Joseph was already in Egypt. ⁶^aThen Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. ⁷But the sons of Israel ^awere fruitful and ¹increased and multiplied and became exceedingly ²mighty, so that the land was filled with them.

⁸And a new ^aking arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. ⁹^aAnd he said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are ¹more and mightier than we. ¹⁰“Come, let us ^adeal wisely with them, lest they multiply and it be ¹in the event of war, that they also join themselves to those who hate us and fight against us and ^bgo up from the land.” ¹¹So they appointed ^ataskmasters over them to afflict them with ¹^,^bhard labors. And they built for Pharaoh ^cstorage cities, Pithom and ^dRaamses. ¹²But the more they afflicted them, ^athe more they multiplied and the more they ¹spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel. ¹³So the Egyptians brutally compelled the sons of Israel ^ato slave labor; ¹⁴and they made ^atheir lives bitter with ¹hard slave labor in mortar and bricks and in all kinds of slave labor in the field, all their slave labor which they brutally ²compelled them to do.

¹⁵Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom ¹was named Shiphrah and the other ²was named Puah; ¹⁶and he said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, ^aif it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” ¹⁷But the midwives ¹^,^afeared God and ^bdid not do as the king of Egypt had spoken to them, but let the boys live. ¹⁸So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and let the boys live?” ¹⁹Then the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can come to them.” ²⁰So ^aGod was good to the midwives, and ^bthe people multiplied and became very ¹mighty. ²¹Now it happened that because the midwives ¹^,^afeared God, He ^bmade ²households for them. ²²And Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “^aEvery son who is born ¹you are to cast into ^bthe Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive.”