Now these are the names of the sons of Israel who came into Egypt (every man and his household that came with Jacob):
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
All the souls who came out of Jacob’s thigh were 70 souls; and Joseph was in Egypt already.
Joseph died, as did all his brothers and all that generation.
The children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly; and multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, and the land was filled with them.
Pharaoh Oppresses Israel
Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph.
And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more numerous and stronger than we are.
Come, let’s deal wisely with them, lest they multiply and it happens that when any war breaks out that they join with our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.”
Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with forced labor. They built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses.
But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out. The Egyptians were grieved because of the children of Israel.
The Egyptians ruthlessly made the children of Israel serve,
and they made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and in brick and in all kinds of service in the field. In all of their service they ruthlessly made them serve as slaves.
The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah,
and he said, “When you perform the duty of a midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birth stool, if it is a son, then you must kill him, but if it is a daughter, then she may live.”
But the midwives feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the baby boys alive.
The king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?”
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.”
So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very mighty.
And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families.
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “You must cast every son who is born into the river, but you are to let every daughter live.”