﻿Exodus.
Chapter 1.
These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each man with his household: 
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; 
Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; 
Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 
All those who came from Jacob’s loins were seventy persons. Joseph was already in Egypt. 
Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. 
But the Israelites were fruitful and increased abundantly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, and the land was filled with them. 
A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. 
He said to his people, “Look, the people of Israel are more numerous and stronger than we are. 
Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply and, if war breaks out, join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the land.” 
They set taskmasters over them to oppress them with burdens. They built Pithom and Rameses as storage cities for Pharaoh. 
But the more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread abroad, and the Egyptians dreaded the Israelites. 
The Egyptians ruthlessly forced the Israelites to labor. 
They made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and brick and all kinds of work in the fields. In all this labor, the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly. 
The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one named Shiphrah and the other Puah. 
He said, “When you help the Hebrew women give birth and see them on the birthstool, if the child is a son, kill him; but if a daughter, let her live.” 
But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt told them; they let the boys live. 
The king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this and let the boys live?” 
The midwives said to Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. They are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” 
God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very strong. 
Because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son who is born you shall throw into the Nile, but every daughter you shall let live.” 
