Old Testament · Law

Exodus chapter 1

These are the names of ’s sons who came to with Jacob, each one arriving with his :Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.In all, Jacob’s numbered . Joseph was already in Egypt.Eventually Joseph died, and so did all his brothers and that entire generation.But the Israelites were incredibly — they and grew so numerous and that the whole land was full of them.Then a new came to power in Egypt — one who Joseph.He told his people, “Look — the Israelite people have become too many and too powerful for us.We need to them. Otherwise they’ll keep growing, and if war breaks out, they’ll join our enemies, fight against us, and .”So they put over the Israelites to with forced labor. They built the storage cities of and for Pharaoh.But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread. The Egyptians started to them.So the Egyptians worked the Israelites .They made their lives with — making mortar and bricks, and doing all kinds of hard work in the fields. Every task was .Then the king of Egypt spoke to the — one named and the other .He said, “When you help the Hebrew women give birth, check the : if it’s a boy, kill him. If it’s a girl, let her live.”But the midwives and refused to do what the king of Egypt told them. They let the boys live.So the king of Egypt called in the midwives. “Why are you doing this?” he demanded. “Why are you letting the boys live?”The midwives told Pharaoh, “Hebrew women aren’t like Egyptian women — they’re so that they give birth before the midwife even arrives!”God the midwives, and the people kept multiplying and growing even more powerful.And because the midwives respected God, he gave them .Then gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that’s born — throw him into . But let the girls live.”