Exodus 1 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

These are the names of Israel's sons who came to Egypt with Jacob, each one arriving with his family:

Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;

Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;

Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.

In all, Jacob's direct descendants numbered seventy. Joseph was already in Egypt.

Eventually Joseph died, and so did all his brothers and that entire generation.

But the Israelites were incredibly fertile — they multiplied and grew so numerous and powerful that the whole land was full of them.

Then a new king came to power in Egypt — one who knew nothing about Joseph.

He told his people, "Look — the Israelite people have become too many and too powerful for us.

We need to outsmart them. Otherwise they'll keep growing, and if war breaks out, they'll join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country."

So they put slave drivers over the Israelites to crush them with forced labor. They built the storage cities of Pithom and Rameses for Pharaoh.

But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread. The Egyptians started to dread them.

So the Egyptians worked the Israelites ruthlessly.

They made their lives unbearable with backbreaking labor — making mortar and bricks, and doing all kinds of hard work in the fields. Every task was designed to break them.

Then 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, check the delivery stool: if it's a boy, kill him. If it's a girl, let her live."

But the midwives respected God 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 strong and vigorous that they give birth before the midwife even arrives!"

God was good to the midwives, and the people kept multiplying and growing even more powerful.

And because the midwives respected God, he gave them families of their own.

Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: "Every Hebrew boy that's born — throw him into the Nile. But let the girls live."