1.
And these are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt; with Jacob, each man and his household came:
2.
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah.
3.
Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin.
4.
Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
5.
Now all those descended from Jacob were seventy souls, and Joseph, [who] was in Egypt.
6.
Now Joseph died, as well as all his brothers and all that generation.
7.
The children of Israel were fruitful and swarmed and increased and became very very strong, and the land became filled with them.
8.
A new king arose over Egypt, who did not know about Joseph.
9.
He said to his people, "Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more numerous and stronger than we are.
10.
Get ready, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they increase, and a war befall us, and they join our enemies and depart from the land."
11.
So they appointed over them tax collectors to afflict them with their burdens, and they built store cities for Pharaoh, namely Pithom and Raamses.
12.
But as much as they would afflict them, so did they multiply and so did they gain strength, and they were disgusted because of the children of Israel.
13.
So the Egyptians enslaved the children of Israel with back breaking labor.
14.
And they embittered their lives with hard labor, with clay and with bricks and with all kinds of labor in the fields, all their work that they worked with them with back breaking labor.
15.
Now the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one who was named Shifrah, and the second, who was named Puah.
16.
And he said, "When you deliver the Hebrew women, and you see on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall put him to death, but if it is a daughter, she may live."
17.
The midwives, however, feared God; so they did not do as the king of Egypt had spoken to them, but they enabled the boys to live.
18.
So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this thing, that you have enabled the boys to live?"
19.
And the midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are skilled as midwives; when the midwife has not yet come to them, they have [already] given birth."
20.
God benefited the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very strong.
21.
Now it took place when the midwives feared God, that He made houses for them.
22.
And Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, "Every son who is born you shall cast into the Nile, and every daughter you shall allow to live."
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