出埃及记 1

1These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each coming with his household:

2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;

3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;

4Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

5The total number of persons that were of Jacob’s issue came to seventy, Joseph being already in Egypt.

6Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation.

7But the Israelites were fertile and prolific; they multiplied and increased very greatly, so that the land was filled with them.

8A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.

9And he said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are much too numerous for us.

10Let us deal shrewdly with them, so that they may not increase; otherwise in the event of war they may join our enemies in fighting against us and rise from the ground.”

11So they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor; and they built garrison cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses.

12But the more they were oppressed, the more they increased and spread out, so that the [Egyptians] came to dread the Israelites.

13The Egyptians ruthlessly imposed upon the Israelites

14the various labors that they made them perform. Ruthlessly they made life bitter for them with harsh labor at mortar and bricks and with all sorts of tasks in the field.

15The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah,

16saying, “When you deliver the Hebrew women, look at the birthstool: if it is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.”

17The midwives, fearing God, did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.

18So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, letting the boys live?”

19The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women: they are vigorous. Before the midwife can come to them, they have given birth.”

20And God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and increased greatly.

21And [God] established households uncertain. for the midwives, because they feared God.

22Then Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, “Every boy that is born you shall throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”