King James VersionExodus1

Exodus

1 Now these are the names of the chil­dren of Is­rael, which came into Egypt; ev­ery man and his house­hold came with Ja­cob. 2 Reuben, Sime­on, Levi, and Ju­dah, 3 Is­sachar, Ze­bu­lun, and Ben­jamin, 4 Dan, and Naph­tali, Gad, and Ash­er. 5 And all the souls that came out of the loins of Ja­cob were sev­en­ty souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already. 6 And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that gen­er­a­tion. 7 And the chil­dren of Is­rael were fruit­ful, and in­creased abun­dant­ly, and mul­ti­plied, and waxed ex­ceed­ing mighty; and the land was filled with them. 8 Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. 9 And he said unto his peo­ple, Be­hold, the peo­ple of the chil­dren of Is­rael are more and might­i­er than we: 10 Come on, let us deal wise­ly with them; lest they mul­ti­ply, and it come to pass, that, when there fal­l­eth out any war, they join also unto our en­e­mies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. 11 There­fore they did set over them taskmas­ters to af­flict them with their bur­dens. And they built for Pharaoh trea­sure cities, Pithom and Raam­ses. 12 But the more they af­flict­ed them, the more they mul­ti­plied and grew. And they were grieved be­cause of the chil­dren of Is­rael. 13 And the Egyp­tians made the chil­dren of Is­rael to serve with rigour: 14 And they made their lives bit­ter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all man­ner of ser­vice in the field: all their ser­vice, where­in they made them serve, was with rigour. 15 And the king of Egypt spake to the He­brew mid­wives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the oth­er Puah: 16 And he said, When ye do the of­fice of a mid­wife to the He­brew wom­en, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daugh­ter, then she shall live. 17 But the mid­wives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt com­mand­ed them, but saved the men chil­dren alive. 18 And the king of Egypt called for the mid­wives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men chil­dren alive? 19 And the mid­wives said unto Pharaoh, Be­cause the He­brew wom­en are not as the Egyp­tian wom­en; for they are live­ly, and are de­liv­ered ere the mid­wives come in unto them. 20 There­fore God dealt well with the mid­wives: and the peo­ple mul­ti­plied, and waxed very mighty. 21 And it came to pass, be­cause the mid­wives feared God, that he made them hous­es. 22 And Pharaoh charged all his peo­ple, say­ing, Ev­ery son that is born ye shall cast into the riv­er, and ev­ery daugh­ter ye shall save alive.