| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | New Living Translation |
| 1[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 1These are the names of the sons of Israel (that is, Jacob) who moved to Egypt with their father, each with his family: |
| 2[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, |
| 3[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 3Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, |
| 4[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 4Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. |
| 5[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 5In all, Jacob had seventy descendants in Egypt, including Joseph, who was already there. |
| 6[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 6In time, Joseph and all of his brothers died, ending that entire generation. |
| 7[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 7But their descendants, the Israelites, had many children and grandchildren. In fact, they multiplied so greatly that they became extremely powerful and filled the land. |
| 8[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 8Eventually, a new king came to power in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done. |
| 9[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 9He said to his people, “Look, the people of Israel now outnumber us and are stronger than we are. |
| 10[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 10We must make a plan to keep them from growing even more. If we don’t, and if war breaks out, they will join our enemies and fight against us. Then they will escape from the country. ” |
| 11[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 11So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labor. They forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king. |
| 12[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 12But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread, and the more alarmed the Egyptians became. |
| 13[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 13So the Egyptians worked the people of Israel without mercy. |
| 14[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 14They made their lives bitter, forcing them to mix mortar and make bricks and do all the work in the fields. They were ruthless in all their demands. |
| 15[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 15Then Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, gave this order to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah: |
| 16[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 16“When you help the Hebrew women as they give birth, watch as they deliver. If the baby is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.” |
| 17[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 17But because the midwives feared God, they refused to obey the king’s orders. They allowed the boys to live, too. |
| 18[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 18So the king of Egypt called for the midwives. “Why have you done this?” he demanded. “Why have you allowed the boys to live?” |
| 19[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 19“The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women,” the midwives replied. “They are more vigorous and have their babies so quickly that we cannot get there in time.” |
| 20[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 20So God was good to the midwives, and the Israelites continued to multiply, growing more and more powerful. |
| 21[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 21And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. |
| 22[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 22Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Throw every newborn Hebrew boy into the Nile River. But you may let the girls live.” |
| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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