Jacob's Sons in Egypt
Israel’s long sojourn in Egypt hardens into slavery. Our Father raises up Moses, breaks Pharaoh with ten plagues, opens the sea, and leads the people to Mount Sinai—where He binds Himself to them in covenant and comes to dwell in their midst.
1 1These are the names of Israel's sons who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: 2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5All who descended from Jacob were seventy people; Joseph was already in Egypt. 6Then Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation. 7But Israel's people were fruitful, swarmed, multiplied, and grew immensely strong, till the land was filled with them.
8Now a new king came to power in Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9He said to his people, "Look, the Israelites are more numerous and powerful than we are. 10Come, let's deal shrewdly with them, or they'll multiply, and if war comes, they'll join our enemies, fight us, and leave the land. 11So they set taskmasters over them to crush them with forced labor, building Pharaoh's supply cities: Pithom and Rameses." 12But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread out, until the Egyptians dreaded Israel's people. 13So the Egyptians ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves. 14They made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and brick and all kinds of field work. In all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.
15Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16"When you assist the Hebrew women in childbirth, watch at the birthstool: if it's a son, kill him; but if a daughter, let her live." 17But the midwives feared our Heavenly Father and did not do as Egypt's king commanded them; they let the boys live. 18So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this, letting the boys live?"
19The midwives told Pharaoh, "Hebrew women aren't like Egyptian women — they're vigorous, giving birth before the midwife arrives."
20So our Father was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very strong. 21And because the midwives feared our Father, he gave them households of their own. 22Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, "Throw every son born to the Hebrews into the Nile, but let every daughter live."
