These are the names of the sons of
Israel (that is, Jacob) who moved to Egypt with their father, each with his
family: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan,
Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. In all, Jacob had seventy descendants in
Egypt, including Joseph, who was already there.
In time, Joseph and all of his
brothers died, ending that entire generation. But their descendants, the
Israelites, had many children and grandchildren. In fact, they multiplied so
greatly that they became extremely powerful and filled the land.
Eventually, a new king came to power
in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done. He said to his
people, “Look, the people of Israel now outnumber us and are stronger than we
are. We 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.”
So 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. But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites
multiplied and spread, and the more alarmed the Egyptians became. So the Egyptians worked the people of Israel without
mercy. They 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.
Then Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, gave
this order to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah: “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.” But because the midwives feared God, they refused to obey the
king’s orders. They allowed the boys to live, too.
So the king of Egypt called for the
midwives. “Why have you done this?” he demanded. “Why have you allowed the boys
to live?”
“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.”
So God was good to the midwives, and
the Israelites continued to multiply, growing more and more powerful. And
because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
Then Pharaoh gave this order to all
his people: “Throw every newborn Hebrew boy into the Nile River. But you may
let the girls live.”
~ Source : Exodus 1:1-22 [Holy Bible -NLT]
taken from https://www.biblegateway.com
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