Exodus:1

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* These are the names of the sons of Israel who came with their families and with Jacob to Egypt : * Reuben , Simeon , Levi , and Judah ; * Issachar , Zebulun , and Benjamin ; * Dan and Naphtali and Gad and Asher . * Joseph was already in Egypt . The total number of Jacob ’s descendants was seventy . * Joseph , all his brothers , and that entire generation died . * The children of Israel had many children . They became so numerous and strong that the land was filled with them . * A new king , who knew nothing about Joseph , began to rule in Egypt . * He said to his people : »There are too many Israelites ! They are stronger than we are . * »We must outsmart them or they will increase in number . If war breaks out they will leave the country and join our enemies to fight against us .« * So the Egyptians put slave masters over them in order to oppress them through forced labor . They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh . * However the more the Israelites were oppressed , the more they increased in number and spread out . The Egyptians could not stand them any longer . * They forced the Israelites to work hard as slaves . * They made their lives bitter with backbreaking work in mortar and bricks and every kind of work in the fields . All the jobs the Egyptians gave them were brutally hard work . * The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives . Shiphrah and Puah were among them . * He said : »When you help the Hebrew women give birth on the birth stool , if it is a son you shall put him to death . If it is a daughter , then she shall live .« * The midwives respected God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them . They let the boys live . * So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said : »Why have you let the boys live ?« * The midwives replied to Pharaoh : »Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women . They are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them .« * God was good to the midwives , and the people multiplied , and became very mighty . * Because the midwives respected God , He established households for them . * Then Pharaoh commanded all his people : Every son who is born must be thrown into the Nile River . However , keep every daughter alive .

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