ISRAEL OPPRESSED IN EGYPT

1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; each came with his family:a

2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;

3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;

4 Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.

5 The total number of Jacob’s descendantsA was seventy;* b Joseph was already in Egypt.

6 Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation eventually died.c 7 But the Israelites were fruitful, increased rapidly, multiplied, and became extremely numerousd so that the land was filled with them.

8 A new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. 9 He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and powerful than we are.e 10 Come, let’s deal shrewdly with them; otherwise they will multiply further, and when war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”f 11 So the Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor.g They built Pithom and Rameses as supply citiesh for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread so that the Egyptians came to dreadC the Israelites. 13 They worked the Israelites ruthlesslyi 14 and made their lives bitter with difficult labor in brick and mortar and in all kinds of fieldwork. They ruthlessly imposed all this work on them.j