Exodus 1:1–14

ISRAEL OPPRESSED IN EGYPT

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

²Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;

³Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;

⁴Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.

⁵The total number of Jacob’s descendants^A was seventy;^b Joseph was already in Egypt.

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

⁸A new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. ⁹He 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 cities^h for Pharaoh. ¹²But the more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread so that the Egyptians came to dread^C the Israelites. ¹³They worked the Israelites ruthlessly^{i 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