Exodus 1:8–2:10

The Israelites Become Slaves

⁸Then a new king, who knew nothing about Joseph, began to rule in Egypt. ⁹He said to his people, “There are too many Israelites, and they are stronger than we are. ¹⁰We have to outsmart them, or they’ll increase in number. Then, if war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.” 

¹¹So the Egyptians put slave drivers in charge of them in order to oppress them through forced labor. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh. ¹²But the more the Israelites were oppressed, the more they increased in number and spread out. The Egyptians couldn’t stand them ⸤any longer⸥. ¹³So they forced the Israelites to work hard as slaves. ¹⁴They made their lives bitter with back-breaking work in mortar and bricks and every kind of work in the fields. All the jobs the Egyptians gave them were brutally hard. 

Pharaoh Tells the Midwives to Kill All Hebrew Baby Boys

¹⁵Then the king of Egypt told the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, ¹⁶“When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth, look at the child when you deliver it. If it’s a boy, kill it, but if it’s a girl, let it live.” 

¹⁷However, the midwives feared God and didn’t obey the king of Egypt’s orders. They let the boys live. ¹⁸So the king of Egypt called for the midwives. He asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?” 

¹⁹The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women. They are so healthy that they have their babies before a midwife arrives.” 

²⁰God was good to the midwives. So the people increased in number and became very strong. ²¹Because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. 

²²Then Pharaoh commanded all his people to throw into the Nile every ⸤Hebrew⸥ boy that was born, but to let every girl live. 

2ND CHAPTER

Pharaoh’s Daughter Adopts Moses

¹A man from Levi’s family married a Levite woman. ²The woman became pregnant and had a son. She saw how beautiful he was and hid him for three months. ³When she couldn’t hide him any longer, she took a basket made of papyrus plants and coated it with tar and pitch. She put the baby in it and set it among the papyrus plants near the bank of the Nile River. ⁴The baby’s sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. 

⁵While Pharaoh’s daughter came to the Nile to take a bath, her servants walked along the bank of the river. She saw the basket among the papyrus plants and sent her slave girl to get it. ⁶Pharaoh’s daughter opened the basket, looked at the baby, and saw it was a boy. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. She said, “This is one of the Hebrew children.” 

⁷Then the baby’s sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” 

⁸She answered, “Yes!” So the girl brought the baby’s mother. 

⁹Pharaoh’s daughter said to the woman, “Take this child, nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” 

She took the child and nursed him. ¹⁰When the child was old enough, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. Pharaoh’s daughter named him Moses ^[Pulled Out^[ and said, “I pulled him out of the water.”