Exodus 1:7–14

⁷And the Israelites^d were fruitful and multiplied and were many and were very, very numerous, and the land was filled with them.

⁸And a new king rose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. ⁹And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the Israelites^e are greater and more numerous than us. ¹⁰Come, we must deal shrewdly with them, lest they become many, and when war happens, they also will join our enemies and will fight against us and go up from the land.” ¹¹And they appointed commanders of forced labor over them in order to oppress them with their forced labor,^f and they built storage cities for Pharaoh—Pithom and Rameses. ¹²And as he oppressed them, so they became many, and so they spread out, and the Egyptians were afraid because of the presence of the Israelites.^{g 13}And the Egyptians ruthlessly compelled the Israelites^h to work. ¹⁴And they made their lives bitter with hard work with mortar and with bricks and with all sorts of work in the field—with all their work in which they ruthlessly enslaved them.