²Jacob’s sons were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, ³Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, ⁴Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher. ⁵The total number of Jacob’s children and grandchildren was 70. Joseph was already in Egypt.

⁶Joseph and all of his brothers died. So did all of their children.

⁷The people of Israel had many children. They greatly increased their numbers. There were so many of them that they filled the land.

⁸Then a new king came to power in Egypt. He didn’t know anything about Joseph.

⁹“Look,” he said to his people. “The Israelites are far too many for us. ¹⁰Come. We must deal with them carefully. If we don’t, they will increase their numbers even more. Then if war breaks out, they’ll join our enemies. They’ll fight against us and leave the country.”

¹¹So the Egyptians put slave drivers over the people of Israel. The slave drivers beat them down and made them work hard. The Israelites built the cities of Pithom and Rameses so Pharaoh could store things there.

¹²But the more the slave drivers beat them down, the more the Israelites increased their numbers and spread out. So the Egyptians became afraid of them. ¹³They made them work hard. They didn’t show them any pity. ¹⁴They made them suffer with hard labor. They forced them to work with bricks and mud. And they made them do all kinds of work in the fields. The Egyptians didn’t show them any pity at all. They made them work very hard.

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