Exodus 1–2

The Israelites Oppressed

1These are the names of the sons of Israel^a who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: ²Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; ³Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; ⁴Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.^{b 5}The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy^a in all;^c Joseph was already in Egypt.

⁶Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died,^{d 7}but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers^e and became so numerous that the land was filled with them.

⁸Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.^{f 9}“Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous^g for us.^{h 10}Come, we must deal shrewdlyⁱ with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”^j

¹¹So they put slave masters^k over them to oppress them with forced labor,^l and they built Pithom and Rameses^m as store citiesⁿ for Pharaoh. ¹²But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites ¹³and worked them ruthlessly.^{o 14}They made their lives bitter with harsh labor^p in brick^q and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.^r

¹⁵The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives,^s whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, ¹⁶“When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.”^{t 17}The midwives, however, feared^u God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do;^v they let the boys live. ¹⁸Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and 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 vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”^w

²⁰So God was kind to the midwives^x and the people increased and became even more numerous. ²¹And because the midwives feared^y God, he gave them families^z of their own.

²²Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile,^a but let every girl live.”^b

The Birth of Moses

2Now a man of the tribe of Levi^c married a Levite woman,^{d 2}and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine^e child, she hid him for three months.^{f 3}But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus^g basket^a for him and coated it with tar and pitch.^h Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reedsⁱ along the bank of the Nile. ⁴His sister^j stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

⁵Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank.^k She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. ⁶She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

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

⁸“Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. ⁹Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. ¹⁰When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named^l him Moses,^b saying, “I drew^m him out of the water.”

Moses Flees to Midian

¹¹One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own peopleⁿ were and watched them at their hard labor.^o He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. ¹²Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. ¹³The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?”^p

¹⁴The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us?^q Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”

¹⁵When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill^r Moses, but Moses fled^s from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian,^t where he sat down by a well. ¹⁶Now a priest of Midian^u had seven daughters, and they came to draw water^v and fill the troughs^w to water their father’s flock. ¹⁷Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue^x and watered their flock.^y

¹⁸When the girls returned to Reuel^z their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”

¹⁹They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”

²⁰“And where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.”^a

²¹Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah^b to Moses in marriage. ²²Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom,^cc saying, “I have become a foreigner^d in a foreign land.”

²³During that long period,^e the king of Egypt died.^f The Israelites groaned in their slavery^g and cried out, and their cry^h for help because of their slavery went up to God. ²⁴God heard their groaning and he rememberedⁱ his covenant^j with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. ²⁵So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned^k about them.