Exodus 1:8–2:10

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.”