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are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; each with his family: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; 4 Dan and Naphtali; Gad, and Asher. 5 The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.
6 Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died. 7 But the Israelites were fruitful and increased greatly, and they became so exceedingly numerous that the land was filled with them.
8 Then a new king, who had not known Joseph, came to power in Egypt. 9 He said to his people, “Look, the Israelites are more numerous and powerful than we are. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous. Then if war breaks out they may join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”
11 So the Egyptians assigned slave drivers over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labour. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more the Israelites were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. 13 They worked them ruthlessly 14 and made their lives bitter with hard labour in brick and mortar and in all kinds of work in the fields. In all their hard labour the Egyptians ruthlessly exploited them.
15 Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “When you help the Hebrew women give birth and observe them on the birthstool, if the child is a boy, kill him, but if a girl, let her live.” 17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”
19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”
20 So God was kind to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became even more numerous. 21 And since the midwives feared God, He gave them families of their own.
22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people: “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”