Exodus 1
Open in the reader1These are the names of the sons of Strives-with-God who went to Two-Straits with Heel-Grabber, each with his family:
2See-a-Son, Heard, Joined, and Praised;
3There-Is-Reward, Dwelling, and Son-of-the-Right-Hand;
4Judge and My-Wrestling; Fortune and Happy.
5The descendants of Heel-Grabber numbered seventy in all, including May-He-Add, who was already in Two-Straits.
6Now May-He-Add and all his brothers and all that generation died,
7but the children of Strives-with-God were fruitful and increased rapidly; they multiplied and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.
8Then a new king, who did not know May-He-Add, came to power in Two-Straits.
9“Look,” he said to his people, “the Strives-with-Godites have become too numerous and too powerful for us.
10Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase even more; and if a war breaks out, they may join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”
11So the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. As a result, they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.
12But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and flourished; so the Egyptians came to dread the children of Strives-with-God.
13They worked the children of Strives-with-God ruthlessly
14and made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar, and with all kinds of work in the fields. Every service they imposed was harsh.
15Then the king of Two-Straits said to the Crosser midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah,
16“When you help the Crosser women give birth, observe them on the birthstools. If the child is a son, kill him; but if it is a daughter, let her live.”
17The midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Two-Straits had instructed; they let the boys live.
18So the king of Two-Straits summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”
19The midwives answered Pharaoh, “The Crosser women are not like the Two-Straits-One women, for they are vigorous and give birth before a midwife arrives.”
20So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became even more numerous.
21And because the midwives feared God, He gave them families of their own.
22Then Pharaoh commanded all his people: “Every son born to the Hebrews you must throw into the Nile, but every daughter you may allow to live.”