Thematic Bible
Exodus 1:1 (show verse)
These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; each came with his family:
Exodus 1:2 (show verse)
Exodus 1:3 (show verse)
Exodus 1:4 (show verse)
Exodus 1:5 (show verse)
The total number of Jacob’s descendants was 70; Joseph was already in Egypt.
Exodus 1:6 (show verse)
Then Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died.
Exodus 1:7 (show verse)
But the Israelites were fruitful, increased rapidly, multiplied, and became extremely numerous so that the land was filled with them.
Exodus 1:8 (show verse)
A new king, who had not known Joseph, came to power in Egypt.
Exodus 1:9 (show verse)
He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and powerful than we are.
Exodus 1:10 (show verse)
Let us deal shrewdly with them; otherwise they will multiply further, and if war breaks out, they may join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”
Exodus 1:11 (show verse)
So the Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh.
Exodus 1:12 (show verse)
But the more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.
Exodus 1:13 (show verse)
They worked the Israelites ruthlessly
Exodus 1:14 (show verse)
and made their lives bitter with difficult labor in brick and mortar and in all kinds of fieldwork. They ruthlessly imposed all this work on them.
Exodus 1:15 (show verse)
Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah,
Exodus 1:16 (show verse)
“When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them as they deliver. If the child is a son, kill him, but if it’s a daughter, she may live.”
Exodus 1:17 (show verse)
The Hebrew midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.
Exodus 1:18 (show verse)
So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this and let the boys live?”
Exodus 1:19 (show verse)
The midwives said to Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before a midwife can get to them.”
Exodus 1:20 (show verse)
So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very numerous.
Exodus 1:21 (show verse)
Since the midwives feared God, He gave them families.
Exodus 1:22 (show verse)
Pharaoh then commanded all his people: “You must throw every son born to the Hebrews into the Nile, but let every daughter live.”