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)

Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;

Exodus 1:3 (show verse)

Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;

Exodus 1:4 (show verse)

Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.

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.”