1
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These are the names of the Israelites who went to Egypt with Jacob, each bringing his family members: |
2
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Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, |
3
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Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, |
4
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Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. |
5
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Seventy persons in all generated by Jacob's seed. Joseph was already in Egypt. |
6
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Then Joseph died, and all his brothers--that whole generation. |
7
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But the children of Israel kept on reproducing. They were very prolific--a population explosion in their own right--and the land was filled with them. |
8
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A new king came to power in Egypt who didn't know Joseph. |
9
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He spoke to his people in alarm, "There are way too many of these Israelites for us to handle. |
10
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We've got to do something: Let's devise a plan to contain them, lest if there's a war they should join our enemies, or just walk off and leave us." |
11
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So they organized them into work-gangs and put them to hard labor under gang-foremen. They built the storage cities Pithom and Rameses for Pharaoh. |
12
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But the harder the Egyptians worked them the more children the Israelites had--children everywhere! The Egyptians got so they couldn't stand the Israelites |
13
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and treated them worse than ever, crushing them with slave labor. |
14
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They made them miserable with hard labor--making bricks and mortar and back-breaking work in the fields. They piled on the work, crushing them under the cruel workload. |
15
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The king of Egypt had a talk with the two Hebrew midwives; one was named Shiphrah and the other Puah. |
16
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He said, "When you deliver the Hebrew women, look at the sex of the baby. If it's a boy, kill him; if it's a girl, let her live." |
17
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But the midwives had far too much respect for God and didn't do what the king of Egypt ordered; they let the boy babies live. |
18
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The king of Egypt called in the midwives. "Why didn't you obey my orders? You've let those babies live!" |
19
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The midwives answered Pharaoh, "The Hebrew women aren't like the Egyptian women; they're vigorous. Before the midwife can get there, they've already had the baby." |
20
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God was pleased with the midwives. The people continued to increase in number--a very strong people. |
21
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And because the midwives honored God, God gave them families of their own. |
22
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So Pharaoh issued a general order to all his people: "Every boy that is born, drown him in the Nile. But let the girls live." |
Exodus 1:7 English Language Bible Words basic statistical display
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