The Bible
Exodus Chapter 1
1Now these are the names of the sons of Israel, who came into Egypt (every man and his household came with Jacob): 2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5All the souls that came from Jacob's body were seventy souls. Joseph was already in Egypt. 6Joseph died, and so did all his brothers, and all that generation. 7The children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.
8Now there rose up a new king over Egypt, who didn't know Joseph. 9He said to his people, "Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we are. 10Come, let's deal wisely with them, for fear they multiply and when a war breaks out, they join with our enemies, fight against us, and escape from the land." 11Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. They built storage cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses. 12But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out. They started to dread the children of Israel. 13The Egyptians ruthlessly made the children of Israel serve, 14and they made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and in brick, and in all kinds of service in the field, all their service, that they ruthlessly made them serve.
15The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah, 16and he said, "When you perform the duty of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stool, if it is a son, then kill him; but if it is a daughter, then let her live." 17But the midwives feared God, and didn't do what the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the baby boys live. 18The king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said to them, "Why have you done this thing and let the boys live?"
19The midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women aren't like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them."
20God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied, and grew very mighty. 21Because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 22Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, "Throw every son who is born into the river, and every daughter let live."
The Bible text is an adaptation of the WEB
to include nuanced meanings of particular ancient words for placenames, God and others of special interest.
In general square brackets:[] are used to indicate words not found in the original text.
They also indicate the 5 books of the Psalms, and the letters in Psalm 119;
and a few passages considered by some to be of questionable authenticity, marked with an asterisk(*).
