| The Message (MSG) |
New International Version (NIV) |
|
7 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. "A New King . . . Who Didn't Know Joseph"
|
7 but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.
|
|
8 A new king came to power in Egypt who didn't know Joseph.
|
8 Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt.
|
|
9 He spoke to his people in alarm, "There are way too many of these Israelites for us to handle.
|
9 "Look," he said to his people, "the Israelites have become much too numerous for us.
|
|
10 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."
|
10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country."
|
|
11 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.
|
11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.
|
|
12 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
|
12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites
|
| Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved. (The Message Bible Online) |
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide. (New International Version Bible Online) |
