Exodus 1

The Israelites Oppressed

1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family:
2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah;
3 Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin;
4 Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.
5 The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy[a] in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.
6 Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died,
7 but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them.
8 Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.
9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for 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 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 more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites
13 and worked them ruthlessly.
14 They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.
15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah,
16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.”
17 The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.
18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”
19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”
20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous.
21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

Cross References 28

  • 1. S Genesis 46:8
  • 2. Genesis 35:22-26; Numbers 1:20-43
  • 3. S Genesis 46:26
  • 4. Genesis 50:26; Acts 7:15
  • 5. ver 9; S Genesis 12:2; Deuteronomy 7:13; Ezekiel 16:7; Genesis 46:3; Deuteronomy 26:5; Acts 7:17
  • 6. Jeremiah 43:11; Jeremiah 46:2
  • 7. S ver 7; Psalms 105:24-25
  • 8. S Genesis 26:16
  • 9. Genesis 15:13; Exodus 3:7; Exodus 18:11; Psalms 64:2; Psalms 71:10; Psalms 83:3; Isaiah 53:3
  • 10. Psalms 105:24-25; Acts 7:17-19
  • 11. Exodus 3:7; Exodus 5:10,13,14
  • 12. S Genesis 15:13; Exodus 2:11; Exodus 5:4; Exodus 6:6-7; Joshua 9:27; 1 Kings 9:21; 1 Chronicles 22:2; Isaiah 60:10
  • 13. S Genesis 47:11
  • 14. 1 Kings 9:19; 2 Chronicles 8:4
  • 15. ver 14; Genesis 15:13-14; Exodus 5:21; Exodus 16:3; Lev 25:43,46,53; Deuteronomy 4:20; Deuteronomy 26:6; 1 Kings 8:51; Psalms 129:1; Isaiah 30:6; Isaiah 48:10; Jeremiah 11:4
  • 16. Deuteronomy 26:6; Ezra 9:9; Isaiah 14:3
  • 17. S Genesis 11:3
  • 18. Exodus 2:23; Exodus 3:9; Exodus 6:9; Numbers 20:15; 1 Samuel 10:18; 2 Kings 13:4; Psalms 66:11; Psalms 81:6; Acts 7:19
  • 19. S Genesis 35:17
  • 20. ver 22
  • 21. ver 21; Proverbs 16:6
  • 22. 1 Samuel 22:17; Daniel 3:16-18; Acts 4:18-20; Acts 5:29
  • 23. Leviticus 19:11; Joshua 2:4-6; 1 Samuel 19:14; 2 Samuel 17:20
  • 24. ver 12; Proverbs 11:18; Proverbs 22:8; Ecclesiastes 8:12; Isaiah 3:10; Hebrews 6:10
  • 25. S ver 17
  • 26. 1 Samuel 2:35; 2Sa 7:11,27-29; 1 Kings 11:38; 1 Kings 14:10
  • 27. S Genesis 41:1
  • 28. ver 16; Acts 7:19

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Masoretic Text (see also Gen. 46:27); Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint (see also Acts 7:14 and note at Gen. 46:27) "seventy-five"

Exodus 1 Commentaries

Scripture quoted by permission.  Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.  NIV®.  Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica.  All rights reserved worldwide.