The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 These are the names of the sons of Isra'el who came into Egypt with Ya'akov; each man came with his household:
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Now these are the names of the sons of Israel who came into Egypt; every man and his family came with Jacob.
2 Re'uven, Shim'on, Levi, Y'hudah,
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Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;
3 Yissakhar, Z'vulun, Binyamin,
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Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;
4 Dan, Naftali, Gad and Asher.
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Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
5 All told, there were seventy descendants of Ya'akov; Yosef was already in Egypt.
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All the offspring of Jacob were seventy persons: and Joseph had come to Egypt before them.
6 Yosef died, as did all his brothers and all that generation.
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Then Joseph came to his end, and all his brothers, and all that generation.
7 The descendants of Isra'el were fruitful, increased abundantly, multiplied and grew very powerful; the land became filled with them.
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And the children of Israel were fertile, increasing very greatly in numbers and in power; and the land was full of them.
8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt. He knew nothing about Yosef
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Now a new king came to power in Egypt, who had no knowledge of Joseph.
9 but said to his people, "Look, the descendants of Isra'el have become a people too numerous and powerful for us.
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And he said to his people, See, the people of Israel are greater in number and in power than we are:
10 Come, let's use wisdom in dealing with them. Otherwise, they'll continue to multiply; and in the event of war they might ally themselves with our enemies, fight against us and leave the land altogether."
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Let us take care for fear that their numbers may become even greater, and if there is a war, they may be joined with those who are against us, and make an attack on us, and go up out of the land.
11 So they put slavemasters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built for Pharaoh the storage cities of Pitom and Ra'amses.
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So they put overseers of forced work over them, in order to make their strength less by the weight of their work. And they made store-towns for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses.
12 But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more they multiplied and expanded, until the Egyptians came to dread the people of Isra'el
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But the more cruel they were to them, the more their number increased, till all the land was full of them. And the children of Israel were hated by the Egyptians.
13 and worked them relentlessly,
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And they gave the children of Israel even harder work to do:
14 making their lives bitter with hard labor -digging clay, making bricks, all kinds of field work; and in all this toil they were shown no mercy.
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And made their lives bitter with hard work, making building-material and bricks, and doing all sorts of work in the fields under the hardest conditions.
15 Moreover, the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was called Shifrah and the other Pu'ah.
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And the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew women who gave help at the time of childbirth (the name of the one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah),
16 "When you attend the Hebrew women and see them giving birth," he said, "if it's a boy, kill him; but if it's a girl, let her live."
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When you are looking after the Hebrew women in childbirth, if it is a son you are to put him to death; but if it is a daughter, she may go on living.
17 However, the midwives were God-fearing women, so they didn't do as the king of Egypt ordered but let the boys live.
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But the women had the fear of God, and did not do as the king of Egypt said, but let the male children go on living.
18 The king of Egypt summoned the midwives and demanded of them, "Why have you done this and let the boys live?"
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And the king of Egypt sent for the women, and said to them, Why have you done this, and let the male children go on living?
19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, "It's because the Hebrew women aren't like the Egyptian women -they go into labor and give birth before the midwife arrives."
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And they said to Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are strong, and the birth takes place before we come to them.
20 Therefore God prospered the midwives, and the people continued to multiply and grow very powerful.
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And the blessing of God was on these women: and the people were increased in number and became very strong.
21 Indeed, because the midwives feared God, he made them founders of families.
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And because the women who took care of the Hebrew mothers had the fear of God, he gave them families.
22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: "Every boy that is born, throw in the river; but let all the girls live."
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And Pharaoh gave orders to all his people, saying, Every son who comes to birth is to be put into the river, but every daughter may go on living.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.