Exodus 1 NIV 2011/WYC 1382

Published on 12 November 2024 at 17:55

NIV 2011

The Israelites Oppressed

1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: ²Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; ³Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; ⁴Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. ⁵The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.

⁶Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, ⁷but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them.

⁸Then 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. ¹⁰Come, 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.”

¹¹So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. ¹²But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites ¹³and worked them ruthlessly. ¹⁴They 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.

¹⁵The 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.” ¹⁷The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. ¹⁸Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”

¹⁹The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”

²⁰So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. ²¹And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

²²Then 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.”

WYC 1382

The Israelites Oppressed

1 These be the names of the sons of Israel, that entered into Egypt with Jacob; all entered with their house(hold)s; ²Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, ³Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, ⁴Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. ⁵Therefore all the souls of them that went out of the hip of Jacob were seventy and five. Forsooth Joseph was in Egypt;

⁶and when he was dead, and all his brethren, and all his kindred, ⁷the sons of Israel increased, and were multiplied as burgeoning, and they were made strong greatly, and filled the land.

⁸(But) A new king, that knew not Joseph, rose [up] in the meantime on Egypt, ⁹and said to his people, Lo! the people of the sons of Israel is much, and stronger than we; ¹⁰come ye, wisely oppress we it, lest peradventure it be multiplied; and lest, if battle riseth against us, it be added to our enemies, and go out of the land, when we be overcome.

¹¹And so he made (the) masters of (the) works (to be the) sovereigns to them, that they should torment them with charges. And they made [the] cities of tabernacles, either of treasures, as it is in Hebrew, to Pharaoh, Pithom, and Raamses. ¹²And by how much they oppressed them, by so much they were multiplied, and increased the more. ¹³And (so) the Egyptians hated the sons of Israel, and tormented, and scorned them; ¹⁴and they brought their life to bitterness, by hard works of clay and of tilestone, and by all servage, by which they were oppressed in the works of [the] earth.

¹⁵Forsooth the king of Egypt said to the midwives of (the) Hebrews, of which one was called Shiphrah, [and] the tother Puah; ¹⁶and he commanded to them, When ye shall do the office of midwives to [the] Hebrew women, and the time of child-bearing shall come, if it is a knave child, slay ye him; if it is a woman (child), keep ye it. ¹⁷But the midwives dreaded God, and did not by the commandment of the king of Egypt, but kept the knave children. ¹⁸To the which (when) called to him, the king said, What is this thing that ye would do, that ye would keep the knave children?

¹⁹The which answered, Hebrew women be not as the women of Egypt, for they have knowing of the craft of midwifing, and childed before that we come to them.

²⁰Therefore God did well to the midwives; and the people increased, and was comforted greatly. ²¹And for the midwives dreaded God, God builded them houses.

²²Therefore Pharaoh commanded (to) all his people, and said, Whatever thing of male kind is born to (the) Hebrews, cast ye into the flood; (but) whatever thing of women kind (is born), keep ye (them).