| New King James Version | New Living Translation |
| 1Now these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt; each man and his household came with Jacob: | 1These are the names of the sons of Israel (that is, Jacob) who moved to Egypt with their father, each with his family: |
| 2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; | 2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, |
| 3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; | 3Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, |
| 4Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. | 4Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. |
| 5All those who were descendants of Jacob were seventy persons (for Joseph was in Egypt already). | 5In all, Jacob had seventy descendants in Egypt, including Joseph, who was already there. |
| 6And Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation. | 6In time, Joseph and all of his brothers died, ending that entire generation. |
| 7But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them. | 7But their descendants, the Israelites, had many children and grandchildren. In fact, they multiplied so greatly that they became extremely powerful and filled the land. |
| 8Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. | 8Eventually, a new king came to power in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done. |
| 9And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; | 9He said to his people, “Look, the people of Israel now outnumber us and are stronger than we are. |
| 10come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.” | 10We must make a plan to keep them from growing even more. If we don’t, and if war breaks out, they will join our enemies and fight against us. Then they will escape from the country. ” |
| 11Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses. | 11So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labor. They forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king. |
| 12But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel. | 12But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread, and the more alarmed the Egyptians became. |
| 13So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor. | 13So the Egyptians worked the people of Israel without mercy. |
| 14And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage—in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor. | 14They made their lives bitter, forcing them to mix mortar and make bricks and do all the work in the fields. They were ruthless in all their demands. |
| 15Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah; | 15Then Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, gave this order to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah: |
| 16and he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” | 16“When you help the Hebrew women as they give birth, watch as they deliver. If the baby is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.” |
| 17But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive. | 17But because the midwives feared God, they refused to obey the king’s orders. They allowed the boys to live, too. |
| 18So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and saved the male children alive?” | 18So the king of Egypt called for the midwives. “Why have you done this?” he demanded. “Why have you allowed the boys to live?” |
| 19And the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.” | 19“The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women,” the midwives replied. “They are more vigorous and have their babies so quickly that we cannot get there in time.” |
| 20Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. | 20So God was good to the midwives, and the Israelites continued to multiply, growing more and more powerful. |
| 21And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them. | 21And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. |
| 22So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.” | 22Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Throw every newborn Hebrew boy into the Nile River. But you may let the girls live.” |
| The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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