The Israelites Oppressed
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These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob,
each with his family:
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Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah;
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Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin;
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Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.
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The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.
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Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died,
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but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became
exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.
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Then a new king, who did not knw about Joseph, came to power in Egypt.
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"Look," he said to his people, "the Israelites have become much too numerous for us.
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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."
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So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor,
and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.
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But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread;
so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites
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and worked them ruthlessly.
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They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds
of work in he fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.
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The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah
and Puah,
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"When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them
on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live."
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The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt
had told tem to do; they let the boys live.
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Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them,
"Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?"
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The midwives answered Pharaoh, "Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women;
they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive."
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So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased
and became even more numerous.
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And because the midwives feared GOD, he gave them families of their own.
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Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people:
"Every boiy that is born you must threw into the Nile, but let every girl live."