Exodus 1 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Roughly 1900 to 1450 BC, covering the several centuries between Joseph's death and the birth of Moses
Location
Goshen, the fertile eastern edge of the Nile delta in northern Egypt, where the Israelite clans had settled as herding families
Audience
The Israelites who came out of Egypt and their children, hearing the story of how their nation began
Situation
The seventy family members who came to Egypt with Joseph grow into a large population, and a new king who has no memory of Joseph forces them into state labor. When hard work fails to slow their growth, he orders the Hebrew midwives to kill newborn boys, and they refuse.
Key Background
Egypt's kings ran huge building projects with conscripted labor, and the chapter names two supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, built from mud brick made with straw and Nile clay. Egyptians were long uneasy about Semitic populations in the delta, especially after a period when foreign rulers known as the Hyksos governed northern Egypt, so a growing foreign group near the country's vulnerable eastern border looked like a security problem. Midwifery was a recognized women's profession, which is why the king could give the order directly to two named women rather than to soldiers.
These are the names of Israel's sons who came to with Jacob, each one arriving with his
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;
Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;
Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.
In all, Jacob's numbered Joseph was already in Egypt.
Eventually Joseph died, and so did all his brothers and that entire generation.
But the Israelites were incredibly — they and grew so numerous and that the whole land was full of them.
Then a new came to power in Egypt — one who Joseph.
He told his people, "Look — the Israelite people have become too many and too powerful for us.
We need to them. Otherwise they'll keep growing, and if war breaks out, they'll join our enemies, fight against us, and the
So they put over the Israelites to them with forced labor. They built the storage cities of and for Pharaoh.
But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread. The Egyptians started to them.
So the Egyptians worked the Israelites
They made their lives with — making mortar and bricks, and doing all kinds of hard work in the fields. Every task was to them.
Then the king of Egypt spoke to the — one named and the other
He said, "When you help the Hebrew women give birth, check the if it's a boy, kill him. If it's a girl, let her live."
But the midwives and refused to do what the king of Egypt told them. They let the boys live.
So the king of Egypt called in the midwives. "Why are you doing this?" he demanded. "Why are you letting the boys live?"
The midwives told Pharaoh, "Hebrew women aren't like Egyptian women — they're so and that they give birth before the midwife even arrives!"
God was to the midwives, and the people kept multiplying and growing even more powerful.
And because the midwives respected God, he gave them of their own.
Then gave this order to all his people: "Every Hebrew boy that's born — throw him into the But let the girls live."