Exodus

These are the names of the sons of Israel who came into Egypt. Each man came with Jacob, bringing his household with him.

1Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.

Note"Israel" is the second name given to Jacob (Genesis 32), so "the sons of Israel" here means Jacob's actual sons. From verse 7 onward the same Hebrew phrase means his descendants as a whole people, which is why translations switch to "the Israelites."

2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,

2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,

NoteThese are listed by mother: the six sons of Leah first, then Rachel's son Benjamin, then the sons of the two servant women, Bilhah and Zilpah. Joseph, Rachel's other son, is left out of the list because he is already in Egypt (verse 5).

3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,

3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,

4Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

4Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

5All the people who came from Jacob's own body numbered seventy. Joseph was already in Egypt.

5And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.

Note"Came from Jacob's own body" translates a Hebrew idiom, literally "came out of Jacob's loins": that is, his direct descendants. The number seventy is a round figure for a complete family group; the ancient Greek translation of Exodus gives seventy-five instead, counting additional descendants of Joseph, and that is the figure quoted in Acts 7:14.

6Then Joseph died, and all his brothers died, and everyone else of that generation.

6And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.

7But the Israelites had many children and increased quickly. They multiplied and became very strong, and the land was filled with them.

7And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.

NoteThe verse stacks up verbs of increase (fruitful, increased, multiplied, became strong, filled the land) deliberately reusing the wording of the blessing given at creation and repeated to Noah and to Abraham: "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth."

8Then a new king came to power over Egypt, one who did not know Joseph.

8Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.

Note"Did not know Joseph" does not mean he had never heard of him. In Hebrew, to "know" someone in this sense is to acknowledge a relationship and the obligations that come with it. The new king recognized no debt to Joseph or his family. "Arose" can also suggest a change of dynasty rather than an ordinary succession.

9He said to his people, "Look, the people of Israel are more numerous and stronger than we are.

9And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we:

NoteThe Hebrew is comparative and slightly odd, literally "more numerous and mightier than us", an obvious exaggeration in the mouth of a king who commands the whole of Egypt.

10Come, let us deal shrewdly with them. Otherwise they will keep multiplying, and if a war breaks out, they may join our enemies, fight against us, and go up out of the land."

10Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.

Note"Go up out of the land" is ambiguous, and translators divide over it. The king may fear losing his workforce (the Israelites leaving), or, on another reading of the same consonants, fear being driven out himself. "Go up" is the standard direction word for travel from Egypt toward Canaan, which lies to the northeast and higher.

11So the Egyptians put taskmasters over them to wear them down with heavy labor. And they built the storage cities of Pithom and Raamses for Pharaoh.

11Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.

Note"Pharaoh" is a title, not a personal name; it comes from the Egyptian for "great house," the palace, used for the king himself. Taskmasters were overseers of state forced-labor gangs, a normal Egyptian institution: subject populations owed the crown unpaid labor. "Storage cities" were fortified government depots for grain, equipment and supplies. Pithom and Raamses were in the eastern Nile delta; Raamses carries the name of the pharaohs called Ramesses.

12But the more the Egyptians wore them down, the more they multiplied and spread out. So the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.

12But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.

13The Egyptians made the Israelites work for them harshly,

13And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour:

14and made their lives bitter with hard labor: making mortar and bricks, and doing every kind of work in the fields. In all the work they forced on them, they were harsh.

14And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.

NoteEgyptian building bricks were made from Nile mud mixed with chopped straw and sand, shaped in wooden molds and dried in the sun. Work gangs were assigned daily quotas, a detail that becomes important in chapter 5. "Mortar" here is the wet clay used both for the bricks and to bond them.

15The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, women who helped at childbirth. One was named Shiphrah and the other Puah.

15And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah:

Note"Hebrew" is a term used mostly by outsiders about this people, or by the people themselves when speaking to outsiders; "Israelite" is the insider word. The Hebrew phrase translated "Hebrew midwives" can mean either midwives who were themselves Hebrew women or midwives (of any nationality) who attended Hebrew women, the grammar does not settle it. Shiphrah and Puah are Semitic names known from other ancient records.

16He said, "When you help the Hebrew women give birth, watch them on the birthstools. If the child is a son, kill him. But if it is a daughter, she may live."

16And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.

NoteThe Hebrew word is literally "the two stones": a pair of stones or bricks that a woman in labor squatted on to give birth, a practice pictured in Egyptian art. A minority of interpreters take the word instead to refer to the genitals, so that the midwives are being told to check the sex of the child as it is born.

17But the midwives feared God. They did not do what the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.

17But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.

Note"Feared God" in Hebrew means to hold God in awe and take his claims seriously, a settled reverence that governs behavior, not fright. It is regularly used of people who act morally when no human authority is watching.

18So the king of Egypt called the midwives in and said to them, "Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?"

18And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive?

19The midwives said to Pharaoh, "The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. They are strong and give birth before the midwife reaches them."

19And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "strong" or "lively" occurs only here and is uncertain; it suggests vigor or quickness, and some have heard in it a comparison to animals, which give birth without assistance. The midwives' answer plays on the very fertility the king is afraid of.

20So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very strong.

20Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty.

21And because the midwives feared God, he gave them households of their own.

21And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.

Note"He gave them households" translates the Hebrew idiom "he made them houses." A "house" here is a family line, children and descendants. The subject is God, though the Hebrew leaves it just possible to read Pharaoh, and the reward fits the crime: women who protected children are given children.

22Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: "Every son that is born you must throw into the river, but every daughter you may let live."

22And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.

Note"The river" always means the Nile, the single great river of Egypt; no name is needed. The Hebrew text says simply "every son that is born," without specifying whose, the context implies Hebrew boys, and the ancient Greek and Samaritan versions add "to the Hebrews" to make it explicit.