(GWT) Exodus 1 : 1 These are the names of the sons of Israel (that is, Jacob) who came with him to Egypt with their families:
(GWT) Exodus 1 : 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;
(GWT) Exodus 1 : 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;
(GWT) Exodus 1 : 4 Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.
(GWT) Exodus 1 : 5 Joseph was already in Egypt. The total number of Jacob's descendants was 70.
(GWT) Exodus 1 : 6 Eventually, Joseph, all his brothers, and that entire generation died.
(GWT) Exodus 1 : 7 But the descendants of Israel had many children. They became so numerous and strong that the land was filled with them.
(GWT) Exodus 1 : 8 Then a new king, who knew nothing about Joseph, began to rule in Egypt.
(GWT) Exodus 1 : 9 He said to his people, "There are too many Israelites, and they are stronger than we are.
(GWT) Exodus 1 : 10 We have to outsmart them, or they'll increase in number. Then, if war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country."
(GWT) Exodus 1 : 11 So the Egyptians put slave drivers in charge of them in order to oppress them through forced labor. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh.
(GWT) Exodus 1 : 12 But the more the Israelites were oppressed, the more they increased in number and spread out. The Egyptians couldn't stand them [any longer].
(GWT) Exodus 1 : 13 So they forced the Israelites to work hard as slaves.
(GWT) Exodus 1 : 14 They made their lives bitter with back-breaking work in mortar and bricks and every kind of work in the fields. All the jobs the Egyptians gave them were brutally hard.
(GWT) Exodus 1 : 15 Then the king of Egypt told the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah,
(GWT) Exodus 1 : 16 "When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth, look at the child when you deliver it. If it's a boy, kill it, but if it's a girl, let it live."
(GWT) Exodus 1 : 17 However, the midwives feared God and didn't obey the king of Egypt's orders. They let the boys live.
(GWT) Exodus 1 : 18 So the king of Egypt called for the midwives. He asked them, "Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?"
(GWT) Exodus 1 : 19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, "Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women. They are so healthy that they have their babies before a midwife arrives."
(GWT) Exodus 1 : 20 God was good to the midwives. So the people increased in number and became very strong.
(GWT) Exodus 1 : 21 Because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
(GWT) Exodus 1 : 22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people to throw into the Nile every [Hebrew] boy that was born, but to let every girl live.