Chapter 1

¹These are the names of the children of Israel, that went into Egypt with Jacob: they went in, every man with his household: ²Ruben, Simeon, Levi, Juda, ³Issachar, Zabulon, and Benjamin, ⁴Dan, and Nephtali, Gad and Aser. ⁵And all the souls that came out of Jacob's thigh, were seventy: but Joseph was in Egypt. ⁶After he was dead, and all his brethren, and all that generation, ⁷The children of Israel increased, and sprung up into multitudes, and growing exceedingly strong they filled the land. ⁸In the mean time there arose a new king over Egypt, that knew not Joseph: ⁹And he said to his people: Behold the people of the children of Israel are numerous and stronger than we. ¹⁰Come, let us wisely oppress them, lest they multiply: and if any war shall rise against us, join with our enemies, and having overcome us, depart out of the land. ¹¹Therefore he set over them masters of the works, to afflict them with burdens, and they built for Pharao cities of tabernacles, Phithom and Ramesses. ¹²But the more they oppressed them, the more they were multiplied, and increased: ¹³And the Egyptians hated the children of Israel, and afflicted them and mocked them: ¹⁴And they made their life bitter with hard works in clay, and brick, and with all manner of service, wherewith they were overcharged in the works of the earth. ¹⁵And the king of Egypt spoke to the midwives of the Hebrews: of whom one was called Sephora, the other Phua, ¹⁶Commanding them: When you shall do the office of midwives to the Hebrew women, and the time of delivery is come: if it be a man child, kill it: if a woman, keep it alive. ¹⁷But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded, but saved the men children. ¹⁸And the king called for them and said: What is that you meant to do, that you would save the men children ? ¹⁹They answered: The Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women: for they themselves are skillful in the office of a midwife; and they are delivered before we come to them. ²⁰Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied and grew exceedingly strong. ²¹And because the midwives feared God, he built them houses. ²²Pharao therefore charged all his people, saying: Whatsoever shall be born of the male sex, ye shall cast into the river: whatsoever of the female, ye shall save alive.