The Word of the Lord

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Exodus 1

1 And these are the names of the sons of Israel that came into Egypt with Jacob; a man and his house they came:
2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;
3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;
4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
5 And it was, that all the souls that came·​·out of the thigh of Jacob were seventy souls; and Joseph was in Egypt.
6 And Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation.
7 And the sons of Israel were·​·fruitful, and were productive1, and multiplied, and became· very, very2 ·numerous; and the land was·​·filled with them.
8 And there arose a new king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph.
9 And he said to his people, Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are many and more numerous than we.
10 Come, let us act·​·wisely with them; lest they be·​·multiplied, and it will be that a war will befall us, and they will also add themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us, and go·​·up from the land.
11 And they set over them princes of tributes, in order to afflict them with burdens. And they built cities of storehouses3 for Pharaoh, Pithom and Rameses.
12 And as they afflicted them, so they multiplied, and so they broke·​·forth. And they were moved·​·with·​·loathing on·​·account·​·of the sons of Israel.
13 And the Egyptians made the sons of Israel to serve with severity;
14 and they made· their life ·bitter with hard service, in clay, and in bricks, and in all service in the field, with all their service in which they made them serve with severity.
15 And the king of Egypt said to the midwives of the Hebrew women, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the second Puah;
16 and he said, When you do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the stools4; if he be a son, then you shall·​·put· him ·to·​·death; and if she be a daughter, then she shall live.
17 And the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt had spoken to them, and they kept· the boys ·alive.
18 And the king of Egypt called the midwives, and said to them, Wherefore do you do this word5, and keep· the boys ·alive?
19 And the midwives said to Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and have given·​·birth before the midwife comes to them.
20 And God did·​·well to the midwives; and the people multiplied and became· very ·numerous.
21 And it was, because the midwives feared God, that He made for them houses.
22 And Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, Every son that is born, you shall cast him out into the river, and every daughter you shall let·​·live.

1literally, “were crawling

2“‘Very, very’ in the original language is the superlative” (AC 794).

3“The word by which in the original tongue ‘store-houses’ are expressed, signifies also ‘arsenals,’ and likewise ‘treasuries,’ which, in the internal sense, are of a nearly like signification” (AC 6661).

4The word in Hebrew means “two·​·stones.”

5i.e., this thing; see note at Genesis 41:28