The Israelites Are Treated Cruelly in Egypt

1 ^(A)The sons of Jacob who went to Egypt with him, each with his family, were ² Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, ³ Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, ⁴ Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. ⁵ The total number of these people directly descended from Jacob was seventy.^[a] His son Joseph was already in Egypt. ⁶ In the course of time Joseph, his brothers, and all the rest of that generation died, ^7 (B)but their descendants, the Israelites, had many children and became so numerous and strong that Egypt was filled with them.

^8 (C)Then, a new king, who knew nothing about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. ⁹ He said to his people, “These Israelites are so numerous and strong that they are a threat to us. ^10 (D)In case of war they might join our enemies in order to fight against us, and might escape from^[b] the country. We must find some way to keep them from becoming even more numerous.” ¹¹ So the Egyptians put slave drivers over them to crush their spirits with hard labor. The Israelites built the cities of Pithom and Rameses to serve as supply centers for the king. ¹² But the more the Egyptians oppressed the Israelites, the more they increased in number and the farther they spread through the land. The Egyptians came to fear the Israelites ^13-14 and made their lives miserable by forcing them into cruel slavery. They made them work on their building projects and in their fields, and they had no pity on them.

^6 (A)This is what God said to him: ‘Your descendants will live in a foreign country, where they will be slaves and will be badly treated for four hundred years.