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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"><title>Exodus 1 CEV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /></head> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-LR4HSKRP2H"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-LR4HSKRP2H'); </script><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/exodus/1.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/exodus/1-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">CEV</a> > Exodus 1</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../genesis/50.htm" title="Genesis 50">◄</a> Exodus 1 <a href="../exodus/2.htm" title="Exodus 2">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Contemporary English Version</div><div class="chap"><h3 class="s1">The People of Israel Suffer</h3><p class="par"><span class="v1_1_1"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.1.1-Exod.1.5" class="v1_1_1">1-5</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.1.1-Exod.1.5!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> When Jacob went to Egypt, his son Joseph was already there. So Jacob took his eleven other sons and their families. They were: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. Altogether, Jacob had 70 children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren<a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.1.1-Exod.1.5!f.2" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> who went with him.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_1_6"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.1.6" class="v1_1_6">6</span>After Joseph, his brothers, and everyone else in that generation had died, </span><span class="v1_1_7"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.1.7" class="v1_1_7">7</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.1.7!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> the people of Israel became so numerous that the whole region of Goshen was full of them.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_1_8"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.1.8" class="v1_1_8">8</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.1.8!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> Many years later a new king came to power. He did not know what Joseph had done for Egypt, </span><span class="v1_1_9"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.1.9" class="v1_1_9">9</span>and he told the Egyptians:</span></p><p class="pi"><span class="v1_1_9">There are too many of those Israelites in our country, and they are becoming more powerful than we are. </span><span class="v1_1_10"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.1.10" class="v1_1_10">10</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.1.10!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> If we don't outsmart them, their families will keep growing larger. And if our country goes to war, they could easily fight on the side of our enemies and escape from Egypt.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_1_11"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.1.11" class="v1_1_11">11</span>The Egyptians put slave bosses in charge of the people of Israel and tried to wear them down with hard work. Those bosses forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses,<a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.1.11!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> where the king<a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.1.11!f.2" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> could store his supplies. </span><span class="v1_1_12"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.1.12" class="v1_1_12">12</span>But even though the Israelites were mistreated, their families grew larger, and they took over more land. Because of this, the Egyptians feared them worse than before </span><span class="v1_1_13"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.1.13" class="v1_1_13">13</span>and made them work so hard </span><span class="v1_1_14"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.1.14" class="v1_1_14">14</span>that their lives were miserable. The Egyptians were cruel to the people of Israel and forced them to make bricks and to mix mortar and to work in the fields.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_1_15"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.1.15" class="v1_1_15">15</span>Finally, the king called in Shiphrah and Puah, the two women who helped the Hebrew<a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.1.15!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> mothers when they gave birth. </span><span class="v1_1_16"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.1.16" class="v1_1_16">16</span>He told them, “If a Hebrew woman gives birth to a girl, let the child live. If the baby is a boy, kill him!”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_1_17"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.1.17" class="v1_1_17">17</span>But the two women were faithful to God and did not kill the boys, even though the king had told them to. </span><span class="v1_1_18"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.1.18" class="v1_1_18">18</span>The king called them in again and asked, “Why are you letting those baby boys live?”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_1_19"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.1.19" class="v1_1_19">19</span>They answered, “Hebrew women have their babies much quicker than Egyptian women. By the time we arrive, their babies are already born.” </span><span class="v1_1_20"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.1.20-Exod.1.21" class="v1_1_20">20-21</span>God was good to the two women because they truly respected him, and he blessed them with children of their own.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v1_1_20">The Hebrews kept increasing </span><span class="v1_1_22"><span class="reftext" id="Exod.1.22" class="v1_1_22">22</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Exod.1.22!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> until finally, the king gave a command to everyone in the nation, “As soon as a Hebrew boy is born, throw him into the Nile River! But you can let the girls live.”</span></p> <a name="fn"></a><br /><br /><br /><b>Footnotes:<br /><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">1.1-5 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">70 children … great-grandchildren: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">See Genesis 46.8-27.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">1.11 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Pithom and Rameses: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">This is the only mention of Pithom in the Bible; its exact location is unknown, though it was probably in the northern Delta of Egypt. Rameses is the famous Delta city that was the home of Rameses II; its exact location is also unknown.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">1.11 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">the king: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">The Hebrew text has “Pharaoh,” a Hebrew word sometimes used for the title of the king of Egypt.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">1.15 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Hebrew: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">An earlier term for “Israelite.”</char></note></div></div><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div align="center"><p><span style="font-size:11pt;">Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt;">© 2006 American Bible Society. 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