1. When Jacob (Israel) went to Egypt, his sons and their families went with him. Here are the names of those sons:
2. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah,
3. Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin,
4. Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
5. Another son, Joseph, was already in Egypt. So Jacob’s whole family was with him in Egypt—70 descendants in all.
6. Later, Joseph, his brothers, and all the people of that generation died.
7. But the Israelites had many children, and their number grew until the country of Egypt was filled with them.
8. Then a new king began to rule Egypt. He did not know Joseph.
9. This king said to his people, “Look at the Israelites. There are too many of them, and they are stronger than we are!
10. We must make plans to stop them from growing stronger. If there is a war, they might join our enemies, defeat us, and escape from the land!”
11. The Egyptians decided to make life hard for the Israelites, so they put slave masters over the people. These masters forced the Israelites to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses for the king. The king used these cities to store grain and other things.
12. The Egyptians forced the Israelites to work harder and harder. But the harder they worked, the more they grew and spread, and the more the Egyptians became afraid of them.
13. So the Egyptians made them work even harder.
14. They made life hard for the Israelites. They forced the Israelites to work hard at making bricks and mortar and to work hard in the fields. The Egyptians showed no mercy in all the hard work they made the Israelites do!