One Year Bible.

The Israelites Multiply in Egypt

¹These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family:

²Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;

³Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;

⁴Dan and Naphtali;

Gad and Asher.

⁵The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all, including Joseph, who was already in Egypt.

⁶Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, ⁷but the Israelites were fruitful and increased rapidly; they multiplied and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.

Oppression by a New King

⁸Then a new king, who did not know Joseph, came to power in Egypt. ⁹“Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become too numerous and too powerful for us. ¹⁰Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase even more; and if a war breaks out, they may join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”

¹¹So the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. As a result, they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. ¹²But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and flourished; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.

¹³They worked the Israelites ruthlessly ¹⁴and made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar, and with all kinds of work in the fields. Every service they imposed was harsh.

¹⁵Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, ¹⁶“When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them on the birthstools. If the child is a son, kill him; but if it is a daughter, let her live.”

¹⁷The midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had instructed; they let the boys live. ¹⁸So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”

¹⁹The midwives answered Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before a midwife arrives.”

²⁰So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became even more numerous. ²¹And because the midwives feared God, He gave them families of their own.

²²Then Pharaoh commanded all his people: “Every son born to the Hebrews you must throw into the Nile, but every daughter you may allow to live.”

The Birth and Adoption of Moses

¹Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, ²and she conceived and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him for three months.

³But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in the basket and set it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. ⁴And his sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

⁵Soon the daughter of Pharaoh went down to bathe in the Nile, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. And when she saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maidservant to retrieve it. ⁶When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the little boy was crying. So she had compassion on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew children.”

⁷Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call one of the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?”

⁸“Go ahead,” Pharaoh’s daughter told her. And the girl went and called the boy’s mother.

⁹Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the boy and nursed him.

¹⁰When the child had grown older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses and explained, “I drew him out of the water.”

The Rejection and Flight of Moses

¹¹One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. ¹²After looking this way and that and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand.

¹³The next day Moses went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your companion?”

¹⁴But the man replied, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”

Then Moses was afraid and thought, “This thing I have done has surely become known.”

¹⁵When Pharaoh heard about this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, where he sat down beside a well.

¹⁶Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. ¹⁷And when some shepherds came along and drove them away, Moses rose up to help them and watered their flock.

¹⁸When the daughters returned to their father Reuel, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”

¹⁹“An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds,” they replied. “He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”

²⁰“So where is he?” their father asked. “Why did you leave the man behind? Invite him to have something to eat.”

²¹Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. ²²And she gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”

God Hears the Cry of the Israelites

²³After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned and cried out under their burden of slavery, and their cry for deliverance from bondage ascended to God.

²⁴So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ²⁵God saw the Israelites and took notice.

Here Is My Servant

¹“Here is My Servant, whom I uphold,

My Chosen One, in whom My soul delights.

I will put My Spirit on Him,

and He will bring justice to the nations.

²He will not cry out or raise His voice,

nor make His voice heard in the streets.

³A bruised reed He will not break

and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish;

He will faithfully bring forth justice.

⁴He will not grow weak or discouraged

before He has established justice on the earth.

In His law the islands will put their hope.”

⁵This is what God the LORD says—

He who created the heavens

and stretched them out,

who spread out the earth and its offspring,

who gives breath to the people on it

and life to those who walk in it:

⁶“I, the LORD, have called you

for a righteous purpose,

and I will take hold of your hand.

I will keep you and appoint you

to be a covenant for the people

and a light to the nations,

⁷to open the eyes of the blind,

to bring prisoners out of the dungeon

and those sitting in darkness

out from the prison house.

⁸I am the LORD;

that is My name!

I will not yield My glory to another

or My praise to idols.

⁹Behold, the former things have happened,

and now I declare new things.

Before they spring forth

I proclaim them to you.”

A New Song of Praise

¹⁰Sing to the LORD a new song—

His praise from the ends of the earth—

you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,

you islands, and all who dwell in them.

¹¹Let the desert and its cities raise their voices;

let the villages of Kedar cry aloud.

Let the people of Sela sing for joy;

let them cry out from the mountaintops.

¹²Let them give glory to the LORD

and declare His praise in the islands.

¹³The LORD goes forth like a mighty one;

He stirs up His zeal like a warrior.

He shouts; yes, He roars

in triumph over His enemies:

¹⁴“I have kept silent from ages past;

I have remained quiet and restrained.

But now I will groan like a woman in labor;

I will at once gasp and pant.

¹⁵I will lay waste the mountains and hills

and dry up all their vegetation.

I will turn the rivers into dry land

and drain the marshes.

¹⁶I will lead the blind by a way they did not know;

I will guide them on unfamiliar paths.

I will turn darkness into light before them

and rough places into level ground.

These things I will do for them,

and I will not forsake them.

¹⁷But those who trust in idols

and say to molten images, ‘You are our gods!’

will be turned back in utter shame.

Israel Is Deaf and Blind

¹⁸Listen, you deaf ones;

look, you blind ones, that you may see!

¹⁹Who is blind but My servant,

or deaf like the messenger I am sending?

Who is blind like My covenant partner,

or blind like the servant of the LORD?

²⁰Though seeing many things, you do not keep watch.

Though your ears are open, you do not hear.”

²¹The LORD was pleased, for the sake of His righteousness,

to magnify His law and make it glorious.

²²But this is a people plundered and looted,

all trapped in caves or imprisoned in dungeons.

They have become plunder with no one to rescue them,

and loot with no one to say, “Send them back!”

²³Who among you will pay attention to this?

Who will listen and obey hereafter?

²⁴Who gave Jacob up for spoil,

and Israel to the plunderers?

Was it not the LORD,

against whom we have sinned?

They were unwilling to walk in His ways,

and they would not obey His law.

²⁵So He poured out on them His furious anger

and the fierceness of battle.

It enveloped them in flames,

but they did not understand;

it consumed them,

but they did not take it to heart.

Wives and Husbands

¹Wives, in the same way, submit yourselves to your husbands, so that even if they refuse to believe the word, they will be won over without words by the behavior of their wives ²when they see your pure and reverent demeanor.

³Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair or gold jewelry or fine clothes, ⁴but from the inner disposition of your heart, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in God’s sight. ⁵For this is how the holy women of the past adorned themselves. They put their hope in God and were submissive to their husbands, ⁶just as Sarah obeyed Abraham and called him lord. And you are her children if you do what is right and refuse to give way to fear.

⁷Husbands, in the same way, treat your wives with consideration as a delicate vessel, and with honor as fellow heirs of the gracious gift of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.

Turning from Evil

⁸Finally, all of you, be like-minded and sympathetic, love as brothers, be tenderhearted and humble. ⁹Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. ¹⁰For,

“Whoever would love life

and see good days

must keep his tongue from evil

and his lips from deceitful speech.

¹¹He must turn from evil and do good;

he must seek peace and pursue it.

¹²For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,

and His ears are inclined to their prayer.

But the face of the Lord is against

those who do evil.”

¹³Who can harm you if you are zealous for what is good?

Suffering for Righteousness

¹⁴But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear; do not be shaken.” ¹⁵But in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you. But respond with gentleness and respect, ¹⁶keeping a clear conscience, so that those who slander you may be put to shame by your good behavior in Christ. ¹⁷For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

¹⁸For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit, ¹⁹in whom He also went and preached to the spirits in prison ²⁰who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.

In the ark a few people, only eight souls, were saved through water. ²¹And this water symbolizes the baptism that now saves you also — not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God — through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²²who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to Him.