¹ Now these are the names of the sons of Israel, who came into Egypt (every man and his household came with Jacob):

² Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,

³ Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,

⁴ Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

⁵ And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: and Joseph was in Egypt already.

⁶ And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.

⁷ And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.

⁸ Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph.

⁹ And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we:

¹⁰ come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they also join themselves unto our enemies, and fight against us, and get them up out of the land.

¹¹ Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh store-cities, Pithom and Raamses.

¹² But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.

¹³ And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor:

¹⁴ and they made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field, all their service, wherein they made them serve with rigor.

¹⁵ And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah:

¹⁶ and he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the birth-stool; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him; but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.

¹⁷ But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men-children alive.

¹⁸ And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men-children alive?

¹⁹ And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwife come unto them.

²⁰ And God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty.

²¹ And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them households.

²² And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.

³ Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches, and with a forest-like shade, and of high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs.

⁴ The waters nourished it, the deep made it to grow: its rivers ran all around its plantation; and it sent out its channels to all the trees of the field.

⁵ Therefore its stature was exalted above all the trees of the field; and its boughs were multiplied, and its branches became long by reason of many waters, when it shot [them] forth.

⁶ All the birds of the sky made their nests in its boughs; and under its branches did all the animals of the field bring forth their young; and under its shadow lived all great nations.

⁷ Thus was it beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its root was by many waters.

⁸ The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it; the fir trees were not like its boughs, and the plane trees were not as its branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like it in its beauty.

⁹ I made it beautiful by the multitude of its branches, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied it.

¹⁰ Therefore thus said the Lord Yahweh: Because you are exalted in stature, and he has set his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height;

¹¹ I will even deliver him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with him; I have driven him out for his wickedness.

¹² Strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: on the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the watercourses of the land; and all the peoples of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him.

¹³ On his ruin all the birds of the sky shall dwell, and all the animals of the field shall be on his branches;

¹⁴ to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, neither set their top among the thick boughs, nor that their mighty ones stand up on their height, [even] all who drink water: for they are all delivered to death, to the lower parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with those who go down to the pit.

¹⁵ Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In the day when he went down to Sheol I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained its rivers; and the great waters were stayed; and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.

¹⁶ I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to Sheol with those who descend into the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the lower parts of the earth.

¹⁷ They also went down into Sheol with him to those who are slain by the sword; yes, those who were his arm, [that] lived under his shadow in the midst of the nations.

¹⁸ To whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth: you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord Yahweh.