and increased.

1:13. And the Egyptians hated the children of Israel, and afflicted
them and mocked them:

1:14. And they made their life bitter with hard works in clay and
brick, and with all manner of service, wherewith they were overcharged
in the works of the earth.

1:15. And the king of Egypt spoke to the midwives of the Hebrews: of
whom one was called Sephora, the other Phua,

1:16. Commanding them: When you shall do the office of midwives to the
Hebrew women, and the time of delivery is come: if it be a man child,
kill it: if a woman, keep it alive.

1:17. But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt
had commanded, but saved the men children.

1:18: And the king called for them and said: What is it that you meant
to do, that you would save the men children?

1:19. They answered: The Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women:
for they themselves are skilful in the office of a midwife; and they
are delivered before we come to them.

1:20. Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people
multiplied and grew exceedingly strong.

1:21. And because the midwives feared God, he built them houses.

Because the midwives feared God, etc. . .The midwives were rewarded, not
for their lie, which was a venial sin; but for their fear of God, and
their humanity: but this reward was only temporal, in building them
houses, that is, in establishing and enriching their families.

1:22. Pharao therefore charged all his people, saying: Whatsoever shall
be born of the male sex, ye shall cast into the river: whatsoever of
the female, ye shall save alive.



Exodus Chapter 2


Moses is born and exposed on the bank of the river; where he is taken
up by the daughter of Pharao, and adopted for her son. He killeth an
Egyptian, and fleeth into Madian; where he marrieth a wife.

2:1. After this there went a man of the house of Levi; and took a wife
of his own kindred.

2:2. And she conceived, and bore a son: and seeing him a goodly child,
hid him three months.

2:3. And when she could hide him no longer, she took a basket made of
bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and pitch: and put the little babe
therein, and laid him in the sedges by the river's brink,

2:4. His sister standing afar off, and taking notice what would be
done.

2:5. And behold the daughter of Pharao came down to wash herself in the
river: and her maids walked by the river's brink. And when she saw the
basket in the sedges she sent one of her maids for it: and when it was
brought,

2:6. She opened it, and seeing within it an infant crying, having
compassion on it, she said: This is one of the babes of the Hebrews.

2:7. And the child's sister said to her: Shall I go, and call to thee a
Hebrew woman, to nurse the babe?

2:8. She answered: Go. The maid went and called her mother.

2:9. And Pharao's daughter said to her: Take this child, and nurse him
for me: I will give thee thy wages. The woman took and nursed the
child: and when he was grown up, she delivered him to Pharao's
daughter.

2:10. And she adopted him for a son, and called him Moses, saying:
Because I took him out of the water.

Moses. . .Or Moyses, in the Egyptian tongue, signifies one taken or
saved out of the water.

2:11. In those days, after Moses was grown up, he went out to his
brethren: and saw their affliction, and an Egyptian striking one of the
Hebrews, his brethren.

2:12. And when he had looked about this way and that way, and saw no
one there, he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

He slew the Egyptian. . .This he did by a particular inspiration of God;
as a prelude to his delivering the people from their oppression and
bondage. He thought, says St. Stephen, Acts 7.25, that his brethren
understood that God by his hand would save them. But such particular
and extraordinary examples are not to be imitated.

2:13. And going out the next day, he saw two Hebrews quarrelling: and


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