And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.
After a long time Joseph died, and all his brothers died, and all of that generation died, marking the end of the generation that had come into Egypt with Jacob and had been blessed by Joseph's work. With their death Israel's favored standing earned by Joseph's service to Egypt came to an end. The few small families that went down into Egypt grew during the years of servitude into a great multitude. They became fruitful and increased abundantly and multiplied and became exceedingly mighty until the land was filled with them.
After that generation passed away, a new king rose to rule over Egypt who did not know Joseph and refused to acknowledge Joseph's service. The new king told his people they must act wisely against Israel because Israel had become more numerous and mightier and might join enemies in war and leave the land. Learning that Israel were able and understanding workmen of great service, the king ranked them with the class of slaves who had sold their flocks, herds, lands and themselves. He set taskmasters over them to afflict them with burdens to build treasure cities Pithom and Raamses, made them serve with rigor and made their lives bitter with hard bondage in mortar and brick and field service, compelled their women to work in the fields as slaves, and imposed daily quotas of hard labor.
The more Israel were afflicted the more they multiplied and grew, which angered the king and rulers because they could not decrease their numbers or crush their independent spirit. Failing by hard labor, the king commanded that the male children be killed at birth, moved by Satan to defeat God's purpose to raise up a deliverer among the Hebrews to rescue them. But the women feared God and saved the male children alive and refused to murder them, so the Lord prospered them. Then the angry king charged all his people to cast every newborn son into the river and save every daughter alive.
While held for many years in servitude and surrounded by idolatry, many of the Hebrews lost the knowledge of the true God who made the heavens and the earth, forgot his law, and united with the Egyptians in worship of the sun, moon, and stars and of beasts and images of wood and stone made by human hands, with everything around them tending to make them forget the living God. Yet some among the Hebrews preserved the knowledge of the true God, and being grieved to see their children witnessing and engaging in abominations and bowing to senseless objects and sacrificing to them, they cried to the Lord for deliverance from the Egyptian yoke to be brought out where they might be rid of idolatry and its corrupting influences. Many of the Hebrews had become corrupted and were content to remain in bondage rather than face the difficulties of going to a new country, so the Lord did not deliver them by the first display of signs and wonders before Pharaoh but overruled events to more fully develop Pharaoh's tyrannical spirit and to manifest his great power to the Egyptians and before his own people to make them anxious to leave Egypt and choose the service of God, and this corruption and unwillingness to leave made the task of Moses much harder.
After a long time Joseph died, and all his brothers died, and all of that generation died, marking the end of the generation that had come into Egypt with Jacob and had been blessed by Joseph's work. With their death Israel's favored standing earned by Joseph's service to Egypt came to an end. The few small families that went down into Egypt grew during the years of servitude into a great multitude. They became fruitful and increased abundantly and multiplied and became exceedingly mighty until the land was filled with them.
After that generation passed away, a new king rose to rule over Egypt who did not know Joseph and refused to acknowledge Joseph's service. The new king told his people they must act wisely against Israel because Israel had become more numerous and mightier and might join enemies in war and leave the land. Learning that Israel were able and understanding workmen of great service, the king ranked them with the class of slaves who had sold their flocks, herds, lands and themselves. He set taskmasters over them to afflict them with burdens to build treasure cities Pithom and Raamses, made them serve with rigor and made their lives bitter with hard bondage in mortar and brick and field service, compelled their women to work in the fields as slaves, and imposed daily quotas of hard labor.
The more Israel were afflicted the more they multiplied and grew, which angered the king and rulers because they could not decrease their numbers or crush their independent spirit. Failing by hard labor, the king commanded that the male children be killed at birth, moved by Satan to defeat God's purpose to raise up a deliverer among the Hebrews to rescue them. But the women feared God and saved the male children alive and refused to murder them, so the Lord prospered them. Then the angry king charged all his people to cast every newborn son into the river and save every daughter alive.
While held for many years in servitude and surrounded by idolatry, many of the Hebrews lost the knowledge of the true God who made the heavens and the earth, forgot his law, and united with the Egyptians in worship of the sun, moon, and stars and of beasts and images of wood and stone made by human hands, with everything around them tending to make them forget the living God. Yet some among the Hebrews preserved the knowledge of the true God, and being grieved to see their children witnessing and engaging in abominations and bowing to senseless objects and sacrificing to them, they cried to the Lord for deliverance from the Egyptian yoke to be brought out where they might be rid of idolatry and its corrupting influences. Many of the Hebrews had become corrupted and were content to remain in bondage rather than face the difficulties of going to a new country, so the Lord did not deliver them by the first display of signs and wonders before Pharaoh but overruled events to more fully develop Pharaoh's tyrannical spirit and to manifest his great power to the Egyptians and before his own people to make them anxious to leave Egypt and choose the service of God, and this corruption and unwillingness to leave made the task of Moses much harder.