8 Then a new king, who knew nothing of Joseph , came to power in Egypt.
9 He said to his subjects, “Look how numerous and powerful the Israelite people are growing, more so than we ourselves!
10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them to stop their increase; otherwise, in time of war they too may join our enemies to fight against us, and so leave our country.”
11 Accordingly, taskmasters were set over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. Thus they had to build for Pharaoh the supply cities of Pithom and Raamses.
12 Yet the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread. The Egyptians, then, dreaded the Israelites
13 and reduced them to cruel slavery,
14 making life bitter for them with hard work in mortar and brick and all kinds of field work–the whole cruel fate of slaves.
22 Pharaoh then commanded all his subjects, “Throw into the river every boy that is born to the Hebrews, but you may let all the girls live.”
1 A song of ascents. Of David. I Had not the LORD been with us, let Israel say,
2 Had not the LORD been with us, when people rose against us,
3 They would have swallowed us alive, for their fury blazed against us.
4 The waters would have engulfed us, the torrent overwhelmed us;
5 seething waters would have drowned us.
6 Blessed be the LORD, who did not leave us to be torn by their fangs.
7 We escaped with our lives like a bird from the fowler’s snare; the snare was broken and we escaped.
8 Our help is the name of the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth.
34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.
35 For I have come to set a man ‘against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
36 and one’s enemies will be those of his household.’
37 “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
38 and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.
39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
40 “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
41 Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous will receive a righteous man’s reward.
42 And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple–amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”
11:1 When Jesus finished giving these commands to his twelve disciples, he went away from that place to teach and to preach in their towns.
