---
title: "Exodus 1 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/exodus/1/
description: "The Israelites are multiplied in Egypt. They are oppressed by a new king, who… Exodus 1 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Exodus 1

Exodus 1 is chapter 1 of 40 in the Book of Exodus. Here are all 22 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> The Israelites are multiplied in Egypt. They are oppressed by a new king, who commandeth all their male children to be killed.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Exodus 1 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. These are the names of the sons of Israel, who went into Egypt with Jacob. They entered, each one with his house:
2. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah,
3. Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
4. Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
5. Therefore, all the souls of those who went forth from Jacob’s thigh were seventy. Now Joseph was in Egypt.
6. When he had died, along with all of his brothers and all of that generation,
7. the sons of Israel increased, and they multiplied like seedlings. And having been strengthened exceedingly, they filled the land.
8. Meanwhile, there arose a new king over Egypt, who was ignorant of Joseph.
9. And he said to his people: “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are many, and they are stronger than we are.
10. Come, let us wisely oppress them, lest they multiply; and if any war should advance against us, they may be added to our enemies, and having fought against us, they might depart from the land.”
11. And so he set over them masters of the works, in order to afflict them with burdens. And they built for Pharaoh the cities of the tabernacles: Pithom and Raamses.
12. And the more they oppressed them, so much more did they multiply and increase.
13. And the Egyptians hated the sons of Israel, and they afflicted them and mocked them.
14. And they led their life directly into bitterness, with hard work in clay and brick, and with all kinds of servitude, so that they were being overwhelmed with the works of the land.
15. Then the king of Egypt spoke to the midwives of the Hebrews, (one of whom one was called Shiphrah, another Puah)
16. instructing them: “When you will act as a midwife to the Hebrew women, and the time of delivery has arrived: if it is male, put it to death; if it is female, retain it.”
17. But the midwives feared God, and so they did not act according to the precept of the king of Egypt, but they kept the males safe.
18. And summoning them, the king said, “What did you intend to do, so that you would save the boys?”
19. They responded: “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. For they themselves have the wisdom of a midwife, and so they give birth before we can come to them.”
20. Therefore, God acted favorably toward the midwives. And the people increased, and they were strengthened exceedingly.
21. And because the midwives feared God, he built houses for them.
22. Therefore, Pharaoh instructed all his people, saying: “Whatever will be born of the male sex, cast it into the river; whatever will be born of the female sex, retain it.”

## Exodus 1 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Hæc sunt nomina filiorum Israël qui ingressi sunt in Ægyptum cum Jacob: singuli cum domibus suis introierunt:
2. Ruben, Simeon, Levi, Judas,
3. Issachar, Zabulon et Benjamin,
4. Dan et Nephthali, Gad et Aser.
5. Erant igitur omnes animæ eorum qui egressi sunt de femore Jacob, septuaginta: Joseph autem in Ægypto erat.
6. Quo mortuo, et universis fratribus ejus, omnique cognatione illa,
7. filii Israël creverunt, et quasi germinantes multiplicati sunt: ac roborati nimis, impleverunt terram.
8. Surrexit interea rex novus super Ægyptum, qui ignorabat Joseph.
9. Et ait ad populum suum: Ecce, populus filiorum Israël multus, et fortior nobis est.
10. Venite, sapienter opprimamus eum, ne forte multiplicetur: et si ingruerit contra nos bellum, addatur inimicis nostris, expugnatisque nobis egrediatur de terra.
11. Præposuit itaque eis magistros operum, ut affligerent eos oneribus: ædificaveruntque urbes tabernaculorum Pharaoni, Phithom et Ramesses.
12. Quantoque opprimebant eos, tanto magis multiplicabantur, et crescebant:
13. oderantque filios Israël Ægyptii, et affligebant illudentes eis,
14. atque ad amaritudinem perducebant vitam eorum operibus duris luti et lateris, omnique famulatu, quo in terræ operibus premebantur.
15. Dixit autem rex Ægypti obstetricibus Hebræorum, quarum una vocabatur Sephora, altera Phua,
16. præcipiens eis: Quando obstetricabitis Hebræas, et partus tempus advenerit: si masculus fuerit, interficite eum: si femina, reservate.
17. Timuerunt autem obstetrices Deum, et non fecerunt juxta præceptum regis Ægypti, sed conservabant mares.
18. Quibus ad se accersitis, rex ait: Quidnam est hoc quod facere voluistis, ut pueros servaretis?
19. Quæ responderunt: Non sunt Hebreæ sicut ægyptiæ mulieres: ipsæ enim obstetricandi habent scientiam, et priusquam veniamus ad eas, pariunt.
20. Bene ergo fecit Deus obstetricibus: et crevit populus, confortatusque est nimis.
21. Et quia timuerunt obstetrices Deum, ædificavit eis domos.
22. Præcepit ergo Pharao omni populo suo, dicens: Quidquid masculini sexus natum fuerit, in flumen projicite: quidquid feminini, reservate.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- CCC ¶ 708: God's Spirit and Word in the Time of the Promises ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 11: Or, of storehouses.
- Verse 21: “Because the midwives feared God” … 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.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Mon, Jul 12, 2027 (computed): Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Exodus 1:8-14, 22

Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).