Article January 1, 2003 Issue

Baby in the bulrushes

By Esmeralda Westlund,—Sweden

A long, long time ago, the people of Israel, who were called the Hebrews, lived in Egypt. They worked as slaves for Pharaoh, who was the king of Egypt. Both men and women had to serve him. Some of them worked in the fields. Others made bricks from mud and built cities for Pharaoh. Egyptian guards watched over the Hebrews and forced them to work hard, without rest, all day long.

There were many Hebrews. In fact, there were more of them than Egyptians. And Pharaoh was afraid that the Hebrews might rebel against him and not serve him anymore.

Also, Pharaoh did not want the Hebrews to become stronger than the Egyptians. So he ordered his soldiers to throw all newborn Hebrew boys into the Nile River.He didn't want them to live.

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