Exodus 1:13-17

13And the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with harshness;

14and they embittered their life with hard labour in clay and bricks, and in all manner of labour in the field: all their labour with which they made them serve was with harshness.

15And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives — of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other was Puah —

16and he said, When ye help the Hebrew women in bearing, and see [them] on the stool, if it be a son, then ye shall kill him, but if a daughter, then she shall live.

17But the midwives feared 1God, and did not as the king of Egypt had said to them, but saved the male children alive.