Exodus 1:9-16

9And he said to his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more numerous and stronger than we.

10Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass that, if war occur, they take side with our enemies and fight against us, and go up out of the land.

11And they set over them service-masters to oppress them with their burdens. And they built store-cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Rameses.

12But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and spread; and they were distressed because of the children of Israel.

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.