Exodus 1:13-20

13So they forced the Israelites to work hard as slaves.

14They made their lives bitter with back-breaking work in mortar and bricks and every kind of work in the fields. All the jobs the Egyptians gave them were brutally hard.

15Then the king of Egypt told the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah,

16“When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth, look at the child when you deliver it. If it’s a boy, kill it, but if it’s a girl, let it live.”

17However, the midwives feared God and didn’t obey the king of Egypt’s orders. They let the boys live.

18So the king of Egypt called for the midwives. He asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”

19The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women. They are so healthy that they have their babies before a midwife arrives.”

20God was good to the midwives. So the people increased in number and became very strong.