Exodus 1:10-22

10Come, let us 1deal 2shrewdly with them, otherwise they will multiply, and 3in the event of war, they will also join those who hate us, and fight against us and 4depart from the land.” 11So they appointed 5taskmasters over them to oppress them with 67hard labor. And they built for Pharaoh 8storage cities, Pithom and 9Raamses. 12But the more they oppressed them, 10the more they multiplied and the more they 11spread out, so that they dreaded the sons of Israel. 13The Egyptians 12used violence to compel the sons of Israel 13to labor; 14and they made 14their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they violently had them perform as slaves.

15Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom 15was named Shiphrah, and the other 16was named Puah; 16and he said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, 17if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” 17But the midwives 1819feared God, and 20did not do as the king of Egypt had 21commanded them, but let the boys live. 18So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and let the boys live?” 19The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife 22can get to them.” 20So 23God was good to the midwives, and 24the people multiplied, and became very 25mighty. 21And because the midwives 2627feared God, He 2829established 30households for them. 22Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “31Every son who is born, 32you are to throw into 33the Nile, but every daughter, you are to keep alive.”