Exodus 1:8-22

8Now a new 1king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9And 2he said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are 3too many and too mighty for us. 10Come, let us 4deal 5shrewdly with them, otherwise they will multiply, and 6in the event of war, they will also join those who hate us, and fight against us and 7depart from the land.” 11So they appointed 8taskmasters over them to oppress them with 910hard labor. And they built for Pharaoh 11storage cities, Pithom and 12Raamses. 12But the more they oppressed them, 13the more they multiplied and the more they 14spread out, so that they dreaded the sons of Israel. 13The Egyptians 15used violence to compel the sons of Israel 16to labor; 14and they made 17their 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 18was named Shiphrah, and the other 19was named Puah; 16and he said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, 20if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” 17But the midwives 2122feared God, and 23did not do as the king of Egypt had 24commanded 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 25can get to them.” 20So 26God was good to the midwives, and 27the people multiplied, and became very 28mighty. 21And because the midwives 2930feared God, He 3132established 33households for them. 22Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “34Every son who is born, 35you are to throw into 36the Nile, but every daughter, you are to keep alive.”