Exodus 1:9-16

9And he said to his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: 10Come, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it shall come to pass, that, when war happeneth, they will join with our enemies, and fight against us, and depart from the land. 11Therefore they set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.1 13And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: 14And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, in which they made them serve, was with rigour.

15And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah: 16And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it shall be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it shall be a daughter, then she shall live.