Exodus 1:10–22

¹⁰Come let us wisely oppress them, lest they multiply: and if any war shall rise against us, join with our enemies, and having overcome us, depart out of the land.

¹¹Therefore he set over them masters of the works, to afflict them with burdens: and they built for Pharoah cities of tabernacles, Phithom, and Ramesses.

¹²But the more they oppressed them, the more they were multiplied and increased.

¹³And the Egyptians hated the children of Israel, and afflicted them and mocked them:

¹⁴And they made their life bitter with hard works in clay and brick, and with all manner of service, wherewith they were overcharged in the works of the earth.

¹⁵And the king of Egypt spoke to the midwives of the Hebrews: of whom one was called Sephora, the other Phua,

¹⁶Commanding them: When you shall do the office of midwives to the Hebrew women, and the time of delivery is come: if it be a man child, kill it: if a woman, keep it alive.

¹⁷But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded, but saved the men children.

¹⁸And the king called for them and said: What is it that you meant to do, that you would save the men children?

¹⁹They answered: The Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women: for they themselves are skilful in the office of a midwife; and they are delivered before we come to them.

²⁰Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied and grew exceedingly strong.

²¹And because the midwives feared God, he built them houses.

²²Pharao therefore charged all his people, saying: Whatsoever shall be born of the male sex, ye shall cast into the river: whatsoever of the female, ye shall save alive.