Exodus 1:10–22

¹⁰Come, we must deal shrewdlyⁱ with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”^j

¹¹So they put slave masters^k over them to oppress them with forced labor,^l and they built Pithom and Rameses^m as store citiesⁿ for Pharaoh. ¹²But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites ¹³and worked them ruthlessly.^{o 14}They made their lives bitter with harsh labor^p in brick^q and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.^r

¹⁵The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives,^s whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, ¹⁶“When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.”^{t 17}The midwives, however, feared^u God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do;^v they let the boys live. ¹⁸Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and 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 vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”^w

²⁰So God was kind to the midwives^x and the people increased and became even more numerous. ²¹And because the midwives feared^y God, he gave them families^z of their own.

²²Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile,^a but let every girl live.”^b