Exodus 1:15–2:8

15 The 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, fearedu God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do;v they let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”

19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”w

20 So God was kind to the midwivesx and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives fearedy God, he gave them familiesz of their own.

22 Then 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

The Birth of Moses

2 Now a man of the tribe of Levic married a Levite woman,d 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a finee child, she hid him for three months.f 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrusg basketa for him and coated it with tar and pitch.h Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reedsi along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sisterj stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank.k She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”

8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother.