Exodus 1:10–22

¹⁰give help! let us act wisely concerning it, lest it multiply, and it hath come to pass, when war happeneth, that it hath been joined, even it, unto those hating us, and hath fought against us, and hath gone out up of the land.’ ¹¹And they set over it princes of tribute, so as to afflict it with their burdens, and it buildeth store-cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses; ¹²and as they afflict it, so it multiplieth, and so it breaketh forth, and they are vexed because of the sons of Israel; ¹³and the Egyptians cause the sons of Israel to serve with rigour, ¹⁴and make their lives bitter in hard service, in clay, and in brick, and in every kind of service in the field; all their service in which they have served is with rigour.

¹⁵And the king of Egypt speaketh to the midwives, the Hebrewesses, (of whom the name of the one is Shiphrah, and the name of the second Puah), ¹⁶and saith, ‘When ye cause the Hebrew women to bear, and have looked on the children; if it is a son—then ye have put him to death; and if it is a daughter—then she hath lived.’ ¹⁷And the midwives fear God, and have not done as the king of Egypt hath spoken unto them, and keep the lads alive; ¹⁸and the king of Egypt calleth for the midwives, and saith to them, ‘Wherefore have ye done this thing, and keep the lads alive?’ ¹⁹And the midwives say unto Pharaoh, ‘Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women, for they are lively; before the midwife cometh in unto them—they have borne!’ ²⁰And God doth good to the midwives, and the people multiply, and are very mighty; ²¹and it cometh to pass, because the midwives have feared God, that He maketh for them households; ²²and Pharaoh layeth a charge on all his people, saying, ‘Every son who is born—into the River ye do cast him, and every daughter ye do keep alive.’

Chapter 2