Exodus 1

1Now these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt; each man and his household came with Jacob:

2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;

3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;

4Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

5All those who were the seed of Jacob were seventy-five persons (for Joseph was in Egypt already).

6Now Joseph died, as well as all his brothers and all that generation.

7Then the children of Israel increased and multiplied, became numerous, and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.

8But there arose a new king over Egypt who knew not Joseph.

9Then he said to his nation, 'Look, the race of the children of Israel is a great multitude and is stronger than we;

10come, let us outwit them, lest they multiply, and it happen in the event of war that they also join our enemies and fight against us and so escape out of the land.'

11Therefore he set taskmasters over them to afflict them in their works; and they built for Pharaoh strong cities—Pithom and Raamses and On, which is Heliopolis.

12But the more they humbled them, the more they multiplied and grew; and the Egyptians greatly abhorred the children of Israel.

13So the Egyptians tyrannized the children of Israel by force.

14They made their lives bitter with hard labor—in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their labor in which they made them serve was by violence.

15Then the king of the Egyptians spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah;

16and he said, 'When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women and see they are about to give birth, if it is a male, then you shall kill him; but if a female, let her live.'

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

18So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, 'Why have you done this thing and saved the male children alive?'

19Thus the midwives said to Pharaoh, 'Because the Hebrew women are not like the women of Egypt; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.'

20Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty.

21So it was, because the midwives feared God, He provided households for them.

22So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, 'Every male born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the river, but every female you shall save alive.'