1 Now these are the names of the sons of Israel who came into Egypt (each man and his household came with Jacob): 2 Reuben, Shimon, Levi, and Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5 All the individuals who came out of Jacob’s body were seventy individuals, and Joseph was in Egypt already.
6 Now Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation. 7 And the children of Israel reproduced, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.
8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who didn’t know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. 10 Come, let’s deal wisely with them, so they won’t increase in number, and it happen that when any war breaks out, they also join themselves to our enemies, and fight against us, and go up out of the land.” 11 So they set slave drivers over them to oppress them with their burdens. And they built storage cities for Pharaoh: Pitom and Ra’amses. 12 But the more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out. And they were disgusted with the children of Israel. 13 So the Egyptians made the children of Israel work relentlessly, 14 and they made their lives bitter with hard work—in mortar and in brick, and in all kinds of work in the field, all their work, in which they made them work relentlessly.
15 And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah, 16 and he said, “When you perform the duty of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stool; if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” 17 But the midwives had awe for God, and didn’t do what the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the baby boys alive. 18 So the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and have saved the boys alive?”
19 And the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women aren’t like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous, and give birth before the midwife gets to them.”
20 So God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied, and grew very mighty. 21 And it was, because the midwives had awe for God, that He gave them families. 22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Throw every son who is born into the river, but keep every daughter alive.”