Exodus 1

Now these are the names of the sons of Israel, who came into Egypt (every man and his household came with Yaqub): ²Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, ³Issachar, Zebulun, and Binyamin, ⁴Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. ⁵All the souls who came out of the Yaqub's body were seventy souls, and Yusuf was in Egypt already. ⁶Yusuf died, as did all his brothers, and all that generation. ⁷The children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and grew very mighty; and the land was filled with them.

⁸Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who didn't know Yusuf. ⁹He said to his people, "Behold, the people of Bani-Israel are more and mightier than we. ¹⁰Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it happen that when any war breaks out, they also join themselves to our enemies, and fight against us, and escape out of the land." ¹¹Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. They built storage cities for Firaun: Pithom and Raamses. ¹²But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out. They were grieved because of Bani-Israel. ¹³The Egyptians ruthlessly made Bani-Israel serve, ¹⁴and they made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field, all their service, in which they ruthlessly made them serve.

¹⁵The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah, ¹⁶and 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." ¹⁷But the midwives feared God, and didn't do what the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the baby boys alive. ¹⁸The king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said to them, "Why have you done this thing, and have saved the men-children alive?"

¹⁹The midwives said to Firaun, "Because the Hebrew women aren't like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous, and give birth before the midwife comes to them."

²⁰God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied, and grew very mighty. ²¹It happened, because the midwives feared God, that he gave them families. ²²Firaun charged all his people, saying, "You shall cast every son who is born into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive."