Exodus 1

1 ¹ These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: ² Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, ³ Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, ⁴ Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. ⁵ All who descended from Jacob were seventy people; Joseph was already in Egypt. ⁶ Then Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation. ⁷ But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.

⁸ Now a new king came to power in Egypt, who did not know Joseph. ⁹ And he said to his people, "Look, the people of Israel are more numerous and more powerful than we are." ¹⁰ Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will keep multiplying, and if war breaks out they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the land. ¹¹ So they set slave drivers over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built supply cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Rameses. ¹² But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread out, so that the Egyptians came to dread the people of Israel. ¹³ So the Egyptians ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves, ¹⁴ and made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and brick and with all kinds of work in the fields. In all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.

¹⁵ Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one named Shiphrah and the other Puah, ¹⁶ "When you help the Hebrew women give birth and see the child as it is born, if it is a son, kill him; but if it is a daughter, let her live." ¹⁷ But the midwives feared our Heavenly Father, and they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them; they let the boys live. ¹⁸ So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this and let the boys live?"

¹⁹ The midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife reaches them."

²⁰ So our Father was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very strong. ²¹ And because the midwives feared our Father, he gave them households of their own. ²² Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, "Throw every son born to the Hebrews into the Nile, but let every daughter live."