Exodus 1

1These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each one bringing his household: 2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5Seventy people in all were descended from Jacob. Joseph himself was already in Egypt. 6In time Joseph died, and so did all his brothers and everyone of that generation. 7But the Israelites were fruitful; they teemed and multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, until the land was full of them.

8Then a new king came to the throne of Egypt, one who had never heard of Joseph. 9He said to his people, “See how the people of the Israelites have become too many and too strong for us. 10Come, we must outwit them, or they will grow even more numerous. Then, if there is a war, they could side with our enemies, fight us, and escape from the land.” 11So the Egyptians put taskmasters over them to crush them with heavy loads, and the Israelites built supply cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Rameses. 12Yet the harder they were oppressed, the more they increased and spread out, until the Egyptians came to loathe and fear the Israelites. 13The Egyptians forced the Israelites to work without mercy, 14and made their lives bitter with hard labor, mixing mortar, making bricks, and doing every kind of work in the fields. In all this labor they drove them without mercy. 15The king of Egypt also spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one named Shiphrah and the other Puah. 16He said, “When you attend the Hebrew women in childbirth, watch as they kneel on the birthstones. If it is a son, put him to death; if a daughter, she may live.” 17But the midwives feared God. They did not obey the king of Egypt’s order; they kept the boys alive. 18So the king of Egypt sent for the midwives and demanded, “Why have you acted like this, keeping the boys alive?” 19The midwives told Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are different from Egyptian women. They are strong and quick, and they have their babies before the midwife gets there.” 20So God was good to the midwives, and the people kept growing in number and became very strong. 21And because the midwives feared God, he provided them with households of their own. 22Then Pharaoh gave an order to all his people: “Every boy that is born must be thrown into the Nile, but every girl is to be spared.”