Exodus 1

1These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each man with his household.

2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah.

3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin.

4Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

5And all the persons who came from Jacob’s loins were seventy persons, and Joseph was already in Egypt.

6Then Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation.

7But the sons of Israel were fruitful and swarmed and multiplied and became exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.

8A new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

9And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the sons of Israel are more numerous and stronger than we are.”

10Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and if war breaks out, they too may join our enemies and fight against us and go up out of the land.

11So they set taskmasters over him to afflict him with their burdens, and he built storage cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Rameses.

12But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out, so that they dreaded the sons of Israel.

13And the Egyptians made the sons of Israel serve harshly.

14And they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and in every kind of field work—all their labor that they imposed on them with harshness.

15Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah,

16And he said, “When you help the Hebrew women give birth and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”

17But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; rather, they let the children live.

18So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing and let the children live?”

19The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous; before the midwife comes to them, they have given birth.”

20So God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very strong.

21And because the midwives feared God, he made households for them.

22Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you must throw into the Nile, but every daughter you must let live.”