Exodus 1

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

2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah.

3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin

4Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

5All the persons who came out of Jacob's loins were seventy persons, and Joseph was already in Egypt.

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

7The children of Israel were fruitful and teemed, they multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty, and the land was filled with them.

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

9He said to his people, "Look, the people, the children of Israel, are more numerous and stronger than we."

10Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and when war comes they also join our enemies, fight against us, and go up from the land.

11They appointed forced-labor chiefs over them to humble them with their burdens. They built storage cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses.

12But as they afflicted them, so they multiplied and spread out all the more, and they loathed the sons of Israel.

13The Egyptians forced the children of Israel into harsh servitude.

14They embittered their lives through harsh labor in clay and bricks, and through every kind of labor in the field—all their labor, which they forced upon them with cruelty.

15The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one named Shiphrah and the other named Puah.

16He said, “When you deliver the Hebrew women and see them on the birth stools, if it is a son, kill him; but if it is a daughter, she shall live.”

17The midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt spoke to them, but let the boys live.

18The king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this thing and kept the boys alive?"

19The midwives answered Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are unlike Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them."

20God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very mighty.

21Because the midwives feared God, he established houses for them.

22Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Throw every son that is born into the river, and keep every daughter alive.”