Exodus
1
1 And these [are] the names of the sons of Israel who are  coming into Egypt with Jacob; a man and his household have they  come;
2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
4 Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
5 And all the persons coming out of the thigh of Jacob are  seventy persons; as to Joseph, he was in Egypt.
6 And Joseph dieth, and all his brethren, and all that  generation;
7 and the sons of Israel have been fruitful, and they teem,  and multiply, and are very very mighty, and the land is filled  with them.
8 And there riseth a new king over Egypt, who hath not known  Joseph,
9 and he saith unto his people, `Lo, the people of the sons of  Israel [is] more numerous and mighty than we;
10 give help! let us act wisely concerning it, lest it  multiply, and it hath come to pass, when war happeneth, that it  hath been joined, even it, unto those hating us, and hath  fought against us, and hath gone out up of the land.'
11 And they set over it princes of tribute, so as to afflict  it with their burdens, and it buildeth store-cities for  Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses;
12 and as they afflict it, so it multiplieth, and so it  breaketh forth, and they are vexed because of the sons of  Israel;
13 and the Egyptians cause the sons of Israel to serve with  rigour,
14 and make their lives bitter in hard service, in clay, and  in brick, and in every [kind] of service in the field; all  their service in which they have served [is] with rigour.
15 And the king of Egypt speaketh to the midwives, the  Hebrewesses, (of whom the name of the one [is] Shiphrah, and  the name of the second Puah),
16 and saith, `When ye cause the Hebrew women to bear, and  have looked on the children; if it [is] a son -- then ye have  put him to death; and if it [is] a daughter -- then she hath  lived.'
17 And the midwives fear God, and have not done as the king of  Egypt hath spoken unto them, and keep the lads alive;
18 and the king of Egypt calleth for the midwives, and saith  to them, `Wherefore have ye done this thing, and keep the lads  alive?'
19 And the midwives say unto Pharaoh, `Because the Hebrew  women [are] not as the Egyptian women, for they [are] lively;  before the midwife cometh in unto them -- they have borne!'
20 And God doth good to the midwives, and the people multiply,  and are very mighty;
21 and it cometh to pass, because the midwives have feared  God, that He maketh for them households;
22 and Pharaoh layeth a charge on all his people, saying,  `Every son who is born -- into the River ye do cast him, and  every daughter ye do keep alive.'