¹⁶ “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” ¹⁷ But the midwives ^(A)feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. ¹⁸ So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?”

²² Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, ^(A)“Every son that is born to the Hebrews^[a] you shall cast into ^(B)the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”