Exodus 1:13-22

New King James Version

¹³ So the Egyptians made the children of Israel ^(A)serve with ^[a]rigor. ¹⁴ And they ^(B)made their lives bitter with hard bondage—^(C)in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.

¹⁵ Then the king of Egypt spoke to the ^(D)Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah; ¹⁶ and he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a ^(E)son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” ¹⁷ But the midwives ^(F)feared God, and did not do ^(G)as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive. ¹⁸ So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and saved the male children alive?”

¹⁹ And ^(H)the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they ^[b]are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.”

^20 (I)Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and ^[c]grew very mighty. ²¹ And so it was, because the midwives feared God, ^(J)that He ^[d]provided households for them.

²² So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, ^(K)“Every son who is ^[e]born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”