¹⁵ The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah, ¹⁶ and he said, “When you perform the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the stools, if it is a son, then you must kill him, but if it is a daughter, then she may live.” ¹⁷ However, the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but kept the male children alive.