¹⁹ He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.^(A)

⁹ “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous^(A) for us.^{(B) 10} Come, we must deal shrewdly^(C) with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”^(D)

¹¹ So they put slave masters^(E) over them to oppress them with forced labor,^(F) and they built Pithom and Rameses^(G) as store cities^(H) for Pharaoh. ¹² But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites ¹³ and worked them ruthlessly.^{(I) 14} They made their lives bitter with harsh labor^(J) in brick^(K) and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.^(L)

¹⁵ The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives,^(M) whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, ¹⁶ “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.”^{(N) 17} The midwives, however, feared^(O) God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do;^(P) they let the boys live. ¹⁸ Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”

¹⁹ The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”^(Q)

²⁰ So God was kind to the midwives^(R) and the people increased and became even more numerous. ²¹ And because the midwives feared^(S) God, he gave them families^(T) of their own.

²² Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile,^(U) but let every girl live.”^(V)

⁴ Its tail swept a third^(A) of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.^(B) The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child^(C) the moment he was born. ⁵ She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.”^[a](D) And her child was snatched up^(E) to God and to his throne.

Psalm 129

A song of ascents.