Exodus
Exodus 1 ©
1 The children of Israel after Joseph's death multiply greatly. 8 They are oppressed by a new king, but multiply so much the more. 15 The piety of the midwives in saving the men children alive is rewarded by God. 22 Pharaoh commandeth the male children to be cast into the river.
NOW athese are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
And cJoseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.
2But the more they afflicted them, kthe more they multiplied and grew. And they were lgrieved because of the children of Israel.
And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all *manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.
¶And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah:
And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall nkill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.
And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, pWhy have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive?
And qthe midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them.