11 And they set over them service-masters to oppress them with their burdens. And they built store-cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Rameses.
12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and spread; and they were distressed because of the children of Israel.
13 And the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with harshness;
14 and they embittered their life with hard labour in clay and bricks, and in all manner of labour in the field: all their labour with which they made them serve was with harshness.
15 And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives--of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other was Puah--
16 and he said, When ye help the Hebrew women in bearing, and see them on the stool, if it be a son, then ye shall kill him, but if a daughter, then she shall live.
17 But the midwives feared God and did not as the king of Egypt had said to them, but saved the male children alive.