13 The Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor,
14 and they made their lives bitter with hard service—in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field, all their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.
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.
18 The king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing and preserved the male children’s lives?”
19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives come to them.”