1And these [are] the names of the sons of Israel who are coming into Egypt; each man and his household have come with Jacob: 2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. 5And all the persons coming out of the thigh of Jacob are seventy persons; as for Joseph, he was in Egypt. 6And Joseph dies, and all his brothers, and all that generation; 7and the sons of Israel have been fruitful, and they teem, and multiply, and are very, very mighty, and the land is filled with them.

8And there rises a new king over Egypt, who has not known Joseph, 9and he says to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel [are] more numerous and mighty than we. 10Give help! Let us act wisely concerning it, lest it multiply, and it has come to pass, when war happens, that it has been joined, even it, to those hating us, and has fought against us, and has gone up out of the land.” 11And they set princes of tribute over it, so as to afflict it with their burdens, and it builds the store-cities of Pithom and Rameses for Pharaoh; 12and as they afflict it, so it multiplies, and so it breaks forth, and they are distressed because of the sons of Israel; 13and the Egyptians cause the sons of Israel to serve with rigor, 14and make their lives bitter in hard service, in clay, and in brick, and in every [kind] of service in the field; all their service in which they have served [is] with rigor.

15And the king of Egypt speaks to the midwives, the Hebrewesses (of whom the name of the first [is] Shiphrah, and the name of the second Puah), 16and says, “When you cause the Hebrew women to bear, and have looked on the children, if it [is] a son, then you have put him to death; and if it [is] a daughter, then she has lived.” 17And the midwives fear God, and have not done as the king of Egypt has spoken to them, and they keep the boys alive; 18and the king of Egypt calls for the midwives and says to them, “Why have you done this thing, and keep the boys alive?” 19And the midwives say to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women [are] not as the Egyptian women, for they [are] lively; before the midwife comes to them—they have borne!” 20And God does good to the midwives, and the people multiply, and are very mighty; 21and it comes to pass, because the midwives have feared God, that He makes households for them; 22and Pharaoh lays a charge on all his people, saying, “Every son who is born—you cast him into the River, and every daughter you keep alive.”