12. But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread, and the more alarmed the Egyptians became.
13. So the Egyptians worked the people of Israel without mercy.
14. They made their lives bitter, forcing them to mix mortar and make bricks and do all the work in the fields. They were ruthless in all their demands.
15. Then Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, gave this order to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah: