12. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out. They started to dread the children of Israel.
13. The Egyptians ruthlessly made the children of Israel serve,
14. and they made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and in brick, and in all kinds of service in the field, all their service, in which they ruthlessly made them serve.
15. The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah,
16. and he said, “When you perform the duty of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stool; if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”
17. But the midwives feared God, and didn’t do what the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the baby boys alive.
18. The king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and have saved the boys alive?”
19. The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women aren’t like the Egyptian women; for they are vigourous, and give birth before the midwife comes to them.”