10. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply more and, should war befall us, they join our enemies, fight against us, and escape out of the land.
11. So they set over [the Israelites] taskmasters to afflict and oppress them with [increased] burdens. And [the Israelites] built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.
12. But the more [the Egyptians] oppressed them, the more they multiplied and expanded, so that [the Egyptians] were vexed and alarmed because of the Israelites.
13. And the Egyptians reduced the Israelites to severe slavery.
14. They made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar, brick, and all kinds of work in the field. All their service was with harshness and severity.
15. Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, of whom one was named Shiprah and the other Puah,
16. When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, she shall live.