11. So the Egyptians made life hard for the Israelites. They put slave masters over them, who forced the Israelites to build the cities Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king.
12. But the harder the Egyptians forced the Israelites to work, the more the Israelites grew in number and spread out. So the Egyptians became very afraid of them
13. and demanded even more of them.
14. They made their lives bitter. They forced the Israelites to work hard to make bricks and mortar and to do all kinds of work in the fields. The Egyptians were not merciful to them in all their painful work.
15. Two Hebrew nurses, named Shiphrah and Puah, helped the Israelite women give birth to their babies. The king of Egypt said to the nurses,
16. “When you are helping the Hebrew women give birth to their babies, watch! If the baby is a girl, let her live, but if it is a boy, kill him!”
17. But the nurses feared God, so they did not do as the king told them; they let all the boy babies live.
18. Then the king of Egypt sent for the nurses and said, “Why did you do this? Why did you let the boys live?”
19. The nurses said to him, “The Hebrew women are much stronger than the Egyptian women. They give birth to their babies before we can get there.”