12. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites
13. and worked them ruthlessly.
14. They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.
15. The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah,
16. “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.”
17. The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.
18. Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”