1And these are the names of the sons of Israel who came into Egypt with Jacob; each man (ish) with his household came.
2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;
3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;
4Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
5And all the soul (nephesh) coming out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls (nephesh); and Joseph was in Egypt.
6And Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation.
7And the sons of Israel were fruitful and swarmed and multiplied and grew mighty exceedingly, exceedingly; and the land was filled with them.
8And there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
9And he said to his people, "Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are many and mightier than we.
10Come, let us deal wisely with it, lest it multiply, and it come to pass, when war befalls, that it too join to those who hate us and fight against us and go up from the land."
11And they set over it chiefs of forced labor in order to afflict it with their burdens; and it built store-cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Rameses.
12But just as they afflicted it, so it multiplied and so it spread; and they were in dread because of the sons of Israel.
13And Egypt made the sons of Israel to serve (avad) with harshness.
14And they made their lives (chai) bitter with hard service (avodah), in mortar and in bricks and in all service (avodah) in the field; all their service (avodah) which they made them serve (avad) with harshness.
15And the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah and the name of the second Puah,
16and he said, "When you act as midwife to the Hebrew women and see upon the birthstool: if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live."
17And the midwives feared God, and they did not do as the king of Egypt had spoken to them, but they kept the male children alive.
18And the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this thing and kept the male children alive?"
19And the midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women (ishah) are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively; before the midwife comes to them they have given birth."
20And God did good to the midwives; and the people multiplied and grew very mighty.
21And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that He made for them houses.
22And Pharaoh commanded (tzivvah) all his people, saying, "Every son that is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall keep alive."