1 And these are the names of the children of Yisra’ĕl who came to Mitsrayim with Ya’aqoḇ, each one with his household:
2 Re’uḇĕn, Shim’on, Lĕwi, and Yahuḏah;
3 Yissasḵar, Zeḇulun, and Binyamin;
4 Dan and Naphtali, Gaḏ and Ashĕr.
5 And all those who were descendants of Ya’aqoḇ were seventy beings, as Yosĕph was already in Mitsrayim.
6 And Yosĕph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation.
7 And the children of Yisra’ĕl bore fruit and increased very much, multiplied and became very strong, and the land was filled with them.
8 Then a new sovereign arose over Mitsrayim, who did not know Yosĕph,
9 and he said to his people, “See, the people of the children of Yisra’ĕl are more and stronger than we,
10 come, let us act wisely towards them, lest they increase, and it shall be when fighting befalls us, that they shall join our enemies and fight against us, and shall go up out of the land.”
11 So they appointed slave-masters over them to afflict them with their burdens, and they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Ra’amses.
12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they increased and grew, and they were in dread of the children of Yisra’ĕl.
13 And the Mitsrites made the children of Yisra’ĕl serve with harshness,
14 and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all kinds of work in the field, all their work which they made them do was with harshness.
15 Then the sovereign of Mitsrayim spoke to the Iḇri midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Pu’ah,
16 and he said, “When you deliver the Iḇri women, and see them on the birth-stools, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death, but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”
17 But the midwives revered Elohim, and did not do as the sovereign of Mitsrayim commanded them, and kept the male children alive.
18 So the sovereign of Mitsrayim called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this, and kept the male children alive?”
19 And the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Iḇri women are not like the Mitsrite women. For they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.”
20 So Elohim was good to the midwives, and the people increased and became very numerous.
21 And it came to be, because the midwives revered Elohim, that He provided households for them.
22 And Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Throw every son who is born into the river, and keep alive every daughter.”