Now these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt; each man and his household came with Jacob: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. All those who were the seed of Jacob were seventy-five persons (for Joseph was in Egypt already). Now Joseph died, as well as all his brothers and all that generation. Then the children of Israel increased and multiplied, became numerous, and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them. But there arose a new king over Egypt who knew not Joseph. Then he said to his nation, “Look, the race of the children of Israel is a great multitude and is stronger than we; come, let us outwit them, lest they multiply, and it happen in the event of war that they also join our enemies and fight against us and so escape out of the land.” Therefore he set taskmasters over them to afflict them in their works; and they built for Pharaoh strong cities—Pithom and Raamses and On, which is Heliopolis. But the more they humbled them, the more they multiplied and grew; and the Egyptians greatly abhorred the children of Israel . So the Egyptians tyrannized the children of Israel by force. They made their lives bitter with hard labor—in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their labor in which they made them serve was by violence. Then the king of the Egyptians spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah; and he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women and see they are about to give birth, if it is a male, then you shall kill him; but if a female, let her live.” But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive. So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing and saved the male children alive?” Thus the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the women of Egypt; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.” Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. ~ Exodus 1:1-20