Exodus 1:15-2:6 (NKJV)
15. Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah;
16. and he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”
17. But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive.
18. 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?”
19. And the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.”
20. Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty.
21. And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them.
22. So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born[a] you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”
Chapter 2
1. And a man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi.
2. So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months.
3. But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank.
4. And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him.
5. Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. And her maidens walked along the riverside; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it.
6. And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby wept. So she had compassion on him, and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”
