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Exodus 1:16

World English Bible

and he said, “When you perform the duty of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stool, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”

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Exodus 1:16 in other translations

and he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the birth-stool; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him; but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.

Exodus 1:16 · American Standard Version

Exodus 1:16 in context

  1. 14and they made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and in brick, and in all kinds of service in the field, all their service, in which they ruthlessly made them serve.
  2. 15The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah,
  3. 16and he said, “When you perform the duty of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stool, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”
  4. 17But the midwives feared God, and didn’t do what the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the baby boys alive.
  5. 18The king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said to them, “Why have you done this thing and saved the boys alive?”