Exodus 1:12-16

But the more the Israelites were mistreated, the more they grew in numbers and spread out—and the more the Egyptians detested them.

The Egyptians worked the Israelites brutally,

making their lives a misery. They made them do hard labor, building with mortar and brick, and all kind of heavy work in the fields. In all of this hard labor they treated them brutally.

Then the king gave orders to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah.

He told them, “When you assist the Hebrew women during childbirth, if you see it's a boy, kill him; but if it's a girl, let her live.”