 1 Afterward Moses and Aaron told Pharaoh, Thus said the Lord God of Israel: Let my people go so that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. 2 Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go. 3 They said, The God of the Hebrews has met with us so let us go three days' journey into the desert to sacrifice to the Lord our God or He could fall on us with plague or with the sword. 4 The king of Egypt said to them, Moses and Aaron, Why do you keep the people from their work? Get to your burdens. 5 Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and you make them rest from their burdens. 6 Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers the same day saying, 7 You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick, as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. 8 You shall lay upon them the number of bricks that they have made before now. You shall not take away from it. For they are idle. Therefore they cry saying, Let us go sacrifice to our God. 9 Let more work be laid upon the men, and let them labor in it. And do not let them regard vain words. 10 The taskmasters of the people and their officers spoke to the people saying, Pharaoh says, I will not give you straw. 11 Go and get straw where you can find it, but none of your work will be taken away. 12 So the people were scattered through all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. 13 The taskmasters hurried them saying, Finish your work for the day just as when there was straw. 14 The overseers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten. They demanded, Why have you not completed your task in making brick, both yesterday and today, as you did before? 15 The overseers of the children of Israel cried out to Pharaoh saying, Why do you deal so with your servants? 16 There is no straw given to your servants, and they say to us, Make bricks. And behold, your servants are beaten, but the fault is in your own people. 17 But he said, You are idle. You are idle. Therefore you say, Let us go, let us sacrifice to the Lord. 18 Therefore go now and work, for there shall be no straw given to you. Yet you shall deliver the number of bricks. 19 The overseers of the children of Israel saw themselves in affliction after it was said, You shall not take away from your bricks of your daily task. 20 They met Moses and Aaron standing in the way as they came from Pharaoh. 21 They said to them, The Lord look upon you and judge, because you have made our smell to stink in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants to put a sword in their hands to kill us. 22 Moses returned to the Lord and said, Lord, why have you treated this people ill? Why then have you sent me? 23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people. And you have not delivered your people at all.
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