Exodus 5

¹ After this, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, 'This is what Yahweh, God of Israel,says, "Let my people go, so that they can hold a feast in my honour in the desert." '

² 'Who is Yahweh,' Pharaoh replied, 'for me to obey what he says and let Israel go? I know nothing ofYahweh, and I wil not let Israel go.'

³ 'The God of the Hebrews has encountered us,' they replied. 'Give us leave to make a three -days'journey into the desert and sacrifice to Yahweh our God, or he wil strike us with a plague or with the sword.'

⁴ The king of Egypt said to them, 'Moses and Aaron, what do you mean by distracting the people fromtheir work? Get back to your forced labour.'

⁵ And Pharaoh said, 'Now that the people have grown to such numbers in the country, what do you meanby interrupting their forced labour?'

⁶ That very day, Pharaoh gave the order to the people's taskmasters and their scribes,

⁷ 'Do not go on providing the people with straw for brickmaking as before; let them go and gather strawfor themselves.

⁸ But you wil exact the same quantity of bricks from them as before, not reducing it at al , since they arelazy, and that is why their cry is, "Let us go and sacrifice to our God."

⁹ Give these people more work to do, and see they do it instead of listening to lying speeches.'

¹⁰ The people's taskmasters and scribes went out to speak to the people and said, 'Pharaoh says this, "Ishall not provide you with any more straw.

¹¹ Go and collect straw for yourselves where you can find it. But your output is not to be any less." '

¹² So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble for their straw.

¹³ The taskmasters harassed them. 'You must complete your daily quota,' they said, 'just as when thestraw was there.'

¹⁴ And the Israelites' foremen whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had put in charge of them, were flogged andasked, 'Why have you not fulfil ed your quota of bricks made today as before?'

¹⁵ The Israelites' foremen went and appealed to Pharaoh. 'Why do you treat your servants like this?' theysaid.

¹⁶ 'No straw is provided for your servants, yet stil the cry is, "Make bricks!" And now your servants arebeing flogged!. . .'

¹⁷ 'You are lazy, lazy,' he retorted. 'That is why you say, "Let us go and sacrifice to Yahweh."

¹⁸ Get back to your work at once. You wil not be provided with straw; all the same, you wil deliver thequota of bricks.'

¹⁹ The Israelites' foremen saw they were in a difficult position on being told, 'You wil not reduce yourdaily production of bricks.'

²⁰ As they left Pharaoh's presence, they met Moses and Aaron who were standing in their way.

²¹ 'May Yahweh look down at you and judge!' they said to them. 'You have brought us into bad odourwith Pharaoh and his officials; you have put a sword into their hand to kil us.'

²² Moses went back to Yahweh and said, 'Lord, why do you treat this people so harshly? Why did yousend me?

²³ Ever since I came to Pharaoh and spoke to him in your name, he has il -treated this people, and youhave done nothing at al about rescuing your people.'