¹And afterwards Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘Let my people go so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the desert.’ ” ²To this Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord that I should take notice of him in letting Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go either.” ³Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has come into contact with us. Please let us go three days' journey into the desert for us to sacrifice to the Lord our God, so that he does not assail us with pestilence or with the sword.” ⁴Whereupon the king of Egypt said to them, “Why should Moses and Aaron disrupt the people from their works? Go back to your tasks.” ⁵And Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you have made them stop their tasks.” ⁶And on that day Pharaoh gave orders to the taskmasters over the people, and his foremen, and he said, ⁷“You will no longer give the people straw for making the bricks as previously. They must go and gather straw for themselves. ⁸But you will impose on them the same quantity of bricks which they were making previously. Do not reduce it, for they are lazy, which is why they are shouting out, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ ⁹Let the workload on the men be heavy, and let them work on it, and do not let them pay attention to vain words.” ¹⁰Then the taskmasters of the people went out, as did their foremen, and they spoke to the people and said, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I am not giving you straw. ¹¹You must go and get straw for yourselves from wherever you can find it, yet none of your work is to be reduced at all.’ ” ¹²Then the people dispersed all over the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. ¹³And the taskmasters pressed them and said, “Complete your work – the daily routine – as when there was straw.” ¹⁴And the foremen of the sons of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had appointed over them, were beaten, while they said, “Why have you not completed your assignment to make bricks today in the same way as previously?” ¹⁵Then the foremen of the sons of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh and said, “Why are you dealing this way with your servants? ¹⁶Straw is not given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks’, and look, your servants are beaten, but it is your people's fault.” ¹⁷And he said, “You are lazy, lazy, which is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ ¹⁸So now, go and work, but straw will not be given to you, but you will deliver the required quantity of bricks.” ¹⁹And the foremen of the sons of Israel saw that they were in a bad light when they said, “You will not reduce the quantity of your bricks in the daily routine.” ²⁰Then they confronted Moses and Aaron, who were standing where they would meet them as they departed from Pharaoh, ²¹and they said to them, “May the Lord look into you and judge you, in that you have made us odious in Pharaoh's sight, and his servants' sight, with him putting a sword in their hand to kill us.” ²²Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “O Lord^*, why have you brought harm on this people? Why have you sent me like this? ²³For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought harm on this people, and you haven't by any means delivered your people.”