Pharaoh Intensifies Israel's Labor

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That same day Pharaoh ordered the slavemasters and the people's foremen,

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"You are no longer to provide straw for the bricks the people are making, as you did before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves.

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But you will require them to produce the same quantity of bricks as before, don't reduce it, because they're lazing around. This is why they're crying, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.'

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Give these people harder work to do. That will keep them too busy to pay attention to speeches full of lies."

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The people's slavemasters went out, their foremen too, and said to the people, "Here is what Pharaoh says: 'I will no longer give you straw.

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You go, yourselves, and get straw wherever you can find it. But your output is not to be reduced.'"

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So the people were dispersed throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.

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The slavemasters kept pressing them. "Keep working! Make your daily quota, just as when straw was provided."

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The foremen of the people of Isra'el, whom Pharaoh's slavemasters had appointed to be over them, were flogged and asked, "Why haven't you fulfilled your quota of bricks yesterday and today, as you did formerly?"

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