1
And afterward Mosheh and Aharon came and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says Yahuah, Elohim of Yisra’el: ‘Send My people away, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’”
2
And Pharaoh said, “Who is Yahuah, that I should listen to His voice to send Yisra’el away? I do not know Yahuah, and I also will not send Yisra’el away.”
3
And they said, “The Elohim of the Ivrim has met with us. Please let us go a journey of three days into the wilderness and sacrifice to Yahuah our Elohim, lest He meet us with pestilence or with the sword.”
4
And the king of Mitzrayim said to them, “Why, Mosheh and Aharon, do you cause the people to cease from their work? Go to your burdens.”
5
And Pharaoh said, “See, the people of the land are now many, and you cause them to rest from their burdens.”
6
And Pharaoh commanded on that day the taskmasters over the people and their overseers, saying,
7
“You shall no longer give straw to the people for making bricks as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves.
8
But the measure of bricks that they were making before, you shall lay upon them; you shall not diminish from it, because they are idle. Therefore they cry out, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our Elohim.’
9
Let the service be made heavier upon the men, and let them labor in it, and let them not regard words of falsehood.”
10
And the taskmasters of the people and their overseers went out and spoke to the people, saying, “Thus says Pharaoh: ‘I will not give you straw.
11
You yourselves go, take straw for yourselves from wherever you can find it, for nothing shall be diminished from your service.’”
12
And the people scattered throughout all the land of Mitzrayim to gather stubble for straw.
13
And the taskmasters pressed them, saying, “Complete your work, the matter of each day in its day, just as when there was straw.”
14
And the overseers of the sons of Yisra’el, whom the taskmasters of Pharaoh had set over them, were beaten, saying, “Why have you not completed your prescribed amount of brick-making, both yesterday and today, as before?”
15
And the overseers of the sons of Yisra’el came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying, “Why do you deal this way with your servants?
16
Straw is not given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks.’ And see, your servants are beaten, but the sin is with your people.”
17
And he said, “Idle—you are idle. Therefore you say, ‘Let us go, let us sacrifice to Yahuah.’
18
And now, go, serve. Straw shall not be given to you, yet the measured amount of bricks you shall deliver.”
19
And the overseers of the sons of Yisra’el saw themselves in evil, saying, “You shall not diminish from your bricks, the matter of each day in its day.”
20
And they met Mosheh and Aharon standing to meet them as they came out from Pharaoh.
21
And they said to them, “May Yahuah see you and judge, because you have made our smell repulsive in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants, putting a sword into their hand to kill us.”
22
And Mosheh returned to Yahuah and said, “Adonai, why have You brought evil upon this people? Why is this that You sent me?
23
For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people, and delivering, You have not delivered Your people.”