9. Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.”
10. Then the slave drivers and the overseers went out and said to the people, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will not give you any more straw.
11. Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.’ ”
12. So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw.
13. The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, “Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw.”
14. And Pharaoh’s slave drivers beat the Israelite overseers they had appointed, demanding, “Why haven’t you met your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?”
15. Then the Israelite overseers went and appealed to Pharaoh: “Why have you treated your servants this way?
16. Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.”
17. Pharaoh said, “Lazy, that’s what you are—lazy! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’