11. Go get straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but there will be no reduction at all in your workload.’ ”
12. So the people scattered throughout the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.
13. The overseers insisted, “Finish your assigned work each day, just as you did when straw was provided.”
14. Then the Israelite foremen, whom Pharaoh’s slave drivers had set over the people, were beaten and asked, “Why haven’t you finished making your prescribed number of bricks yesterday or today, as you did before? ”
15. So the Israelite foremen went in and cried for help to Pharaoh: “Why are you treating your servants this way?
16. No straw has been given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks! ’ Look, your servants are being beaten, but it is your own people who are at fault.”