9. So make these people work harder. Keep them busy. Then they will not have enough time to listen to the lies of Moses.”
10. So the Egyptian slave masters and the Hebrew foremen went to the Israelites and said, “Pharaoh has decided that he will not give you straw for your bricks.
11. You must go and get the straw for yourselves. So go and find straw, but you must still make as many bricks as you made before.”
12. So the people went everywhere in Egypt looking for straw.
13. The slave masters forced the people to work even harder. They forced the people to make as many bricks as before.
14. The Egyptian slave masters had chosen the Hebrew foremen and had made them responsible for the work the people did. The Egyptian slave masters beat these foremen and said to them, “Why aren’t you making as many bricks as you made in the past? If you could do it then, you can do it now!”