1. Afterward, Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “This is what Adonai, God of Israel, says: Let My people go, so that they may hold a feast for Me in the wilderness.”
2. But Pharaoh said, “Who is Adonai, that I should listen to His voice and let Israel go? I do not know Adonai, and besides, I will not let Israel go.”
3. They answered, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness, so we may sacrifice to Adonai our God, or else He may strike us with pestilence or with the sword.”
4. But the king of Egypt said to them, “Why do you, Moses and Aaron, make the people break loose from their work? Go to your labors!”
5. Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now so numerous, yet you would have them rest from their labors?”
6. Then on the same day Pharaoh commanded the slave masters of the people and their foremen saying,
7. “You are not to give the people any more straw to make bricks, as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves.
8. But impose on them the quota of bricks that they made previously; don’t reduce it. For they are lazy—that’s why they cry out saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’
9. Let even heavier work be laid upon the men, so that they must labor, paying no attention to deceptive words.”
10. Then the slave masters of the people went out, along with their officers, and they spoke to the people saying: “This is what Pharaoh says: I will not give you straw.
11. Go and get straw for yourselves wherever you can find it, for there will be no reduction of your work.”