Exodus 5

₁Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and they told him: ‘The Lord God of Israel says: “Let my people go so that they can celebrate a feast in the desert to honour Me.” ’

₂But Pharaoh said: ‘Who is the Lord and why must I listen to Him? Why must I let the Israelites go? I do not know that Lord and I will not let them go.’

₃Moses and Aaron said: ‘The God of the Hebrews has appeared to us. Let us go into the desert for as far as we can walk in 3 days. We must sacrifice_offerings to our God. If we don't do it, He will punish us. He will send diseases and kill people.’

₄But the king of Egypt asked Moses and Aaron: ‘Why do you want to take the people away from their work? They must work. ₅There are many Israelites in the land. You must not stop them from doing their work.’

₆On that same day Pharaoh told the Egyptian managers and the Israelite supervisors: ₇‘You must stop giving the people straw to make bricks. From now on they must pick up the straw themselves, ₈and you must tell them they must make as many bricks as they made before. They may not make less bricks. They are lazy. That is why they are saying they want to sacrifice_offerings to their God. ₉Make these people work harder and make them work all the time so that they do not have time to listen to lies.’

₁₀The Egyptian managers and the Israelite supervisors went to the Israelites and told them: ‘The king said that he will not give you straw anymore. ₁₁You must go and find your own straw, but you must still make as many bricks as you made before.’ ₁₂So the people went all over Egypt looking for straw. ₁₃But the Egyptian managers were hard on them and said they must work faster. They said: ‘You must make as many bricks each day as you did when we gave you straw.’ ₁₄The Egyptian managers beat the Israelite supervisors who had to see that the people did their work. They said: ‘Why didn't the people make as many bricks as they had made before?’

₁₅The supervisors of the Israelites went to Pharaoh to complain and said: ‘We are your servants. Why do you make us suffer so much? ₁₆You don't give us any straw, but the managers say we must make more bricks. They beat us, but it is not our fault. It is your people's fault.’

₁₇But Pharaoh said: ‘You are lazy. You do not want to work. This is why you say you want to sacrifice_offerings to the Lord. ₁₈Now I am telling you to go and work. We will not give you any straw but you must make as many bricks as you made when we gave you straw.’

₁₉The Israelite supervisors realised that they had a big problem because they could not make as many bricks as they had made before. Then the people became angry with Moses. ₂₀When the Israelite supervisors went away from Pharaoh, they saw Moses and Aaron waiting for them. ₂₁They said to Moses and Aaron: ‘We pray that the Lord will punish you because you have made the king and his officials hate us. You have made them angry and now they want to kill us.’

₂₂Moses went to the Lord and said: ‘Lord, why do You make your people suffer so much? Why have You sent me? ₂₃From the time that I went to Pharaoh to tell him what You said, things have become worse for your people, but You have done nothing to help them.’