Exodus 1:9-11

New Century Version

⁹ This king said to his people, “Look! The people of Israel are too many and too strong for us to handle! ¹⁰ If we don’t make plans against them, the number of their people will grow even more. Then if there is a war, they might join our enemies and fight us and escape from the country!”

¹¹ So the Egyptians made life hard for the Israelites. They put slave masters over them, who forced the Israelites to build the cities Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king.