Exodus 5:1-9

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Bricks without Straw

5 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Let my people go, so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the wilderness.”^{(A) 2} But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should listen to him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.”^{(B) 3} Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has revealed himself to us; let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord our God, or he will fall upon us with pestilence or sword.”^{(C) 4} But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their work? Get to your labors!”^{(D) 5} Pharaoh continued, “Now they are more numerous than the people of the land^[a] and yet you want them to stop laboring!”^{(E) 6} That same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people, as well as their supervisors,^{(F) 7} “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as before; let them go and gather straw for themselves. ⁸ But you shall require of them the same quantity of bricks as they have made previously; do not diminish it, for they are lazy; that is why they cry, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’^{(G) 9} Let heavier work be laid on them; then they will pay attention to^[b] it and not to deceptive words.”