¹⁴ After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.^{(A) 16} He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

¹⁷ “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!

¹⁸ Now get to work.^(A) You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.”

¹⁹ The Israelite overseers realized they were in trouble when they were told, “You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day.”

²³ During that long period,^(A) the king of Egypt died.^(B) The Israelites groaned in their slavery^(C) and cried out, and their cry^(D) for help because of their slavery went up to God.

⁵ “And now what do I have here?” declares the Lord.