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)