Exodus 5:13

13 The slave masters kept forcing the people to work harder. They said, "You must make just as many bricks as you did when you were given straw."

Exodus 5:13 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 5:13

And the taskmasters hasted them,
Kept them tight and close to their work, and were urgent on them to make quick dispatch of it:

saying, fulfil your works, [your] daily tasks, as when there was straw;
they insisted upon it, that they did the same business at the brickkilns, made the same number of bricks every day, as they used to do when they had straw at hand. See ( Exodus 5:11 ) .

Exodus 5:13 In-Context

11 Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it. But you must make as many bricks as you made before."

12 So the people went everywhere in Egypt looking for dry stalks to use for straw.

13 The slave masters kept forcing the people to work harder. They said, "You must make just as many bricks as you did when you were given straw."

14 The king's slave masters had made the Israelite foremen responsible for the work the people did. The Egyptian slave masters beat these men and asked them, "Why aren't you making as many bricks as you made in the past?"

15 Then the Israelite foremen went to the king and complained, "Why are you treating us, your servants, this way?