Exodus 5:12

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

Exodus 5:12 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 5:12

So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of
Egypt
That part of it where they dwelt:

to gather stubble instead of straw;
straw not being easy to come at, they were obliged to gather stubble that was left in the fields, after the corn was gathered in. Ben Melech observes, that the word signifies small straw, or small sticks of wood, and Kimchi ^F13, and if so, this must be to burn the bricks with in the furnaces.

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 Sepher Shorash, rad. (vvq) .

Exodus 5:12 In-Context

10 So the slave masters and foremen went to the Israelites and said, "This is what the king says: I will no longer give you straw.

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?"