Shemot 5:11

11 Go ye, get you straw where ye can find it; yet not ought of your avodah shall be diminished.

Shemot 5:11 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 5:11

Go ye, get ye straw, where you can find it
Before it was provided by the king, and brought to the brickkilns, but now they are bid to go and fetch it themselves, and get it where they could, whether in fields or barns; and if they were obliged to pay for it out of their labour; it was a greater oppression still:

yet not ought of your work shall be diminished;
they were to do the same work, and make the same number of bricks, as when straw was brought and given them; and no allowance made for waste of time in seeking, or expenses in procuring straw, which was very hard upon them.

Shemot 5:11 In-Context

9 Let there more avodah be laid upon the anashim, that they may labor therein; and let them not regard divrei sheker.

10 And the nogesim of HaAm went out, and their foremen; they spoke to HaAm, saying, Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw.

11 Go ye, get you straw where ye can find it; yet not ought of your avodah shall be diminished.

12 So HaAm were scattered abroad throughout kol Eretz Mitzrayim to gather stubble instead of straw.

13 And the nogesim pressed them, saying, Fulfil your ma’asim, your daily tasks, as when there was straw.