Exodus 5:6-8

Amplified Bible

⁶ The very same day Pharaoh gave orders to the [Egyptian] taskmasters in charge of the people and their [Hebrew] foremen, saying, ⁷ “You will no longer give the people ^[a]straw to make brick as before; let them go and gather straw for themselves. ⁸ But the number of bricks which they were making before, you shall [still] require of them; you are not to reduce it in the least. For they are idle and lazy; that is why they cry, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’