Exodus 5:6-8

International Standard Version

Pharaoh Increases the Israelis’ Work

⁶ That day Pharaoh ordered the taskmasters of the people and their officials, ⁷ “You’re no longer to give the people straw for making bricks, as in the past.^[a] They must gather straw for themselves. ⁸ But you’re to impose the previous quota^[b] of bricks that they’re making. You’re not to reduce it! It is because they’re lazy that they’re crying out, ‘Let’s go offer sacrifices to our God.’