Moses and Aaron went to Egypt and said, “The Lord God of Israel says, ‘Let my people go so that they can have a festival to honor me in the desert.’” The king asked, “Who is the Lord? I don’t know Him and I won’t let Israel go.” Moses and Aaron said again, “God of the Hebrews has appeared to us. Please allow us to go for three days into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord, our God. If we don’t do it, the Lord will kill us with disease or by war.” The king told Moses and Aaron, “What do you mean by making the people neglect their work? Get the slaves back to work! You are growing in numbers more than those Egyptians; now, you want to stop working!” That same day, the king ordered the Egyptian slave drivers and Israelite foremen to stop giving the people straw for making bricks but required to make the same number of bricks as before. It makes them work harder and keep busy.
The Egyptian slave drivers beat the Israelite foremen who are in charge of the work because the people didn’t make the same number of bricks. Then the foremen complained to the king. The king answered, “You are lazy! Don’t ask me and go and offer sacrifices to the Lord. I’m not going to give you any straw, but you have to make the same number of bricks.”
The foremen met Moses and Aaron and told them, “Look what you’ve done! The Lord will punish you for making the king hate us. You have given them an excuse to kill us.” Moses asked the Lord, “Why do you mistreat your people, and why did you send me here? Ever since I went to the king, he has treated them badly. And now, you have done nothing to help them.”