Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.' "
So they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please, let us go three days' journey into the desert and sacrifice to the LORD our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword."
"And you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before. You shall not reduce it. For they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, 'Let us go [and] sacrifice to our God.'
Also the officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten [and] were asked, "Why have you not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and today, as before?"
"There is no straw given to your servants, and they say to us, 'Make brick!' And indeed your servants [are] beaten, but the fault [is] in your [own] people."
And the officers of the children of Israel saw [that] they [were] in trouble after it was said, "You shall not reduce [any] bricks from your daily quota."
And they said to them, "Let the LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us."