Exodus 5:16-18

New Century Version

¹⁶ You give us no straw, but we are commanded to make bricks. Our slave masters beat us, but it is your own people’s fault.”

¹⁷ The king answered, “You are lazy! You don’t want to work! That is why you ask to leave here and make sacrifices to the Lord. ¹⁸ Now, go back to work! We will not give you any straw, but you must make just as many bricks as you did before.”