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

¹⁹ The Hebrew foremen knew they were in trouble, because the Pharaoh had told them, “You must still make as many bricks as you made before.”