¹⁴ They made their lives bitter with harsh labor^(A) in brick^(B) and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.^(C)

¹³ Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years^(A) your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved^(B) and mistreated there. ¹⁴ But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out^(C) with great possessions.^(D)

²¹ and they said, “May the Lord look on you and judge^(A) you! You have made us obnoxious^(B) to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword^(C) in their hand to kill us.”^(D)

³ The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt!^(A) There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food^(B) we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”^(C)

⁴³ Do not rule over them ruthlessly,^(A) but fear your God.^(B)

⁴⁶ You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.

⁵³ They are to be treated as workers hired from year to year; you must see to it that those to whom they owe service do not rule over them ruthlessly.^(A)

²⁰ But as for you, the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace,^(A) out of Egypt,^(B) to be the people of his inheritance,^(C) as you now are.

⁶ But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer,^(A) subjecting us to harsh labor.^(B)