5:10 So the slave masters of the people and their foremen went to the Israelites and said, 1 “Thus says Pharaoh: ‘I am not giving 2 you straw. 5:11 You 3 go get straw for yourselves wherever you can 4 find it, because there will be no reduction at all in your workload.’” 5:12 So the people spread out 5 through all the land of Egypt to collect stubble for straw. 5:13 The slave masters were pressuring 6 them, saying, “Complete 7 your work for each day, just like when there was straw!” 5:14 The Israelite foremen whom Pharaoh’s slave masters had set over them were beaten and were asked, 8 “Why did you not complete your requirement for brickmaking as in the past – both yesterday and today?” 9
1 tn Heb “went out and spoke to the people saying.” Here “the people” has been specified as “the Israelites” for clarity.
2 tn The construction uses the negative particle combined with a subject suffix before the participle: אֵינֶנִּי נֹתֵן (’enenni noten, “there is not I – giving”).
3 tn The independent personal pronoun emphasizes that the people were to get their own straw, and it heightens the contrast with the king. “You – go get.”
4 tn The tense in this section could be translated as having the nuance of possibility: “wherever you may find it,” or the nuance of potential imperfect: “wherever you are able to find any.”
5 tn The verb וַיָּפֶץ (vayyafets) is from the hollow root פּוּץ (puts) and means “scatter, spread abroad.”
6 tn Or “pressed.”
7 tn כַּלּוּ (kallu) is the Piel imperative; the verb means “to finish, complete” in the sense of filling up the quota.
8 tn The quotation is introduced with the common word לֵאמֹר (le’mor, “saying”) and no mention of who said the question.
9 sn The idioms for time here are found also in 3:10 and 5:7-8. This question no doubt represents many accusations shouted at Israelites during the period when it was becoming obvious that, despite all their efforts, they were unable to meet their quotas as before.