Exodus 5:11

5:11 You ¹  go get straw for yourselves wherever you can ²  find it, because there will be no reduction at all in your workload.’”

Exodus 5:13

5:13 The slave masters were pressuring ³  them, saying, “Complete ⁴  your work for each day, just like when there was straw!”

Exodus 5:18

5:18 So now, get back to work! ⁵  You will not be given straw, but you must still produce ⁶  your quota ⁷  of bricks!”

¹ 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.”

² 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.”

³ tn Or “pressed.”

⁴ tn כַּלּוּ (kallu) is the Piel imperative; the verb means “to finish, complete” in the sense of filling up the quota.

⁵ tn The text has two imperatives: “go, work.” They may be used together to convey one complex idea (so a use of hendiadys): “go back to work.”

⁶ tn The imperfect תִּתֵּנּוּ (tittennu) is here taken as an obligatory imperfect: “you must give” or “you must produce.”

⁷ sn B. Jacob is amazed at the wealth of this tyrant’s vocabulary in describing the work of others. Here, תֹכֶן (tokhen) is another word for “quota” of bricks, the fifth word used to describe their duty (Exodus, 137).