Exodus 5:11-13

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.’” 5:12 So the people spread out ³  through all the land of Egypt to collect stubble for straw. 5:13 The slave masters were pressuring ⁴  them, saying, “Complete ⁵  your work for each day, just like when there was straw!”

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 The verb וַיָּפֶץ (vayyafets) is from the hollow root פּוּץ (puts) and means “scatter, spread abroad.”

⁵ tn Or “pressed.”

⁶ tn כַּלּוּ (kallu) is the Piel imperative; the verb means “to finish, complete” in the sense of filling up the quota.