Then they said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” (They had brick instead of stone and tar instead of mortar.)

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

“The bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with chiseled stone; the sycamore fig trees have been cut down, but we will replace them with cedars.”

These people continually and blatantly offend me as they sacrifice in their sacred orchards and burn incense on brick altars.

They made their lives bitter by hard service with mortar and bricks and by all kinds of service in the fields. Every kind of service the Israelites were required to give was rigorous.

“You must no longer give straw to the people for making bricks as before. Let them go and collect straw for themselves.

No straw is given to your servants, but we are told, ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are even being beaten, but the fault is with your people.”

The Israelite foremen saw that they were in trouble when they were told, “You must not reduce the daily quota of your bricks.”

“And you, son of man, take a brick and set it in front of you. Inscribe a city on it – Jerusalem.

But you must require of them the same quota of bricks that they were making before. Do not reduce it, for they are slackers. That is why they are crying, ‘Let us go sacrifice to our God.’