The king increased the amount of work the Israelis were forced to do

6 That same day the king commanded the Egyptian slave bosses and the Israeli men supervising the slaves, 7 “Do not continue to give the Israeli people straw for making bricks, as you have done previously. Make them go into the fields and gather straw for themselves. 8 But require them to make the same number of bricks that they did before. Do not decrease the number at all. They ◄are lazy/do not have enough work to do►. That is the reason they are asking me to let them go into the desert to offer sacrifices to their god. 9 Force the men to work harder, so that they will not have time to listen to lies from their leaders!”

10 So the slave bosses and supervisors of the slaves went to where the Israeli people were and said to them, “The king has said that he will no longer give you any straw. 11 So you yourselves must go and get straw wherever you can find it. But you must still keep working to make the same number of bricks as before.” [LIT] 12 So the Israeli people went all over Egypt to find straw. 13 The slave bosses kept telling them insistently, “Finish the work you are required to do each day, making the same amount of bricks as you did before, when we gave you straw!” 14 When they were not able to do that, the slave bosses had the Israeli supervisors beaten with sticks, and they asked them, “Why have all the men you are supervising not been able to make the same number of bricks today/now as they did before [RHQ]?”