Exodus 5:1-8 ▼

1 And afterward Moses and Aaron have entered, and they say to Pharaoh, “Thus said YHWH, God of Israel: Send My people away, and they keep a celebration for Me in the wilderness”;

2 and Pharaoh says, “Who [is] YHWH, that I listen to His voice to send Israel away? I have not known YHWH, and I also do not send Israel away.”

3 And they say, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us; please let us go a journey of three days into the wilderness, and we sacrifice to our God YHWH, lest He meet us with pestilence or with sword.”

4 And the king of Egypt says to them, “Why, Moses and Aaron, do you free the people from its works? Go to your burdens.”

5 Pharaoh also says, “Behold, the people of the land [are] numerous now, and you have caused them to cease from their burdens!”

6 And on that day Pharaoh commands the exactors among the people and its authorities, saying,

7 “You do not add to give straw to the people for the making of the bricks as before—they go and have gathered straw for themselves;

8 and you put on them the proper quantity of the bricks which they are making before, you do not diminish from it, for they are remiss, therefore they are crying, saying, Let us go, let us sacrifice to our God;