¹¹ If my father put a hard yoke on you, I will make it harder: my father gave you punishment with whips, but I will give you blows with snakes.

¹³ And they gave the children of Israel even harder work to do:

¹⁴ And made their lives bitter with hard work, making building-material and bricks, and doing all sorts of work in the fields under the hardest conditions.

⁵ And orders were given them not to put them to death, but to give them great pain for five months: and their pain was as the pain from the wound of a scorpion.

³ And from the smoke locusts came out on the earth; and power was given them, like the power of scorpions.

¹⁹ See, I have given you power to put your feet on snakes and evil beasts, and over all the strength of him who is against you: and nothing will do you damage.

²⁹ Take my yoke on you and become like me, for I am gentle and without pride, and you will have rest for your souls;

¹³ Go and say to Hananiah, This is what the Lord has said: Yokes of wood have been broken by you, but in their place I will make yokes of iron.

¹⁴ For the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: I have put a yoke of iron on the necks of all these nations, making them servants to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon; and they are to be his servants: and in addition I have given him the beasts of the field.

⁶ Is not this the holy day for which I have given orders: to let loose those who have wrongly been made prisoners, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the crushed go free, and every yoke be broken?

⁶ I was angry with my people, I put shame on my heritage, and gave them into your hands: you had no mercy on them; you put a cruel yoke on those who were old;

¹⁸ Then you will be crying out because of your king whom you have taken for yourselves; but the Lord will not give you an answer in that day.

¹⁸ Go now, get back to your work; no dry stems will be given to you, but you are to make the full number of bricks.

⁵ And Pharaoh said, Truly, the people of the land are increasing in number, and you are keeping them back from their work.

⁶ The same day Pharaoh gave orders to the overseers and those who were responsible for the work, saying,

⁷ Give these men no more dry stems for their brick-making as you have been doing; let them go and get the material for themselves.

⁸ But see that they make the same number of bricks as before, and no less: for they have no love for work; and so they are crying out and saying, Let us go and make an offering to our God.

⁹ Give the men harder work, and see that they do it; let them not give attention to false words.

¹⁰ And they have pointed tails like scorpions; and in their tails is their power to give men wounds for five months.