³ They said one to another, "Come, let's make brick, and burn them thoroughly." They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.

¹⁰ Now the valley of Siddim was full of tar pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell there, and those who remained fled to the mountain.

³ When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him, and coated it with tar and with pitch. She put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank.

¹⁴ and they made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field, all their service, in which they ruthlessly made them serve.

¹ Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you.

¹³ Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow let's go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit."

²⁴ Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good works,

¹³ but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called "today;" lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

¹⁴ Draw water for the siege. Strengthen your fortresses. Go into the clay, and tread the mortar. Make the brick kiln strong.

³ a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens, and burning incense on bricks;

⁶ They help everyone his neighbor; and [every one] says to his brother, Be of good courage.

⁷ So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith, [and] he who smoothes with the hammer him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, It is good; and he fastens it with nails, that is should not be moved.

¹⁰ The bricks are fallen, but we will build with hewn stone; the sycamores are cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.

⁵ Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I will break down its wall of it, and it will be trampled down.

¹ I said in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with mirth: therefore enjoy pleasure;" and, behold, this also was vanity.

¹¹ If they say, "Come with us, Let's lay in wait for blood; Let's lurk secretly for the innocent without cause;

⁵ They encourage themselves in evil plans. They talk about laying snares secretly. They say, "Who will see them?"

³¹ He brought forth the people who were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick kiln: and thus did he to all the cities of the children of Ammon. David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

⁷ "You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick, as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves.

⁸ The number of the bricks, which they made before, you require from them. You shall not diminish anything of it, for they are idle; therefore they cry, saying, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.'

⁹ Let heavier work be laid on the men, that they may labor therein; and don't let them pay any attention to lying words."

¹⁰ The taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spoke to the people, saying, This is what Pharaoh says: "I will not give you straw.

¹¹ Go yourselves, get straw where you can find it, for nothing of your work shall be diminished."

¹² So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.

¹³ The taskmasters were urgent saying, "Fulfill your work quota daily, as when there was straw!"

¹⁴ The officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, "Why haven't you fulfilled your quota both yesterday and today, in making brick as before?"

¹⁵ Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, saying, "Why do you deal this way with your servants?

¹⁶ No straw is given to your servants, and they tell us, 'Make brick!' and, behold, your servants are beaten; but the fault is in your own people."

¹⁷ But he said, "You are idle! You are idle! Therefore you say, 'Let us go and sacrifice to Yahweh.'

¹⁸ Go therefore now, and work, for no straw shall be given to you, yet shall you deliver the same number of bricks!"

⁷ Come, let's go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech."

⁴ They said, "Come, let's build us a city, and a tower, whose top reaches to the sky, and let's make us a name; lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth."