Discovery BoxExodus 5:10-11 
Context5:10 So the slave masters of the people and their foremen went to the Israelites and said, 1 “Thus says Pharaoh: ‘I am not giving 2 you straw. 5:11 You 3 go get straw for yourselves wherever you can 4 find it, because there will be no reduction at all in your workload.’”
Exodus 5:16
Context5:16 No straw is given to your servants, but we are told, 5 ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are even 6 being beaten, but the fault 7 is with your people.”
Exodus 5:18
Context5:18 So now, get back to work! 8 You will not be given straw, but you must still produce 9 your quota 10 of bricks!”
1 tn Heb “went out and spoke to the people saying.” Here “the people” has been specified as “the Israelites” for clarity.
2 tn The construction uses the negative particle combined with a subject suffix before the participle: אֵינֶנִּי נֹתֵן (’enenni noten, “there is not I – giving”).
3 tn The independent personal pronoun emphasizes that the people were to get their own straw, and it heightens the contrast with the king. “You – go get.”
4 tn The tense in this section could be translated as having the nuance of possibility: “wherever you may find it,” or the nuance of potential imperfect: “wherever you are able to find any.”
5 tn Heb “[they] are saying to us,” the line can be rendered as a passive since there is no expressed subject for the participle.
6 tn הִנֵּה (hinneh) draws attention to the action reflected in the passive participle מֻכִּים (mukkim): “look, your servants are being beaten.”
7 tn The word rendered “fault” is the basic OT verb for “sin” – וְחָטָאת (vÿkhata’t). The problem is that it is pointed as a perfect tense, feminine singular verb. Some other form of the verb would be expected, or a noun. But the basic word-group means “to err, sin, miss the mark, way, goal.” The word in this context seems to indicate that the people of Pharaoh – the slave masters – have failed to provide the straw. Hence: “fault” or “they failed.” But, as indicated, the line has difficult grammar, for it would literally translate: “and you [fem.] sin your people.” Many commentators (so GKC 206 §74.g) wish to emend the text to read with the Greek and the Syriac, thus: “you sin against your own people” (meaning the Israelites are his loyal subjects).
8 tn The text has two imperatives: “go, work.” They may be used together to convey one complex idea (so a use of hendiadys): “go back to work.”
9 tn The imperfect תִּתֵּנּוּ (tittennu) is here taken as an obligatory imperfect: “you must give” or “you must produce.”
10 sn B. Jacob is amazed at the wealth of this tyrant’s vocabulary in describing the work of others. Here, תֹכֶן (tokhen) is another word for “quota” of bricks, the fifth word used to describe their duty (Exodus, 137).
