So now, get back to work! ¹  You will not be given straw, but you must still produce ²  your quota ³  of bricks!”

“The bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with chiseled stone; the sycamore fig trees have been cut down, but we will replace them with cedars.” ¹ 

Then they said to one another, ¹  “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” ²  (They had brick instead of stone and tar ³  instead of mortar.) ⁴ 

But you must require ¹  of them the same quota of bricks that they were making before. ²  Do not reduce it, for they are slackers. ³  That is why they are crying, ‘Let us go sacrifice to our God.’

No straw is given to your servants, but we are told, ¹  ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are even ²  being beaten, but the fault ³  is with your people.”

The Israelite foremen saw ¹  that they ²  were in trouble when they were told, ³  “You must not reduce the daily quota of your bricks.”

“You must no longer ¹  give straw to the people for making bricks ²  as before. ³  Let them go ⁴  and collect straw for themselves.

These people continually and blatantly offend me ¹  as they sacrifice in their sacred orchards ²  and burn incense on brick altars. ³ 

The Israelite foremen whom Pharaoh’s slave masters had set over them were beaten and were asked, ¹  “Why did you not complete your requirement for brickmaking as in the past – both yesterday and today?” ² 

Draw yourselves water for a siege! ¹  Strengthen your fortifications! Trample the mud ²  and tread the clay! Make mud bricks to strengthen your walls! ³ 

They made their lives bitter ¹  by ²  hard service with mortar and bricks and by all kinds of service ³  in the fields. Every kind of service the Israelites were required to give was rigorous. ⁴ 

The slave masters were pressuring ¹  them, saying, “Complete ²  your work for each day, just like when there was straw!”

You counted the houses in Jerusalem, ¹  and demolished houses so you could have material to reinforce the wall. ² 

For the stones in the walls will cry out, and the wooden rafters will answer back. ¹ 

You ¹  go get straw for yourselves wherever you can ²  find it, because there will be no reduction at all in your workload.’”

He removed ¹  the people who were in it and made them do hard labor with saws, iron picks, and iron axes, putting them to work at the brick kiln. This was his policy ²  with all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all the army returned to Jerusalem. ³