Exodus 5:3-9

3So they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please, let us go three days’ journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.”

4Then the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your labor.”

5And Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are many now, and you make them rest from their labor!”

6So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying,

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

8And you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before. You shall not reduce it. For they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’

9Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words.”