Exodus Chapter 5 verse 13 Holy Bible
And the taskmasters were urgent saying, Fulfil your works, `your' daily tasks, as when there was straw.
read chapter 5 in ASV
And the overseers went on driving them and saying, Do your full day's work as before when there were dry stems for you.
read chapter 5 in BBE
And the taskmasters urged [them], saying, Fulfil your labours, the daily work, as when there was straw.
read chapter 5 in DARBY
And the taskmasters hasted them, saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw.
read chapter 5 in KJV
And the task-masters hastened them, saying, Fulfill your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw.
read chapter 5 in WBT
The taskmasters were urgent saying, "Fulfill your work quota daily, as when there was straw!"
read chapter 5 in WEB
and the exactors are making haste, saying, `Complete your works, the matter of a day in its day, as when there is straw.'
read chapter 5 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerses 13, 14. - The taskmasters hasted them. The Egyptian overseers, armed with rods, went about among the toiling Israelites continually, and "hasted them" by dealing out blows freely on all who made any pause in their work. The unceasing toil lasted from morning to night; yet still the required" tale" could not be produced; and consequently the native officers, whose business it was to produce the "tale," were punished by the bastinado at the close of the day not giving in the proper amount. Kalisch observes - "Even now the Arabic fellahs, whose position is very analogous to that of the Israelites described in our text, are treated by the Turks in the same manner. Arabic overseers have to give an account of the labours of their countrymen to the Turkish taskmasters, who often chastise them mercilessly for the real or imputed cf. fences of the Arabic workmen." CHAPTER 5:15-19
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(13) The taskmasters hasted them.--The Egyptian monuments show us foreign labourers engaged in brick-making under Egyptian overseers, or "taskmasters," who are armed with sticks, and "haste" the labourers whenever they cease work for the purpose of resting themselves. The overseers are represented as continually saying to the workpeople, "Work without faintness." (See Wilkinson, in Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 214.)As when there was straw.--Heb., as when there, was the straw--i.e., as. when the straw was furnished to you.
