Bible in Basic English
"And the overseers of the people and their responsible men went out and said to the people, Pharaoh says, I will give you no more dry stems."
— Exodus 5:10, Bible in Basic English
“So the slave masters of the people and their foremen went to the Israelites and said,“Thus says Pharaoh:‘I am not giving you straw.”
Give these men no more dry stems for their brick-making as you have been doing; let them go and get the material for themselves.
But see that they make the same number of bricks as before, and no less: for they have no love for work; and so they are crying out and saying, Let us go and make an offering to our God.
Give the men harder work, and see that they do it; let them not give attention to false words.
And the overseers of the people and their responsible men went out and said to the people, Pharaoh says, I will give you no more dry stems.
Go yourselves and get dry stems wherever you are able; for your work is not to be any less.
So the people were sent in all directions through the land of Egypt to get dry grass for stems.
And the overseers went on driving them and saying, Do your full day's work as before when there were dry stems for you.