1 And it came to be after these matters, that all the counsellors of Pharaoh, sovereign of Mitsrayim, and all the elders of Mitsrayim assembled and came before the sovereign and bowed down to the ground, and they sat before him.
2 And the counsellors and elders of Mitsrayim spoke to the sovereign, saying,
3 “Look, the people of the children of Yisra’ĕl are greater and mightier than we are, and you know all the evil which they did to us on the way when we returned from battle.
4 And you have also seen their strong power, for this power to them is from their fathers, for but a few men stood up against a people numerous as the sand, and smote them by the edge of the sword. But of themselves not one has fallen, so that if they had been numerous they would then have utterly destroyed them.
5 “Now therefore give us counsel what to do with them, until we gradually destroy them from among us, lest they become too numerous for us in the land.
6 “For if the children of Yisra’ĕl should increase in the land, they will become an obstacle to us, and if any battle should come to take place, they with their great strength will join our enemy against us, and fight against us, destroy us from the land and go away from it.”
7 So the sovereign answered the elders of Mitsrayim and said to them, “This is the plan advised against Yisra’ĕl, from which we will not depart.
8 “See, in the land are Pithom and Ra’meses, cities unfortified against battle. It is necessary for us to build them, and to fortify them.
9 “Now therefore you go and also act cunningly toward them, and send a call in Mitsrayim and in Goshen at the command of the sovereign, saying,
10 ‘All you men of Mitsrayim, Goshen, Pathros and all their inhabitants; the sovereign has commanded us to build Pithom and Ra’meses, and to fortify them for battle. Whoever among you of all Mitsrayim, of the children of Yisra’ĕl and of all the inhabitants of the cities, are willing to build with us, shall each have his wages given to him daily at the sovereign’s order.’ So you go first and do cunningly, and gather yourselves and come to Pithom and Ra’meses to build.
11 “And while you are building, send a call of this kind to be made throughout Mitsrayim every day at the command of the sovereign.
12 “And when some of the children of Yisra’ĕl shall come to build with you, you shall give them their wages daily for a few days.
13 “And after they shall have built with you for their daily wage, withdraw yourselves away from them daily one by one in secret, and then you shall rise up and become their task-masters and officers, and you shall leave them afterward to build without wages. But should they refuse, then force them with all your might to build.
14 “And if you do this it will be well with us to strengthen our land against the children of Yisra’ĕl, for because of the fatigue of the building and the work, the children of Yisra’ĕl will decrease, because you will deprive them from their wives day by day.”
15 And all the elders of Mitsrayim heard the counsel of the sovereign, and the counsel seemed good in their eyes and in the eyes of the servants of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all Mitsrayim, and they did according to the word of the sovereign.
16 And all the servants went away from the sovereign, and they sent a call to be made in all Mitsrayim, in Taḥpanḥes and in Goshen, and in all the cities which surrounded Mitsrayim, saying,
17 “You have seen what the children of Ĕsaw and Yishma’ĕl did to us, who came to battle against us and wanted to destroy us.
18 “Now therefore the sovereign commanded us to fortify the land, to build the cities Pithom and Ra’meses, and to fortify them for battle, if they should again come against us.
19 “Whoever of you from all Mitsrayim and from the children of Yisra’ĕl will come to build with us, he shall have his daily wages given by the sovereign, as his command is to us.”
20 And when Mitsrayim and all the children of Yisra’ĕl heard all that the servants of Pharaoh had spoken, they came from the Mitsrites, and the children of Yisra’ĕl to build with the servants of Pharaoh, Pithom and Ra’meses, but none of the children of Lĕwi came with their brothers to build.
21 And all the servants of Pharaoh and his princes came at first with deceit to build with all Yisra’ĕl as daily hired labourers, and they gave to Yisra’ĕl their daily wage at the beginning.
22 And the servants of Pharaoh built with all Yisra’ĕl, and were employed in that work with Yisra’ĕl for a month.
23 And at the end of the month, all the servants of Pharaoh began to withdraw secretly from the people of Yisra’ĕl daily.
24 And Yisra’ĕl went on with the work at that time, but they then received their daily wage, because some of the men of Mitsrayim were still continuing the work with Yisra’ĕl at that time; therefore the Mitsrites gave Yisra’ĕl their wage in those days, in order that they, the Mitsrites their fellow workmen, might also take the pay for their labour.
25 And at the end of a year and four months all the Mitsrites had withdrawn from the children of Yisra’ĕl, so that the children of Yisra’ĕl were left alone employed in the work.
26 And after all the Mitsrites had withdrawn from the children of Yisra’ĕl they returned and became oppressors and officers over them, and some of them stood over the children of Yisra’ĕl as slave-drivers, to receive from them all that they gave them for the pay of their labour.
27 And the Mitsrites did to the children of Yisra’ĕl in this manner day by day, in order to afflict them in their work.
28 And all the children of Yisra’ĕl were alone employed in the labour, and the Mitsrites refrained from giving any pay to the children of Yisra’ĕl from that time onward.
29 And when some of the men of Yisra’ĕl refused to work because of the wages not being given to them, then the slave-drivers and the servants of Pharaoh oppressed them and struck them with heavy blows, and made them return by force, to labour with their brothers. So all the Mitsrites did to the children of Yisra’ĕl all the days.
30 And all the children of Yisra’ĕl were greatly afraid of the Mitsrites in this matter, and all the children of Yisra’ĕl returned and worked alone without pay.
31 And the children of Yisra’ĕl built Pithom and Ra’meses, and all the children of Yisra’ĕl did the work, some making bricks, and some building, and the children of Yisra’ĕl built and fortified all the land of Mitsrayim and its walls. And the children of Yisra’ĕl were engaged in work for many years, until the time came when 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 remembered them and brought them out of Mitsrayim.
32 But the children of Lĕwi were not employed in the work with their brothers of Yisra’ĕl, from the beginning to the day of their going out from Mitsrayim.
33 For all the children of Lĕwi knew that the Mitsrites had spoken all these words with deceit to the Yisra’ĕlites, therefore the children of Lĕwi refrained from approaching to the work with their brothers.
34 And the Mitsrites did not direct their attention to make the children of Lĕwi work afterward, since they had not been with their brothers at the beginning. Therefore the Mitsrites left them alone.
35 And the hands of the men of Mitsrayim were directed with continued severity against the children of Yisra’ĕl in the work, and the Mitsrites made the children of Yisra’ĕl work with harshness.
36 And the Mitsrites embittered the lives of the children of Yisra’ĕl with hard work, in mortar and bricks, and also in all manner of work in the field.
37 And the children of Yisra’ĕl called Melol the sovereign of Mitsrayim ‘Meror, sovereign of Mitsrayim,’ because in his days the Mitsrites had embittered their lives with all manner of work.
38 And all the work wherein the Mitsrites made the children of Yisra’ĕl labour, they exacted with harshness, in order to afflict the children of Yisra’ĕl. But the more they afflicted them, the more they increased and grew, and the Mitsrites were grieved because of the children of Yisra’ĕl.