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.