Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves.
Ye shall no more give the people straw. The making of bricks appears to have been a government monopoly, as the ancient bricks are nearly all stamped with the name of a king, and they were formed, as they are still in Lower Egypt, of clay mixed with chopped straw, and dried or hardened in the sun. The Israelites were employed in this drudgery; and though many of them still dwelt in Goshen, and held property in flocks and herds, others were compelled in rotation to serve in the brick fields, pressed in alternating groups, just as the fellaheen, or peasants, are marched by press-gangs in the same country still. Go ... gather straw ... The enraged despot did not issue orders to do an impracticable thing. The Egyptian reapers in the grain-harvest were accustomed merely to cut off the ears, and leave the stalk standing.