After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labour, they cried out, and their cry for help because of the difficult labour ascended to God.
I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. And now, come, I will send you to Egypt. ,
Isn’t this the fast I choose: To break the chains of wickedness, to untie the ropes of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, and to tear off every yoke?
You eat the flesh of my people after you strip their skin from them and break their bones. You chop them up like flesh for the cooking pot, like meat in a cauldron.’
So now what have I here’ – this is the Lord’s declaration – ‘that my people are taken away for nothing? Its rulers wail’ – this is the Lord’s declaration – ‘and my name is continually blasphemed all day long.
I will put it into the hands of your tormentors, who said to you, “Lie down, so that we can walk over you.” You made your back like the ground, and like a street for those who walk on it.
You may leave them to your sons after you to inherit as property; you can make them slaves for life. But concerning your brothers, the Israelites, you must not rule over one another harshly.
Then the Lord said to Abram, ‘Know this for certain: your offspring will be resident foreigners for four hundred years in a land that does not belong to them and will be enslaved and oppressed.
So the Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labour. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh.
and spoke to them according to the young men’s advice: ‘My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with barbed whips.’
Therefore, the Lord God of Armies says this: ‘My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear Assyria, though they strike you with a rod and raise their staff over you as the Egyptians did.