making their lives a misery. They made them do hard labor, building with mortar and brick, and all kinds of heavy work in the fields. In all of this hard labor they treated them brutally.
So tell the Israelites, ‘I am the Lord and I will save you from the forced labor the Egyptians are making you do; I will set you free from being their slaves. I will rescue you using my power and imposing heavy punishments.
For you will smash the yoke that burdens them down, the bar across their shoulders, and the oppressors' rod used to beat them just as you did when you defeated the Midianite army.