The taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spoke to the people, saying, This is what Par`oh says: *I will not give you straw.
The number of the bricks, which they made before, you require from them. You shall not diminish anything of it, for they are idle; therefore they cry, saying, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.'
then spoke `Azaryah the son of Hosha`yah, and Yochanan the son of Kareach, and all the proud men, saying to Yirmeyahu, You speak falsely: the LORD our God has not sent you to say, You shall not go into Egypt to sojourn there;
But my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, didn't they overtake your fathers? *Then they repented and said, 'Just as the LORD of Armies determined to do to us, according to our ways, and according to our practices, so he has dealt with us.'*
You have said, 'It is vain to serve God;' and 'What profit is it that we have kept his charge, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of Armies?