Bible Strands
Exodus 1:14
and made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar, and with all kinds of work in the fields. Every service they imposed was harsh.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator describes the Egyptian taskmasters' actions toward the Israelites immediately following Pharaoh's order to work them ruthlessly.
The words — וַיְמָרְרוּ (vayemarru) translates literally as "and they made bitter," anchoring the verse's focus on the intensification of suffering through forced labor.
The thread — The pattern of Egyptian oppression and Israelite bondage reappears in Numbers 20:15 and Exodus 2:23, while Acts 7:19 references the broader exploitation of the patriarchs.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition of how institutionalized coercion transforms daily survival into a calculated exercise of cruelty.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.
Cross-references
- Acts 7:19 He exploited our people and oppressed our fathers, forcing them to abandon their infants so they would die.
- Numbers 20:15 how our fathers went down to Egypt, where we lived many years. The Egyptians mistreated us and our fathers,
- Exodus 2:23 After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned and cried out under their burden of slavery, and their cry for deliverance from bondage ascended to God.
- Exodus 6:9 Moses relayed this message to the Israelites, but on account of their broken spirit and cruel bondage, they did not listen to him.
- Psalms 81:6 “I relieved his shoulder of the burden; his hands were freed from the basket.
- Isaiah 58:6 Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to break the chains of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and tear off every yoke?
- Acts 7:34 I have indeed seen the oppression of My people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’
- Genesis 15:13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
- Exodus 1:13 They worked the Israelites ruthlessly
- Exodus 5:7 “You shall no longer supply the people with straw for making bricks. They must go and gather their own straw.