Exodus 1:14
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. 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.
A new king arose who no longer treated Israel as free, but ranked them with the class of slaves who had sold their flocks, their lands, and themselves. He set taskmasters over them to afflict them with burdens, and put them to building the treasure-cities Pithom and Raamses. Their lives were made bitter with hard bondage imposed with rigor and severity, in mortar and in brick and in every kind of service in the field. That severity included brickmaking and fieldwork and other labor exacted under harsh treatment.
A fixed daily amount of labor was imposed upon them. Women also were compelled to work in the fields as slaves alongside the men. The labor was laid on to subdue them and crush out their independent spirit. By that hard labor Pharaoh intended to destroy them.
Their forced labor enriched the Egyptians, who gave them only enough to sustain them. For work so exacted they were entitled to compensation. Yet the more they were afflicted the more they multiplied and grew, so their numbers continued to increase and did not decrease despite the oppression. The king and his rulers were grieved and angry at their increase, hardened their hearts, and moved further toward destroying the male children.
Pharaoh later pretended special interest in their welfare and tender care for their wives, little ones, and families in refusing to let them go into the wilderness and in seeking to control their departure. That profession was pretense to serve his own purpose of keeping them in Egypt. He argued that a God who required wives and little children to go on so dangerous an expedition should not be obeyed, claiming God would only lead them out to destroy them and leave their bodies in the wilderness.
The Israelites later forgot this bitter, rigorous labor under bondage when they focused on the hardships of their journey after deliverance. This history of Israel in Egypt is an experience for the people of God living in the last days to consider as they choose to stand fully on the Lord's side.