The taskmasters were the Egyptian “slave drivers” to whom the Israelite foremen were responsible. They were urgent, meaning that they “kept pressing them” (New International Version), “kept driving them on” (New American Bible), or “kept trying to force them” (Good News Translation). Saying introduces what they must have said to the people, but especially to the foremen, as verse 14 suggests. “Kept saying” is another possible rendering.

Complete your work, your daily task means to finish or “fulfill” (American Standard Version) what is required of you (plural) each day. Work is literally “what is [to be] done.” The idiom that follows (literally “the matter of a day in its day”) explains that your daily task is precisely “what is to be done.” Since work and daily task are the same, both may be rendered as “your daily quota” (New Jerusalem Bible). The direct quote here may easily be changed to an indirect statement, as in Good News Translation: “The slave drivers kept trying to force them to make the same number of bricks every day.”

As when there was straw emphasizes that the daily quota remained the same, even though they were now required to gather the straw themselves (verse 11) in addition to making the bricks. It does not suggest that they could make the bricks without straw. Some translations make this clear by adding the words “given to you” or “as when straw was supplied” (New English Bible). Straw was still a necessary ingredient, and the quota remained the same as “when they were given straw.” In some languages as when there was straw may be expressed as “as you did when we gave [or, supplied] you the straw” or “as you did when they [unspecified agents] supplied you with the straw.”

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• The Egyptian slave drivers [or, bosses] kept on pressing [or, urging] the Israelite laborers, saying, “Each day you must make the same number of bricks as you did when we gave you the straw.”

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .