These are the words of the king’s command, or decree. You refers to the taskmasters and the foremen in verse 6. You shall no longer give is literally “You shall not continue to give,” meaning “Stop giving” (Good News Translation). Evidently the Egyptians had been supplying the workers with straw, or at least had supervised the delivery of the straw to the brick-makers. The word give may therefore be understood as “supply” (New English Bible) or “provide” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). The people here refers to the Israelites, particularly those who were required to make the bricks.

The word for straw refers to chopped pieces of the stalks of wheat or barley after the grain had been harvested. It served a double purpose: as a binder it caused the mud to stick together in one lump, and as a decaying vegetable substance it produced humic acid that strengthened the dried bricks. The bricks in ancient Egypt were flat rectangular blocks of sun-dried mud or clay used for constructing walls and buildings. Although somewhat larger than the bricks commonly used today, they were placed on top of each other with a layer of mud in between as mortar. In cultures where bricks are unknown, translators may borrow the English term or one from some other major language. It will then be helpful to include a Glossary comment on bricks and even have a picture in the text. In verse 12 the straw is distinguished from the “stubble.” (See the comment there.) As heretofore is an idiom emphasizing the idea that the practice of supplying straw for the laborers must stop. It may also be rendered “as you have been doing until now.”

Let them go is a command; it does not suggest that they may go if they want to. Good News Translation‘s “Make them go” is better. Let them go and gather straw suggests two actions: they were to go out into the harvested fields and gather the straw wherever they could find it. For themselves should be understood as “they themselves must go and gather the straw.” This became an added burden to that of making the bricks, since the straw was a necessary ingredient in the mixture.

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 .