Exodus 5:13

Summary

The verse reports the demand of the Egyptian taskmasters upon the Israelites: they press them to complete their daily quota of work "in its day," using the same standard as before, "as when the straw was" — i.e., when straw used to be supplied to them.

Key words

• no.ge.Sim ("taskmasters", H5065) — qal participle masculine plural, functioning as a substantive: "the ones who press/drive."
• 'a.Tzim ("pressing", H0213) — a second qal participle paired with the first; two participles in sequence intensify the sense of ongoing, repeated pressure rather than a single act.
• ka.Lu ("complete", H3615G) — piel imperative plural, an intensive command form: "finish completely," stronger than a simple qal "do."
• de.var-Yom ("a matter of a day", H1697I + H3117J) — construct chain forming an idiom for a daily quota or allotment.
• h.Yot ("was", H1961) — qal infinitive construct with prefixed be- ("when/in the being of"), introducing a temporal clause without an explicit finite verb for what happened to the straw.

What the text says

The clause opens with the subject ha-no.ge.Sim ("the taskmasters") followed immediately by a second participle, 'a.Tzim ("pressing"). This stacking of two participles — one nominal ("the pressers") and one verbal ("pressing") — is a Hebrew construction that conveys sustained, forceful action: the taskmasters are not merely identified but shown continuously driving the workers. The infinitive le-'emor ("saying") then introduces direct speech, a standard formula for quoted commands.

Within the quoted speech, the piel imperative ka.Lu ("complete") is intensive, distinct from a plain qal command — it stresses total completion, not partial effort. The following construct chain, ma'asei-khem devar-yom be-yomo ("your works, the matter of a day in its day"), uses a doubled noun structure (yom...be-yomo, "day...in its day") that functions idiomatically to express a fixed daily quota, repeated identically each day.

The final clause, ka'asher bi-heyot ha-teven ("as when the straw was"), uses the infinitive construct heyot ("to be/being") governed by the preposition be- ("in"), producing a temporal sense: "when the straw was [in existence/available]." Notably, the Hebrew verb here is simply "to be" — it does not specify an action like "given" or "provided"; that verb is supplied only in the surrounding narrative context, not stated grammatically in this clause.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew clause ka'asher bi-heyot ha-teven ("as when the straw was") uses only the verb "to be," without specifying what happened to the straw. The LXX supplies the verb edidoto ("was given/provided"), and the Vulgate similarly renders dabantur ("were given"), both making explicit an action that the Hebrew infinitive heyot leaves unstated.