Exodus 5:16
תֶּבֶן אֵין נִתָּן לַעֲבָדֶיךָ וּלְבֵנִים אֹמְרִים לָנוּ עֲשׂוּ וְהִנֵּה עֲבָדֶיךָ מֻכִּים וְחָטָאת עַמֶּֽךָ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
תֶּ֗בֶן אֵ֤ין נִתָּן֙ לַעֲבָדֶ֔יךָ וּלְבֵנִ֛ים אֹמְרִ֥ים לָ֖נוּ עֲשׂ֑וּ וְהִנֵּ֧ה עֲבָדֶ֛יךָ מֻכִּ֖ים וְחָטָ֥את עַמֶּֽךָ׃
ἄχυρον οὐ δίδοται τοῖς οἰκέταις σου, καὶ τὴν πλίνθον ἡμῖν λέγουσιν ποιεῖν, καὶ ἰδοὺ οἱ παῖδές σου μεμαστίγωνται· ἀδικήσεις οὖν τὸν λαόν σου.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
paleæ non dantur nobis, et lateres similiter imperantur: en famuli tui flagellis cædimur, et injuste agitur contra populum tuum.
No nos dan paja, y encima nos exigen: ‘¡Hagan ladrillos!’ Y mira, a tus siervos nos agarran a golpes, cuando la culpa es de tu propia gente.”
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
No se da paja á tus siervos, y con todo nos dicen: Haced el ladrillo. Y he aquí tus siervos son azotados, y tu pueblo cae en falta.
No straw has been given to your servants, yet we are told, ‘ Make bricks!’ Look, your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.”
✦ What the text says
Summary
The Israelite foremen tell Pharaoh that no straw is being supplied to his servants, yet they are ordered to produce bricks anyway. They report being beaten and close with a construct phrase concerning "fault" or "sin" tied to "your people."
Key words
teven ("straw", H8401) — the subject of the sentence, paired with the negative existential 'ein ("not", H0369) and the niphal participle nittan ("[is being] given", H5414), producing a nominal-verbal construction: "straw — there is none being given."
'avadeikha ("your servants", H5650 + H9021) — a construct noun with pronominal suffix, appearing twice (lines 5-6 and 15-16); it frames the complaint as coming from Pharaoh's own subordinates, using his relationship to them as leverage.
mukkim ("[are] being struck", H5221) — a hophal passive participle, marking a causative-passive: someone causes the servants to be struck, rather than a simple passive state.
chatat ("sin/fault", H2398) — grammatically a feminine singular noun in construct, not a finite verb, despite the English gloss "you have sinned." It forms a construct chain with 'ammekha ("your people", H5971 + H9021): literally "the fault of your people."
What the text says
The verse opens with a fronted object, teven ("straw"), followed by the negative existential 'ein and the niphal participle nittan, giving continuous, ongoing force: straw is not being supplied, as an unfolding situation rather than a single completed non-event. The foremen then quote the order given to them — 'omrim lanu 'asu ("[they are] saying to us, 'Make!'") — embedding direct speech with the qal imperative 'asu inside the participial clause 'omrim ("[people are] saying").
The final clause, chatat 'ammekha, is a bare construct noun phrase with no verb: "the fault/sin of your people." Because Hebrew allows nominal sentences without a copula, the clause simply juxtaposes "fault" and "your people," leaving the semantic relationship (whether the people commit the fault, suffer it, or cause it) unspecified by the grammar alone.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew construct chatat 'ammekha ("fault of your people") is rendered by the LXX as a finite future verb, adikēseis... ton laon sou ("you will wrong your people"), converting the nominal Hebrew clause into a verbal statement addressed directly to Pharaoh. The Vulgate uses a passive verb, injuste agitur contra populum tuum ("it is done unjustly against your people"), again supplying a verb absent from the Hebrew construct chain. The BSB's "the fault is with your own people" preserves the nominal, fault-attributing sense closer to the Hebrew construct structure than the LXX's verbal rendering does.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.