AND it came to pass after these things, that all the counselors of Phar'oh, king of Mitsrayim, and all the elders of Mitsrayim assembled and came before the king and bowed down to the ground, and they sat before him.
And the counselors and elders of Mitsrayim spoke unto the king, saying,
Behold the people of the children of Yashar'el is greater and mightier than we are, and you know all the evil which they did to us in the road when we returned from battle.
And you have also seen their strong power, for this power is unto them from their fathers, for but a few men stood up against a people numerous as the sand, and smote them at the edge of the sword, and of themselves not one has fallen, so that if they had been numerous they would then have utterly destroyed them.
Now therefore give us counsel what to do with them, until we gradually destroy them from amongst us, lest they become too numerous for us in the land.
For if the children of Yashar'el should increase in the land, they will become an obstacle to us, and if any war should happen to take place, they with their great strength will join our enemy against us, and fight against us, destroy us from the land and go away from it.
So the king answered the elders of Mitsrayim and said unto them, This is the plan advised against Yashar'el, from which we will not depart,
Behold in the land are Pithom and Ra`amcec, cities unfortified against battle, it behooves you and us to build them, and to fortify them.
Now therefore go you also and act cunningly toward them, and proclaim a voice in Mitsrayim and in Goshen at the command of the king, saying,
All ye men of Mitsrayim, Goshen, Pathroc and all their inhabitants! the king has commanded us to build Pithom and Ra`amcec, and to fortify them for battle; who amongst you of all Mitsrayim, of the children of Yashar'el and of all the inhabitants of the cities, are willing to build with us, shall each have his wages given to him daily at the king's order; so go you first and do cunningly, and gather yourselves and come to Pithom and Ra`amcec to build.
And while you are building, cause a proclamation of this kind to be made throughout Mitsrayim every day at the command of the king.
And when some of the children of Yashar'el shall come to build with you, you shall give them their wages daily for a few days.
And after they shall have built with you for their daily hire, drag yourselves away from them daily one by one in secret, and then you shall rise up and become their taskmasters and officers, and you shall leave them afterward to build without wages, and should they refuse, then force them with all your might to build.
And if you do this it will be well with us to strengthen our land against the children of Yashar'el, for on account of the fatigue of the building and the work, the children of Yashar'el will decrease, because you will deprive them from their women day by day.
And all the elders of Mitsrayim heard the counsel of the king, and the counsel seemed good in their eyes and in the eyes of the servants of Phar'oh, and in the eyes of all Mitsrayim, and they did according to the word of the king.
And all the servants went away from the king, and they caused a proclamation to be made in all Mitsrayim, in Tachpanchec and in Goshen, and in all the cities which surrounded Mitsrayim, saying,
You have seen what the children of Esau and Yishma'el did to us, who came to war against us and wished to destroy us.
Now therefore the king commanded us to fortify the land, to build the cities Pithom and Ra`amcec, and to fortify them for battle, if they should again come against us.
Whosoever of you from all Mitsrayim and from the children of Yashar'el will come to build with us, he shall have his daily wages given by the king, as his command is unto us.
And when Mitsrayim and all the children of Yashar'el heard all that the servants of Phar'oh had spoken, there came from the Mitsriym, and the children of Yashar'el to build with the servants of Phar'oh, Pithom and Ra`amcec, but none of the children of Leviy came with their brethren to build.
And all the servants of Phar'oh and his princes came at first with deceit to build with all Yashar'el as daily hired laborers, and they gave to Yashar'el their daily hire at the beginning.
And the servants of Phar'oh built with all Yashar'el, and were employed in that work with Yashar'el for a month.
And at the end of the month, all the servants of Phar'oh began to withdraw secretly from the people of Yashar'el daily.
And Yashar'el went on with the work at that time, but they then received their daily hire, because some of the men of Mitsrayim were yet carrying on the work with Yashar'el at that time; therefore the Mitsriym gave Yashar'el their hire in those days, in order that they, the Mitsriym their fellow workmen, might also take the pay for their labor.
And at the end of a year and four months all the Mitsriym had withdrawn from the children of Yashar'el, so that the children of Yashar'el were left alone engaged in the work.
And after all the Mitsriym had withdrawn from the children of Yashar'el they returned and became oppressors and officers over them, and some of them stood over the children of Yashar'el as taskmasters, to receive from them all that they gave them for the pay of their labor.
And the Mitsriym did in this manner to the children of Yashar'el day by day, in order to afflict in their work.
And all the children of Yashar'el were alone engaged in the labor, and the Mitsriym refrained from giving any pay to the children of Yashar'el from that time forward.
And when some of the men of Yashar'el refused to work on account of the wages not being given to them, then the exactors and the servants of Phar'oh oppressed them and smote them with heavy blows, and made them return by force, to labor with their brethren; thus did all the Mitsriym unto the children of Yashar'el all the days.
And all the children of Yashar'el were greatly afraid of the Mitsriym in this matter, and all the children of Yashar'el returned and worked alone without pay.
And the children of Yashar'el built Pithom and Ra`amcec, and all the children of Yashar'el did the work, some making bricks, and some building, and the children of Yashar'el built and fortified all the land of Mitsrayim and its walls, and the children of Yashar'el were engaged in work for many years, until the time came when Yahuah remembered them and brought them out of Mitsrayim.
But the children of Leviy were not employed in the work with their brethren of Yashar'el, from the beginning unto the day of their going forth from Mitsrayim.
For all the children of Leviy knew that the Mitsriym had spoken all these words with deceit to Yashar'el, therefore the children of Leviy refrained from approaching to the work with their brethren.
And the Mitsriym did not direct their attention to make the children of Leviy work afterward, since they had not been with their brethren at the beginning, therefore the Mitsriym left them alone.
And the hands of the men of Mitsrayim were directed with continued severity against the children of Yashar'el in that work, and the Mitsriym made the children of Yashar'el work with rigor.
And the Mitsriym embittered the lives of the children of Yashar'el with hard work, in mortar and bricks, and also in all manner of work in the field.
And the children of Yashar'el called Melol the king of Mitsrayim: Meror, king of Mitsrayim, because in his days the Mitsriym had embittered their lives with all manner of work.
And all the work wherein the Mitsriym made the children of Yashar'el labor, they exacted with rigor, in order to afflict the children of Yashar'el, but the more they afflicted them, the more they increased and grew, and the Mitsriym were grieved because of the children of Yashar'el.