And he said to Abram, Truly, your seed will be living in a land which is not theirs, as servants to a people who will be cruel to them for four hundred years;

Now the children of Israel had been living in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years.

Vexed us

Sweet is the memory of the fish we had in Egypt for nothing, and the fruit and green plants of every sort, sharp and pleasing to the taste:

Is it not enough that you have taken us from a land flowing with milk and honey, to put us to death in the waste land, but now you are desiring to make yourself a chief over us?

So they put overseers of forced work over them, in order to make their strength less by the weight of their work. And they made store-towns for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses.

And the responsible men of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh's overseers had put over them, were given blows, and they said to them, Why have you not done your regular work, in making bricks as before?

And the Egyptians were cruel to us, crushing us under a hard yoke:

He, having evil designs against our nation, was cruel to our fathers, and they were forced to put out their young children, so that they might not go on living.

General references

And Israel sent men to Sihon, king of the Amorites, saying,