Graphic Bible · Scene 2 of 4

Exodus 5:6-14. Bricks without straw. Wide sun-baked harvested stubble field at the edge of an Egyptian mudbrick yard. Exhausted Hebrew men and women stoop to pick scattered dry stalks by hand and carry small meager bundles. Foreground focal worker with bent back and dusty hands gathers scarce straw; another carries an almost empty basket. Distant rows of unfinished mudbricks and wooden rectangular molds wait beside mud pits. An Egyptian overseer stands in far background pressing them onward, no foreground assault. Low horizon and harsh midday light convey relentless quota and scarcity. Ordinary distinct unnamed workers in rough tan linen, no Moses, Aaron, Pharaoh, pyramids or modern implements. Match established hand-inked gouache graphic-novel style. Bronze Age Exodus setting, not first-century staging. One 16:9 single scene. No text or lettering.
Artwork is an interpretation. Scripture is quoted from the People's Open Bible.

Exodus 5:6-14

Bricks without straw

Before Pharaoh · Exodus 5

Story guide: The labor grows harsher: the same quota, without supplied straw.

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6So Pharaoh commanded on that day the taskmasters of the people and his officers, saying,

7You shall no longer give straw to the people for making bricks as before; let them go and gather straw for themselves.

8And the quota of bricks that they were making yesterday and the day before, you shall impose on them; you shall not reduce any of it, because they are idle. Therefore they are crying out, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’

9Let the work be heavy on the men, so that they may labor at it and not pay attention to lying words.

10So the taskmasters of the people and their officers went out and said to the people, “Thus says Pharaoh: I am not giving you straw.”

11You yourselves, go and get straw for yourselves wherever you can find it, for nothing of your work will be reduced.

12So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.

13And the taskmasters kept pressing them, saying, “Finish your work, each day’s matter in its day, just as when there was straw.”

14And the Israelite foremen, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, saying, “Why have you not finished your quota of brickmaking as before, both yesterday and today?”

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