Exodus 5:10-14

"And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spake to the people, saying, Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. Go yourselves, get you straw where ye can find it; for naught of your work shall be diminished. So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. And the taskmasters were urgent saying, Fulfill your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw. And the officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task both yesterday and today; in making brick as heretofore?"

We shall not dwell upon the impossibility of what Pharaoh demanded, nor the futile efforts of the Hebrew officers to get the tasks accomplished by their brethren. They could not do it. Then the significant thing happened. Those Hebrew "officers" were beaten and made responsible for the failure. Very well, they would go to Pharaoh themselves and handle their grievances without regard to Moses and Aaron! The obsequious manner in which they attempted this is revealed in the next three verses. See under Exodus 5:18.

"To gather stubble for straw ..." "Stubble here is not what we know by that word, but includes all kinds of field rubbish ... To make this fit for making brick, it had to be gathered, chopped up, and sorted."[17] Also, the manner of harvesting wheat was that of cutting off the heads near the top, so there was indeed a great deal of straw in the open country.