Exodus 5:15-18

"Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants? There is no straw given unto thy servants, and they say to us, Make brick: and, behold, thy servants are beaten; but the fault is in thine own people. But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and sacrifice to Jehovah. Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the number of bricks."

Note the cringing and servile manner of these Hebrew officers addressing Pharaoh: "Thy servants ... thy servants ... thy servants ...!" If they had hoped to negotiate a milder work situation by this interview, they were bitterly disappointed. Their attempt to "go around" Moses and Aaron had ended in disaster, but there was a tremendous plus in this for the ultimate purpose of their delivery. "The treatment of the clerks brought them into sympathy with their enslaved brethren. Israel closed ranks!"[18] This development was absolutely a prerequisite of their deliverance. God's plan was already working, however, it might have seemed otherwise at the time.