1:14 They made their lives bitter36 by37 hard service with mortar and bricks and by all kinds of service38 in the fields. Every kind of service the Israelites were required to give was rigorous.39
tn The line could be more literally translated, “All their service in which they served them [was] with rigor.” This takes the referent of בָּהֶם (bahem) to be the Egyptians. The pronoun may also resume the reference to the kinds of service and so not be needed in English: “All their service in which they served [was] with rigor.”