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.

And the young men that were grown up with him spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou speak unto this people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou {it} lighter unto us; thus shalt thou say unto them, My little {finger} shall be thicker than my father's loins.

And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now {are} many, and ye make them rest from their burdens.

And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, {was} with rigour.

Wherefore he did evil in the sight of the LORD like the house of Ahab: for they were his counsellors after the death of his father to his destruction.

All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions. {decree: or, interdict}

The thoughts of the righteous {are} right: {but} the counsels of the wicked {are} deceit.

The beginning of strife {is as} when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention, before it be meddled with.

Better {is} the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: {and} the patient in spirit {is} better than the proud in spirit.

And Memucan answered before the king and the princes, Vashti the queen hath not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes, and to all the people that {are} in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus.

But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.

Then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king:

Pride {goeth} before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised {is} wisdom.

Surely the princes of Zoan {are} fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I {am} the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?

Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.

The prince that wanteth understanding {is} also a great oppressor: {but} he that hateth covetousness shall prolong {his} days.

Although my house {be} not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all {things}, and sure: for {this is} all my salvation, and all {my} desire, although he make {it} not to grow.

And now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke: my father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.

And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise {man} or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This {is} also vanity.