Two things are clear in this verse: The foremen of the people of Israel are here identified as “Israelite foremen,” especially since they are the ones who were beaten. (See verses 6 and 10.) And Pharaoh’s taskmasters are also the same “Egyptian slave drivers” mentioned earlier. However, it is not clearly stated that they were the ones who “beat the Israelite foremen,” since a causative passive form of the verb is used. Neither is it clear just how they were beaten, for the word that is used simply means to strike or hit. (See 2.11 and comment.)

Probably the taskmasters were the ones who at least caused the foremen to be beaten, for a chain of command is clearly indicated here. In some languages it is possible to express this as “The Egyptian slave drivers caused the Israelite foremen to be beaten,” but in languages that do not use the passive voice, it is probably safer to assume that the slave drivers did the beating and to translate in a similar way to Good News Translation. Whom refers to the foremen and them refers to the people of Israel. Thus the foremen had been set over the Israelite workers, that is, they had been appointed or “put in charge of the work” (Good News Translation) by Pharaoh’s taskmasters. And Pharaoh’s taskmasters in turn were responsible to the king.

The foremen are the ones who were asked the question, and here again it is probable that the taskmasters were the ones who asked it. Why have you not done all your task may be restated as “Why have you not completed your assigned work.” Of making bricks is literally “to make bricks.”

Today, as hitherto is a simplified rendering of a complex phrase in the Hebrew: “as up to now, both yesterday and also today.” The phrase “as up to now” (as hitherto) refers to the time before the new law of verse 7 was imposed, when the quota of bricks was evidently met. The phrase “both before and also today” compares today with yesterday, both days being after the law was imposed, when the quota was no longer met. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh tries to express all this as “Why did you not complete the prescribed amount of bricks, either yesterday or today, as you did before?”

Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, however, seem to interpret “yesterday” as referring to the time before the law was imposed, and thus contrast only before and after: “Why aren’t you people making the same number of bricks that you made before?” The question is probably rhetorical, for the answer was obvious. That is why Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch changes it into an exclamation, “You have again today produced too few bricks!” The foremen themselves weren’t actually making the bricks but were forcing other Israelites to do the work. So it is possible to render this question as “Why aren’t you [the foremen] forcing the workers to make as many bricks yesterday and today as they did before?”

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .