5:3,4
Moses and Aaron then repeat and expand upon their request. They want to go for three days, not a permanent departure. They explain that the Lord is the God of the Hebrews, so they are like us explaining to an unbeliever who God is. Then they say that they fear that if they do not do this the Lord will send disease and death upon them.
Pharaoh is not impressed, and is more concerned with the forced labour that he gets out of the Israelites. So Moses had made a reasonable request, but it was rejected out of hand. Society today reacts in a similar way to words from faithful Christians.
5:5-9
Pharaoh says that the people are now so numerous. He does not want to lose any of their labour. So instead of giving any ground on the request of Moses, he just makes things worse for the Israelites. Bricks were made of a mixture of mud and straw. Up until this point the straw had been supplied to them, but now they would have to get the straw themselves, but would still be expected to produce as many bricks. There is a podcast called Real Dictators which looks at the lives of many of the world's dictators. They are all utterly evil and completely mad. They make irrational decisions, ones that just make things much worse for their people. Pharaoh is no different. The new scheme would be far less efficient, but evil men are consumed by evil.
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