7123. Verses 10-13. And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spoke to the people, saying, Thus said Pharaoh, I will by no means give you straw. Go ye yourselves, get you straw where ye can find it; for nothing whatever shall be taken away from your service. And the people scattered into all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. And the taskmasters were urgent, saying, Complete ye your works, the work of a day in its day, as when there was straw. "And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers," signifies the sending forth and presence of those who most closely infest, and of those who most closely receive; "and they spoke to the people, saying," signifies perception; "Thus said Pharaoh," signifies about the infestations; "I will by no means give you straw," signifies no longer thence the most general memory-knowledges; "Go ye yourselves, get you straw where ye can find it," signifies that they should procure these for themselves elsewhere, wherever they could; "for nothing whatever shall be taken away from your service," signifies injections of falsities without diminution; "and the people scattered into all the land of Egypt," signifies that they overspread the natural mind on every side; "to gather stubble for straw," signifies to find some truth of memory-knowledge; "and the taskmasters were urgent," signifies that they who most closely infested were insistent; "saying, Complete ye your works, the work of a day in its day," signifies that they should serve falsities so called in every state; "as when there was straw," signifies just as they served their truths so called.