Exodus 1:11-14
“Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. They built storage cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out. They were grieved because of the children of Israel. The Egyptians ruthlessly made the children of Israel serve, and they made their lives bitter with hard service, in clay and in brick, and in all kinds of service in the field, all their service, in which they ruthlessly made them serve.”
This passage describes the initial phase of the Israelites' enslavement in Egypt. After Jacob's family grew numerous, a new pharaoh, who did not know Joseph, feared their growing population and sought to suppress them through forced labor.
What does this passage reveal about the dehumanizing nature of forced labor and how power can be used to control a perceived threat?