The Egyptians dealt ill with us and afflicted us: We now return to the original statement illustrating how our "enemies rose up against us to destroy us." Egyptians rose up against to make us look like evil sinners. The proof text is, “Let us deal wisely with him lest they become great.” Pharaoh wanted to destroy Israel because he was afraid that Israel would become mighty, not just physically but spiritually. Everything that the Egyptians did, then, was to weaken the Israelites and not necessarily to strengthen the Egyptians. For instance Pharaoh did not assign new tasks to the Israelites to make more bricks because they wanted bricks but to weaken the Israelite nation.