Vayitnu alaynu avodah kasha, they placed hard labor upon us: Besides the hard work which the people of Israel had to perform for Pharaoh, they were forced to perform hard work for the people of Egypt as well. The Egyptians treated the Israelites as their personal slaves. This is what the proof text teaches us: “The Egyptians subjugated the Israelites with hard labor.” Thus, the two phrases in the verse here refer to two types of enslavement: “They oppressed us, “refers to the hard work Pharaoh imposed on the people, and “they placed hard labor on us,” refers to the oppressive work which the Egyptians placed on the Israelites. Similarly we can interpret the verse, “They embittered their lives with hard work, with mortar and bricks,” as the work they performed for Pharaoh, and “With all sorts of tasks in the field,” as a reference to the work they performed for the Egyptian people. The work they performed for the people was also avodah farekh, oppressive work that was meant to break the bodies of the Israelites. Pharaoh did not stop his people from doing this for it was his desire to oppress the Israelites.