Crushing harshness — pitiless, breaking labor (Exodus 1:13, 14). KJV 'with rigour'; NWT 'under tyranny.' A rare, heavy word that returns three times at Leviticus 25:43, 46, 53 (already on these pages), forbidding an Israelite master from ruling a fellow Israelite be-farekh, 'with harshness' — the identical word for what Egypt had done to Israel, now named as the one thing Israel may not become to its own. The opposite of the discipline a father gives; this is cruelty made a system. → first discussed at Gen 1:13