Matthew Poole and continuators on Exodus 1:13

13 And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour .

Or, cruelty, or tyranny, with hard words and cruel usage, without mercy or mitigation▪ This God permitted for wise and just reasons. 1. as a punishment of their Idolatry, into which divers of them fell there, Ios. 24. 14. Ezek. 20, 5, 7, 8. and 23. 8. 2. to wean them from the land of Egypt, which otherwise was a plentiful and desirable land, and to quicken their desires after Canaan. 3. to prepare the way for Gods glorious works and Israels deliverance.