'''Behold, the people of Israel are too many....come lets us deal shrewdly with them, last they multiply....'' In the statement above, the first step by the...

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The first step taken by the new king of Egypt was to set taskmasters over the Israelites to afflict them with burdens. The statement comes from the biblical account of the Israelites' enslavement in Egypt, as described in the book of Exodus. According to the account, the new king of Egypt was afraid that the Israelites were becoming too numerous and might pose a threat to his rule. His solution was to impose harsh slave labor on them, using taskmasters to force them to work on construction projects and other tasks. Although the king's actions became increasingly brutal, including the order to kill all Hebrew male children, the first step was to set taskmasters over them to afflict them with burdens.