A better translation here is "ask." This was the Lord's just way of requiring the Egyptians to pay for all the slave labor they had long been forcing upon the children of Israel.

Source:

KJV Defenders Study Bible, by Dr. Henry Morris, Ph.D.
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Language: English
DEF 10 ISBN 0-529-10444-x
DEF 10-1 ISBN 0-529-10445-8