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Exodus 5

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Moses and Aaron Confront Pharaoh 1–5

1
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. ​
2
And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go. ​
3
And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword. ​
4
And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? get you unto your burdens.
5
And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens. ​

Pharaoh Intensifies Israel's Labor 6–14

6
And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying,
7
Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves. ​
8
And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. ​
9
Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words.
10
And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spake to the people, saying, Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw.
11
Go ye, get you straw where ye can find it: yet not ought of your work shall be diminished.
12
So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw.
13
And the taskmasters hasted them, saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw.
14
And the officers of the children of Israel, which Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and to day, as heretofore? ​

Israelite Officers Appeal to Pharaoh 15–19

15
Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants?
16
There is no straw given unto thy servants, and they say to us, Make brick: and, behold, thy servants are beaten; but the fault is in thine own people. ​
17
But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the LORD.
18
Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks.
19
And the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were in evil case, after it was said, Ye shall not minish ought from your bricks of your daily task.

Despair and Moses' Complaint 20–23

20
And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh:
21
And they said unto them, The LORD look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us. ​
22
And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? why is it that thou hast sent me? ​
23
For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Exodus 5

Verse 1

hold a feast — Chagag is the verb for keeping a festival, properly a march in a sacred procession; it is the word of Passover, ‘ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD’ (Ex 12:14). The demand is for worship ‘in the wilderness’ (midbar), the journey the LORD had already named to Moses (Ex 3:18).

Verse 2

Who is the LORD — Pharaoh says ‘I know not the LORD’ (yada, to know). The LORD answers with the same verb: ‘the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD’ (Ex 7:5). By the seventh plague Pharaoh confesses, ‘the LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked’ (Ex 9:27).

Verse 3

The God of the Hebrews — The title the LORD gave Moses to use before the king (Ex 3:18). ‘Hath met with us’ (qarah) is the verb of an encounter. ‘Lest he fall upon us’ (paga) names the penalty for neglecting sacrifice: ‘pestilence’ (deber) or the sword, on Israel itself.

Verse 5

ye make them rest — Shabath, to cease from labour, the verb of the sabbath: the LORD ‘rested’ on the seventh day (Ex 31:17). To Pharaoh a day of worship is a stoppage of ‘burdens’ (sivlah), the word for the loads of Ex 1:11; the LORD promises to bring Israel out ‘from under the burdens’ (Ex 6:6).

Verse 7

straw to make brick — Teben is chopped straw, the stalks left from threshing; it occurs in seven verses of this chapter. Brick-making was part of the ‘hard bondage, in morter, and in brick’ (Ex 1:14). Israel must now ‘gather’ it (qashash) themselves; v.12 shows them scattered over Egypt for stubble.

Verse 8

the tale of the bricks — Mathkoneth, a measured amount: the quota stands unchanged though the straw is gone (v.7). ‘Idle’ (raphah, slack) is Pharaoh’s word for their request, and he repeats it in v.17. The same verb for ‘cry’ (tsa’aq) is used of the officers’ appeal to him in v.15.

Verse 14

officers of the children of Israel — Shoter is the title of an overseer. The Israelite officers stood between Pharaoh’s ‘taskmasters’ (nagas, drivers) and the people, and were ‘beaten’ when the count fell short. The same word is rendered ‘officers’ in Num 11:16.

Verse 16

the fault is in thine own people — The verb is chata, ordinarily ‘to sin’ or ‘miss the mark’. The officers lay the failure on Pharaoh’s side of the matter, since ‘there is no straw given’; he answers in v.17, ‘Ye are idle, ye are idle.’ They call themselves ‘thy servants’ twice in this verse.

Verse 21

made our savour to be abhorred — Literally, made their smell stink: reyach is the word for the ‘sweet savour’ of an offering (Ex 29:18), and ba’ash the verb later used of the river that ‘shall stink’ (Ex 7:18). The officers ask the LORD to ‘look upon’ and ‘judge’ (shaphat) Moses and Aaron.

Verse 22

so evil entreated — Ra’a’, to do harm. Moses sets the LORD’s sending (shalach, the verb of ‘let my people go’) against the people’s worsened state. Only here and in v.23 does the word occur in Exodus; Moses asks the same of the LORD at Num 11:11, ‘Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant?’

Verse 23

neither hast thou delivered thy people at all — Natsal, to snatch away, doubled in the Hebrew: literally ‘delivering thou hast not delivered’. It is the verb of the LORD’s own promise, ‘I am come down to deliver them’ (Ex 3:8). The reply opens the next chapter: ‘Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh’ (Ex 6:1).