Exodus 5: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Moses and Aaron come to Pharaoh with the LORD's word to let his people go and hold a feast in the wilderness, and Pharaoh answers that he does not know the LORD and will not let Israel go. That same day he orders that the workers no longer be given straw for bricks while still producing the same number, and the Israelite foremen are beaten when the quota is not met. Their appeal to Pharaoh fails, and they turn on Moses and Aaron; Moses goes back to the LORD and asks why he was sent, since Pharaoh has treated the people badly and the LORD has not rescued them.

Claim by Claim

1. 5:1
   • Afterward Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh.
   • Moses and Aaron told Pharaoh that the LORD, the God of Israel, says this.
   • The message was: let my people go.
   • The purpose stated was that the people may hold a festival to the LORD in the wilderness.
2. 5:2
   • Pharaoh asked who the LORD is, that he should obey his voice to let Israel go.
   • Pharaoh said he does not know the LORD.
   • Pharaoh said he will not let Israel go.
3. 5:3
   • They said the God of the Hebrews has met with us.
   • They asked to go a three days' journey into the wilderness.
   • They asked to sacrifice to the LORD their God.
   • They said this was lest he strike them with pestilence or with the sword.
4. 5:4
   • The king of Egypt said to them, asking why Moses and Aaron make the people break off from their work.
   • The king of Egypt told them to go to their burdens.
5. 5:5
   • Pharaoh said the people of the land are now many.
   • Pharaoh said Moses and Aaron make the people cease from their burdens.
6. 5:6
   • That same day Pharaoh gave a command to the taskmasters over the people and to their officers.
7. 5:7
   • Pharaoh commanded that they no longer give the people straw to make bricks as before.
   • Pharaoh commanded that the people go and gather straw for themselves.
8. 5:8
   • Pharaoh commanded that the same quota of bricks the people made before be laid on them.
   • Pharaoh commanded that nothing be reduced from that quota.
   • Pharaoh said the people are idle.
   • Pharaoh said that is why they cry out, saying, let us go and sacrifice to our God.
9. 5:9
   • Pharaoh commanded that the work be made heavier on the men.
   • Pharaoh commanded that the men labor at the work.
   • Pharaoh commanded that they not pay attention to lying words.
10. 5:10
    • The taskmasters of the people and their officers went out.
    • They spoke to the people, saying this is what Pharaoh says.
    • Pharaoh's word was that he is not giving them straw.
11. 5:11
    • The people were told to go and get straw for themselves wherever they could find it.
    • The people were told that nothing of their work would be reduced.
12. 5:12
    • The people scattered throughout all the land of Egypt.
    • They scattered to gather stubble for straw.
13. 5:13
    • The taskmasters urged them, saying to finish their works, the amount for each day on its day, as when there was straw.
14. 5:14
    • The officers of the children of Israel were beaten.
    • Pharaoh's taskmasters had set those officers over the people.
    • Pharaoh's taskmasters demanded why they had not fulfilled their quota of brickmaking yesterday and today, as before.
15. 5:15
    • The officers of the children of Israel came to Pharaoh.
    • They cried out to Pharaoh, asking why he deals this way with his servants.
16. 5:16
    • They said no straw is given to Pharaoh's servants.
    • They said they are told to make bricks.
    • They said Pharaoh's servants are being beaten.
    • They said the fault is with Pharaoh's own people.
17. 5:17
    • Pharaoh said they are idle, and said it twice.
    • Pharaoh said that is why they say, let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.
18. 5:18
    • Pharaoh told them to go now and work.
    • Pharaoh said no straw would be given to them.
    • Pharaoh said they must still deliver the full number of bricks.
19. 5:19
    • The officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in trouble.
    • This was after being told that they must not reduce anything from their bricks, the amount for each day on its day.
20. 5:20
    • They met Moses and Aaron.
    • Moses and Aaron were standing to meet them.
    • This happened as the officers came out from Pharaoh.
21. 5:21
    • They said to Moses and Aaron, may the LORD look upon you and judge.
    • They said Moses and Aaron had made their odor stink in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants.
    • They said this put a sword in the hand of Pharaoh and his servants to kill them.
22. 5:22
    • Moses returned to the LORD.
    • Moses asked the Lord why he had brought evil on this people.
    • Moses asked why the LORD had sent him.
23. 5:23
    • Moses said that since he came to Pharaoh to speak in the LORD's name, Pharaoh has done evil to this people.
    • Moses said the LORD has not delivered his people at all.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

5:1

"The LORD" printed in capitals stands where the Hebrew has the personal name of Israel's God (written YHWH, often pronounced "Yahweh"), as opposed to the ordinary word for "a god." Pharaoh's reply in the next verse turns on this: he is saying he has never heard of this particular god. The word behind "feast" (Hebrew *ḥag*) means a pilgrimage festival: traveling to a place, offering sacrifices there, and eating and celebrating. It is not simply a meal.

5:2

"I do not know the LORD" is not a claim of ignorance about religion in general. To "know" a god here means to recognize it, to have dealings with it, to acknowledge its claim on you. Pharaoh is saying this god has no standing with him.

5:3

"Hebrews" is the name outsiders used for the Israelites living in Egypt; the Israelites themselves rarely use it of themselves. ("Three days' journey" is a round figure for a trip far enough out to be beyond settled Egyptian territory: three days out, sacrifice, three days back.) "The sword" is standard Hebrew shorthand for war or violent death, as "disease" is for epidemic.

5:4

"Let" here is the old English verb meaning to hinder or hold back, the exact opposite of the modern sense of "let" as permit. Pharaoh is accusing Moses and Aaron of obstructing the work. "Burdens" is the book's recurring term for the forced labor imposed on the Israelites, and "get you unto your burdens" means "get back to work."

5:5

"The people of the land" can mean the general population of a country or a particular working class within it; Pharaoh's point is that this labor force has grown large, so any stoppage is expensive.

5:6

Two separate ranks, and the difference matters for the rest of the chapter. The "taskmasters" were Egyptian officials running the building program. The "foremen" (or officers) were Israelites picked from among the workers to drive the gangs. They stood between the two sides, and in verse 14 it is they, not the Egyptians, who are beaten when the quota falls short.

5:7

Egyptian bricks were made of Nile mud pressed into wooden molds and dried in the sun, not fired in a kiln. Chopped straw was mixed into the mud as a binder, making the brick far less likely to crack; the state normally supplied it as part of the cost of the work. Withdrawing the straw while keeping the count is a real, calculated increase in labor, not an insult only.

5:8

"Tale" here means a count or tally, from the older sense of "tell" meaning to count, as in a bank teller. It has nothing to do with a story. "Ought" means anything at all, so "ye shall not diminish ought thereof" means do not reduce the number by even one brick.

5:9

"Empty words" translates a Hebrew phrase meaning words of falsehood or deceit. Pharaoh is calling the message Moses brought a lie.

5:11

"Not ought of your work shall be diminished" means not the smallest part of the daily quota will be reduced.

5:12

Stubble is the stumps of grain stalks left standing in a field after harvest. It is shorter, coarser and scattered across the countryside, so gathering enough of it, and chopping it down to usable size, takes far longer than collecting the threshed straw that was previously issued.

5:13

"Fulfil your works, your daily tasks" refers to a fixed number of bricks owed each day. Egyptian records confirm that brickmaking gangs worked to a set daily quota that was checked and recorded.

5:14

The Israelite foremen occupy the worst position in the system: they were promoted by the Egyptians to drive their own people, and when the quota fails it is their backs that are beaten rather than the workers' or the Egyptians'.

5:15

"Your servants" is the ordinary humble way of saying "we" when speaking to a king; it does not mean they are Pharaoh's household staff.

5:16

The Hebrew of the last clause is genuinely unclear, and translations divide. It can mean "the fault lies with your own people" (the Egyptian officials who withheld the straw), or "you are doing wrong to your own people," or simply "and your people are at fault." The rendering keeps the most common reading.

5:17

"Ye are idle" means "you are lazy." Pharaoh says it twice to be mean.

5:18

"Deliver the tale of bricks" means hand over the full counted quota. "Tale" again means a tally, not a story.

5:19

"In evil case" means in a bad situation, in serious trouble. "Minish" is an older form of "diminish" and means reduce.

5:20

In the King James, "the way" almost always means the road or the path. Moses and Aaron were waiting on the road, not blocking it.

5:21

The Hebrew is literally "you have made our smell stink in the eyes of Pharaoh" (a set idiom for making someone repellent or hated, close to the English "you have made our name mud.") "Put a sword in their hand" is likewise an idiom: you have handed them both the means and the excuse to kill us.

5:22

"Evil entreated" uses "entreat" in its older sense of "treat" or "deal with," not "beg." Moses is asking why God has treated the people so badly, not why God has begged them.

5:23

To "speak in someone's name" is to come as their authorised representative, delivering their words rather than your own, the language of an official messenger or envoy.