Chapter 5

1 Pharaoh chideth Moses and Aaron for their message. 5 He increaseth the Israelites’ task. 15 He checketh their complaints. 20 They cry out upon Moses and Aaron. 22 Moses complaineth to God.

1. Went in, and told Pharaoh. After Moses and Aaron had been accepted by the elders of Israel to be their God-appointed leaders, the two men proceeded to Pharaoh and secured a hearing before the king. Ancient records make it clear that it was not easy for a commoner to obtain an audience with the king. Moses’ former experience at court now stood him in good stead, for he knew how to approach the king.

A feast. The request put before Pharaoh was a reasonable one. The Israelites could not offer their sacrificial animals in the presence of the Egyptians without provoking an outburst of religious animosity, since among the animals to be slaughtered were some that the Egyptians considered sacred, and therefore not to be killed under any circumstances. To avoid this danger, the feast of the Israelites must be held beyond the boundaries of Egypt, in the wilderness.

2. Who is the Lord? Pharaoh was either ignorant of the name of the God of the Israelites or pretended to be. However that may have been, he felt himself superior to any foreign God. Had not his father and his grandfather oppressed the Israelites without interference by their God? Why should he trouble himself to take notice of a God so obviously disinterested in the affairs of His own people, and apparently unable to help them?

3. Lest he fall upon us. The refusal of Pharaoh did not frighten Moses and Aaron away, for their trust was in the power of One who would, in time, accomplish His gracious purpose. However, the knowledge that they were allied with divine power did not make them overbearing. They remained polite and considerate, and put forth their best efforts to persuade the king to change his mind. They pointed out how necessary it was for the people to comply with the requirements of their God and to celebrate the commanded feast. Instead of threatening the king with punishment should he persist in refusing to let Israel go, they protested to Pharaoh that punishment would come upon the Israelites should they fail to obey so explicit a command of their God.

4. Get you unto your burdens. Pharaoh would hear nothing of the idea, and made no direct reply to their petition. Suspecting that Moses and Aaron were secretly plotting a revolt from his service, he ordered them back to their tasks as slaves. This shows clearly that Moses’ identity was not recognized. The king did not know that Moses had formerly lived at court, or that his recent place of abode was not Egypt, but the land of Midian.

5. The people of the land. It was as if the king had said, “The common herd are already good for nothing, and you would have them stop working altogether?” Moses and Aaron had instituted a reform in Sabbath observance, and this fact had come to the attention of the king (PP 258). The people were idle and in need of more work to absorb their energies. Thus he reasoned.

6. The taskmasters of the people. The word here translated “taskmasters” is not the same as that of ch. 1:11, and probably designates another class of officers. The “taskmasters” of the former passage were the work superintendents, probably few in number and high in rank, whereas the “taskmasters” here were Egyptians of a lower rank and more numerous. The “officers,” literally, “scribes,” were undoubtedly Hebrews, as is evident from the expression “officers of the children of Israel” used in ch. 5:14 and from the rough treatment they received. They were probably employed as foremen, and had to give an account of the work done.

7. Straw to make brick. Having no intention of being intimidated by the God of the Hebrews, and proud in the security of his own power, Pharaoh was determined to enforce his will. Suspecting that their wish to go into the desert was nothing but an excuse invented by idlers and prompted by a thirst for freedom that might endanger the kingdom, he devised a plan for making the oppression more cruel than it already was.

In ancient Egypt bricks were made just as they are today, sometimes with and sometimes without straw. More commonly, the bricks contained some type of plant binder along with the clay, usually straw, called teben in Biblical Hebrew and tibn in Egyptian Arabic today. The process of brickmaking in ancient Egypt is represented by several models found in Egyptian tombs, and also in a wall painting in the tomb of the vizier Rekhmire, who lived under Thutmose III in the middle of the 15th century b.c. It shows men drawing water from a pool, mixing mud with a hoe, carrying the mixture in jars to the brickmakers, and the brickmakers forming the bricks in wooden molds. A foreman with a stick in his hand watches over the group of workmen. The men carrying bricks are described as “captives which his majesty brought for the works of the temple of Amon.” Some of the captives depicted are Semites and resemble the Hebrews.

Moses does not present the Hebrews as making “bricks without straw,” as is sometimes erroneously stated. Rather, Pharaoh’s decree specifically required them to use straw, but to provide it themselves. Had the Hebrews proceeded to make brick without straw they would have been violating the decree, and this the taskmasters would hardly have permitted. Such bricks would have been decidedly inferior in quality, since chopped straw increases the strength of mud bricks several times. This is due partly to the presence of the straw stalks themselves and partly to the chemical action of decaying vegetable matter upon the brick mixture. When the mixture is allowed to stand for a few days, the bricks are both stronger and easier to make. Some have erroneously interpreted the presence of strawless bricks in the walls of certain ancient Egyptian buildings as evidence confirming the narrative of ch. 5:7, 8. Such reports, however, are based on a misunderstanding of the Bible record and ignorance of the art of brickmaking as practiced in the valley of the Nile (see The Biblical Archaeologist, vol. 13, no. 2 [May, 1950], pp. 22–28).

8. The tale of the bricks. The word here translated “tale” means, rather, “the daily required number,” and indicates that the Hebrews were required to produce a fixed number of bricks every day. Though they were now to procure their own straw, by gleaning it from the fields, the required number of bricks was to remain the same as before.

14. The officers. The Egyptian overseers are regularly depicted with sticks in their hands. One picture from a temple wall of Thebes of the time of Thutmose III shows a taskmaster with a raised stick in his hand, saying to the workmen, “The stick is in my hand; be not lazy.” When the new directive of the king was enforced, it soon became impossible for the Israelites to produce the required number of bricks. Consequently, the Hebrew officers whose business it was to give a daily account of the work done were punished by their Egyptian overlords.

15. Cried unto Pharaoh. The Hebrew foremen apparently had access to the king. When these men were unjustly beaten for their inability to force their people to produce the required “tale” of bricks, they complained to the king, thinking the Egyptian overseers personally to blame.

17. Ye are idle. Pharaoh seems to have been pleased with his happy thought of interpreting as idleness the desire of the Israelites to worship their God. He apparently considered it clever to accuse overworked people of being lazy and of employing religion as an excuse for it.

21. Abhorred. Unkind were the words that the Hebrew foremen spoke to the messengers of God. Words prompted by anger are usually irrational. This may account for their mixed metaphor, alluding to the effect their evil “savour” would have on the “eyes,” instead of in the nose, of Pharaoh. They went even further, figuratively accusing Moses and Aaron of placing a sword in the hands of the Egyptians to slay them. They surmised that Moses and Aaron had led the king and his counselors to suspect them of laziness. To be sure, the foremen had no doubt suffered a severe beating (v. 14), probably administered as a bastinado, the customary form of corporal punishment in Egypt. This beating of the bare soles of the feet is extremely painful, and death not infrequently results from its repeated employment.

22. Moses returned unto the Lord. The two brothers made no reply to the words of the officers. Perhaps their hearts were too full for speech, and they probably did not know what to say anyway. They turned instead to God, their sole source of consolation and guidance.

Lord, wherefore. Moses’ words did not reflect a spirit of displeasure or insubordination, but of perplexity and inquiry. The question and complaint proceeded from a faith that could not understand the dealings of God. At the same time he appealed for help in this hour of need and for the removal of what seemed contrary to God’s nature and His will.

Ellen G. White comments

1-23PP 257-259; SR 112-115

1, 2 PP 333

1-5PP 257

2     DA 51; Ev 560; GC 269; PP 280; SR 117

10-17, 21PP 258

22, 23  PP 259