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href="../exodus/5-4.htm" title="Exodus 5:4">◄</a> Exodus 5:5 <a href="../exodus/5-6.htm" title="Exodus 5:6">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="topverse">And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now <i>are</i> many, and ye make them rest from their burdens.</div><div id="jump">Jump to: <a href="/commentaries/barnes/exodus/5.htm" title="Barnes' Notes">Barnes</a> • <a href="/commentaries/benson/exodus/5.htm" title="Benson Commentary">Benson</a> • <a href="/commentaries/illustrator/exodus/5.htm" title="Biblical Illustrator">BI</a> • <a href="/commentaries/calvin/exodus/5.htm" title="Calvin's Commentaries">Calvin</a> • <a href="/commentaries/cambridge/exodus/5.htm" title="Cambridge Bible">Cambridge</a> • <a href="/commentaries/clarke/exodus/5.htm" title="Clarke's Commentary">Clarke</a> • <a href="/commentaries/darby/exodus/5.htm" title="Darby's Bible Synopsis">Darby</a> • <a href="/commentaries/ellicott/exodus/5.htm" title="Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers">Ellicott</a> • <a href="/commentaries/expositors/exodus/5.htm" title="Expositor's Bible">Expositor's</a> • <a href="/commentaries/edt/exodus/5.htm" title="Expositor's Dictionary">Exp Dct</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gaebelein/exodus/5.htm" title="Gaebelein's Annotated Bible">Gaebelein</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gsb/exodus/5.htm" title="Geneva Study Bible">GSB</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gill/exodus/5.htm" title="Gill's Bible Exposition">Gill</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gray/exodus/5.htm" title="Gray's Concise">Gray</a> • <a href="/commentaries/guzik/exodus/5.htm" title="Guzik Bible Commentary">Guzik</a> • <a href="/commentaries/haydock/exodus/5.htm" title="Haydock Catholic Bible Commentary">Haydock</a> • <a href="/commentaries/hastings/exodus/3-13.htm" title="Hastings Great Texts">Hastings</a> • <a href="/commentaries/homiletics/exodus/5.htm" title="Pulpit Homiletics">Homiletics</a> • <a href="/commentaries/jfb/exodus/5.htm" title="Jamieson-Fausset-Brown">JFB</a> • <a href="/commentaries/kad/exodus/5.htm" title="Keil and Delitzsch OT">KD</a> • <a href="/commentaries/king-en/exodus/5.htm" title="Kingcomments Bible Studies">King</a> • <a href="/commentaries/lange/exodus/5.htm" title="Lange Commentary">Lange</a> • <a href="/commentaries/maclaren/exodus/5.htm" title="MacLaren Expositions">MacLaren</a> • <a href="/commentaries/mhc/exodus/5.htm" title="Matthew Henry Concise">MHC</a> • <a href="/commentaries/mhcw/exodus/5.htm" title="Matthew Henry Full">MHCW</a> • <a href="/commentaries/parker/exodus/5.htm" title="The People's Bible by Joseph Parker">Parker</a> • <a href="/commentaries/poole/exodus/5.htm" title="Matthew Poole">Poole</a> • <a href="/commentaries/pulpit/exodus/5.htm" title="Pulpit Commentary">Pulpit</a> • <a href="/commentaries/sermon/exodus/5.htm" title="Sermon Bible">Sermon</a> • <a href="/commentaries/sco/exodus/5.htm" title="Scofield Reference Notes">SCO</a> • <a href="/commentaries/ttb/exodus/5.htm" title="Through The Bible">TTB</a> • <a href="/commentaries/wes/exodus/5.htm" title="Wesley's Notes">WES</a> • <a href="#tsk" title="Treasury of Scripture Knowledge">TSK</a></div><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="comtype">EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)</div><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/ellicott/exodus/5.htm">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</a></div>(5) <span class= "bld">And Pharaoh said.</span>—Moses and Aaron having retired, <span class= "ital">re infectâ,</span> Pharaoh turns to the officers of his court and reproaches them with allowing the Hebrews to be idle. They have time to hold meetings (<a href="/context/exodus/4-30.htm" title="And Aaron spoke all the words which the LORD had spoken to Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people.">Exodus 4:30-31</a>), and listen to inflammatory harangues, and depute leaders to make very inconvenient proposals—why are they not kept closer to their tasks? Some change of system is requisite.<p><span class= "bld">Make them rest.</span>—Rather, “<span class= "ital">let them rest.”</span><p><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/benson/exodus/5.htm">Benson Commentary</a></div><span class="bld"><a href="/context/exodus/5-5.htm" title="And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and you make them rest from their burdens....">Exodus 5:5-6</a></span>. <span class="ital">The people are many — </span>Therefore your injury to me is greater, in attempting to make them rest from their labours. <span class="ital">The task- masters — </span>Were Egyptians; <span class="ital">the officers — </span>Were Israelites employed under them, who, as appears from <a href="/exodus/5-14.htm" title="And the officers of the children of Israel, which Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, Why have you not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and to day, as heretofore?">Exodus 5:14</a>, were some of the heads of the people, obliged, under the penalty of punishment, to take care that a certain number of bricks were furnished by them daily.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a name="mhc" id="mhc"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/mhc/exodus/5.htm">Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary</a></div>5:1-9 God will own his people, though poor and despised, and will find a time to plead their cause. Pharaoh treated all he had heard with contempt. He had no knowledge of Jehovah, no fear of him, no love to him, and therefore refused to obey him. Thus Pharaoh's pride, ambition, covetousness, and political knowledge, hardened him to his own destruction. What Moses and Aaron ask is very reasonable, only to go three days' journey into the desert, and that on a good errand. We will sacrifice unto the Lord our God. Pharaoh was very unreasonable, in saying that the people were idle, and therefore talked of going to sacrifice. He thus misrepresents them, that he might have a pretence to add to their burdens. To this day we find many who are more disposed to find fault with their neighbours, for spending in the service of God a few hours spared from their wordly business, than to blame others, who give twice the time to sinful pleasures. Pharaoh's command was barbarous. Moses and Aaron themselves must get to the burdens. Persecutors take pleasure in putting contempt and hardship upon ministers. The usual tale of bricks must be made, without the usual allowance of straw to mix with the clay. Thus more work was to be laid upon the men, which, if they performed, they would be broken with labour; and if not, they would be punished.<a name="bar" id="bar"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/barnes/exodus/5.htm">Barnes' Notes on the Bible</a></div>Let - i. e. hinder. <a name="jfb" id="jfb"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/jfb/exodus/5.htm">Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary</a></div>4. Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? &c.—Without taking any notice of what they had said, he treated them as ambitious demagogues, who were appealing to the superstitious feelings of the people, to stir up sedition and diffuse a spirit of discontent, which spreading through so vast a body of slaves, might endanger the peace of the country.<div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/poole/exodus/5.htm">Matthew Poole's Commentary</a></div>Ver. 5<span class="bld">. </span>The Israelites in this land are very numerous, and therefore it were a madness in me to permit them all to meet and go together as you desire, which may tend to the ruin of my whole kingdom, and probably it is designed by you to that purpose. Or, therefore your injury to me is the greater, in attempting to rob me of the benefit of their labours. This I prefer, because it suits best with the following words. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a name="gil" id="gil"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/gill/exodus/5.htm">Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible</a></div>And Pharaoh said, behold, the people of the land now are many,.... So that if some were taken off, as suggested, there were enough of them to do business and so he cared not; but if allowed to go, they might mutiny and rebel, and give a great deal of trouble to quell them; or it may be, the sense is, they were very numerous, and too numerous already, and if they were took off of their work, and allowed to go a feasting, they would be more so, which agrees with the next clause: <p>and you make them rest from their burdens; which was the way to make them more numerous still, and to frustrate the design of laying burdens upon them, which was originally intended to hinder the multiplication of them, <a href="/exodus/1-9.htm">Exodus 1:9</a>. <a name="gsb" id="gsb"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/gsb/exodus/5.htm">Geneva Study Bible</a></div><span class="cverse2">And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now <i>are</i> many, and ye <span class="cverse3">{c}</span> make them rest from their burdens.</span><p>(c) As though you would rebel.</div></div><div id="centbox"><div class="padcent"><div class="comtype">EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)</div><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/cambridge/exodus/5.htm">Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges</a></div><span class="bld">5</span>. <span class="ital">the people of the land</span>] the common work-people; cf. <a href="/jeremiah/52-25.htm" title="He took also out of the city an eunuch, which had the charge of the men of war; and seven men of them that were near the king's person, which were found in the city; and the principal scribe of the host, who mustered the people of the land; and three score men of the people of the land, that were found in the middle of the city.">Jeremiah 52:25</a>. They are already sufficiently numerous; and idleness will unsettle them, and make them dangerous to their masters.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a name="pul" id="pul"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/pulpit/exodus/5.htm">Pulpit Commentary</a></div><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 5.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">The people are many</span>. This is added as an aggravation of the offence charged in the last verse. The people are numerous. Therefore the greater damage is done to the crown by putting a stop to their labours. With these words the first interview between the Israelite leaders and the Egyptian monarch ends. Moses and Aaron, we must suppose, retired discomfited from the royal presence. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span> CHAPTER 5:6-9 Exodus 5:5<a name="kad" id="kad"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/kad/exodus/5.htm">Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament</a></div>But Pharaoh would hear nothing of any worship. He believed that the wish was simply an excuse for procuring holidays for the people, or days of rest from their labours, and ordered the messengers off to their slave duties: "Get you unto your burdens." For as the people were very numerous, he would necessarily lose by their keeping holiday. He called the Israelites "the people of the land," not "as being his own property, because he was the lord of the land" (Baumgarten), but as the working class, "land-people," equivalent to "common people," in distinction from the ruling castes of the Egyptians (vid., <a href="/jeremiah/52-25.htm">Jeremiah 52:25</a> : <a href="/ezekiel/7-27.htm">Ezekiel 7:27</a>). <div class="vheading2">Links</div><a href="/interlinear/exodus/5-5.htm">Exodus 5:5 Interlinear</a><br /><a href="/texts/exodus/5-5.htm">Exodus 5:5 Parallel Texts</a><br /><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/niv/exodus/5-5.htm">Exodus 5:5 NIV</a><br /><a href="/nlt/exodus/5-5.htm">Exodus 5:5 NLT</a><br /><a href="/esv/exodus/5-5.htm">Exodus 5:5 ESV</a><br /><a href="/nasb/exodus/5-5.htm">Exodus 5:5 NASB</a><br /><a href="/kjv/exodus/5-5.htm">Exodus 5:5 KJV</a><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="http://bibleapps.com/exodus/5-5.htm">Exodus 5:5 Bible Apps</a><br /><a href="/exodus/5-5.htm">Exodus 5:5 Parallel</a><br /><a href="http://bibliaparalela.com/exodus/5-5.htm">Exodus 5:5 Biblia Paralela</a><br /><a href="http://holybible.com.cn/exodus/5-5.htm">Exodus 5:5 Chinese Bible</a><br /><a href="http://saintebible.com/exodus/5-5.htm">Exodus 5:5 French Bible</a><br /><a href="http://bibeltext.com/exodus/5-5.htm">Exodus 5:5 German Bible</a><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/">Bible Hub</a><br /></div></div></td></tr></table></div><div id="mdd"><div align="center"><div class="bot2"><table align="center" width="100%"><tr><td align="center"><div align="center"> <script id="3d27ed63fc4348d5b062c4527ae09445"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=51ce25d5-1a8c-424a-8695-4bd48c750f35&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script> <script id="b817b7107f1d4a7997da1b3c33457e03"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=cb0edd8b-b416-47eb-8c6d-3cc96561f7e8&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-2'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-0' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-3'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-1' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br />  <div align="center" id='div-gpt-ad-1531425649696-0'> </div><br /><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:200px;height:200px" data-ad-client="ca-pub-3753401421161123" data-ad-slot="3592799687"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /><br /> </div> <div id="left"><a href="../exodus/5-4.htm" onmouseover='lft.src="/leftgif.png"' onmouseout='lft.src="/left.png"' title="Exodus 5:4"><img src="/left.png" name="lft" border="0" alt="Exodus 5:4" /></a></div><div id="right"><a href="../exodus/5-6.htm" onmouseover='rght.src="/rightgif.png"' onmouseout='rght.src="/right.png"' title="Exodus 5:6"><img src="/right.png" name="rght" border="0" alt="Exodus 5:6" /></a></div><div id="botleft"><a href="#" onmouseover='botleft.src="/botleftgif.png"' onmouseout='botleft.src="/botleft.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botleft.png" name="botleft" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="botright"><a href="#" onmouseover='botright.src="/botrightgif.png"' onmouseout='botright.src="/botright.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botright.png" name="botright" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div> <div id="bot"><iframe width="100%" height="1500" scrolling="no" src="/botmenubhnew2.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></td></tr></table></div></body></html>