Exodus 5:5

World English Bible

Contextual Overview

³ They said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to Yahweh, our God, lest he fall on us with pestilence, or with the sword." ⁴ The king of Egypt said to them, "Why do you, Moses and Aaron, take the people from their work? Get back to your burdens!" ⁵ Pharaoh said, "Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens." ⁶ The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, ⁷ "You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick, as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. ⁸ The number of the bricks, which they made before, you require from them. You shall not diminish anything of it, for they are idle; therefore they cry, saying, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.' ⁹ Let heavier work be laid on the men, that they may labor therein; and don't let them pay any attention to lying words."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Exodus 1:7-11, Proverbs 14:28

Reciprocal: Exodus 1:11 - burdens Exodus 6:7 - from under 1 Kings 12:11 - I will add 2 Chronicles 10:11 - I will put

Cross-References

Genesis 3:19
By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

Genesis 5:7
Seth lived after he became the father of Enosh eight hundred seven years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:8
All the days of Seth were nine hundred twelve years, then he died.

Genesis 5:10
Enosh lived after he became the father of Kenan, eight hundred fifteen years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:11
All the days of Enosh were nine hundred five years, then he died.

Genesis 5:12
Kenan lived seventy years, and became the father of Mahalalel.

Genesis 5:14
and all the days of Kenan were nine hundred ten years, then he died.

Genesis 5:21
Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah.

Genesis 5:22
Enoch walked with God after he became the father of Methuselah three hundred years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

Genesis 5:32
Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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:

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, Exodus 1:9.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 5:5. The people of the land now are many — The sanguinary edict had no doubt been long before repealed, or they could not have multiplied so greatly.