Exodus 5:2

_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._ Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord? - rather, "Yahweh." Lord was a common name applied to objects of worship; but Yahweh was a name the king of Egypt had never heard of. He estimated the character and power of this God by the abject and miserable condition of the worshippers, and concluded that He held as low a rank among the gods as His people did in the nation. To demonstrate the supremacy of the true God over all the gods of Egypt was the design of the plagues that were inflicted on the land. NEITHER WILL I LET ISRAEL GO. Since Pharaoh's honour and interest were both involved, he determined to crush this attempt, and, in a tone of insolence, or perhaps profanity, rejected the request for the release of the Hebrew slaves....

2._And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord? _It is scarcely credible that there should be such madness in a mortal as, by thus wantonly scorning God, to fly, as it were, in the face of heaven! (67) But we must observe, that the tyrant being devoted to idolatries, thus insulted the God of Israel, that he might manifest his great piety towards his false gods. For his mockery, in scornfully bandying back the name of Jehovah, must be referred to the words of Moses, as much as to say, Why do you bring against me this unknown phantom under the title of the eternal God, as though we had no god of our own? Thus Pilate, when Christ said, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth,” asks ironically, and not without mockery, “What is truth?” (68) (John 18:37.) In sh

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, wh...

Verse Exodus 5:2. _WHO IS THE LORD_] Who is _Jehovah_, that I should obey his voice? What claims has _he_ on _me_? I am under no obligation to _him_. Pharaoh spoke here under the common persuasion that every _place_ and _people_ had a tutelary deity, and he supposed that this Jehovah might be the tutelary deity of the Israelites, to whom he, as an Egyptian, could be under no kind of obligation. It is not judicious to bring this question as a proof that Pharaoh was an _atheist_: of this the text affords no evidence....

I KNOW NOT THE LORD - Either Pharaoh had not heard of Yahweh, or he did not recognize Him as a God....

FIRST APPEAL OF MOSES TO PHARAOH, AND INCREASE OF THE OPPRESSION. EXPOSITION EXODUS 5:1 Having secured the adhesion of the Israelitish people, Moses and Aaron sought an interview with the Egyptian monarch who was now in possession of the throne. According to the bulk of modern authorities, and according to our own views of Egyptian history, this was Menephthah,the son and successor of Rameses II. Menephthah was a weak prince, whom events had favoured, and who had been thus led to have an exalted opinion of himself. A great invasion of Egypt had occurred at the beginning of his reign, which had been met and completely repulsed, not by h

AND PHARAOH SAID, WHO IS THE LORD,.... Jehovah, they made mention of, which, whether he took it for the name of a deity, or of a king, whose ambassadors they declared themselves to be, was a name he had never heard of before; and this being expressed and pronounced, shows that this name is not ineffable, or unlawful to be pronounced, as say the Jews: THAT I SHOULD OBEY HIS VOICE, TO LET ISRAEL GO? he knew of no superior monarch to him, whose orders he was obliged to obey in any respect, and particularly in this, the dismission of the people of Israel out of his land, though it was but for a short time: I KNOW NOT THE LORD; who this Jehovah is, that made this demand, and required Israel's dismission. The Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it, "I have not found the name of Jehovah written in the book of angels, I am not afraid of him.'' An Egyptian book, in which, the paraphrast supposes,...

3. MOSES AND AARON IN EGYPT Chapter S 4:29-5:23 Before the Elders and Before Pharaoh _ 1. Before the elders of Israel (Exodus 4:29)_ 2. Before Pharaoh, and his answer (Exodus 5:1) 3. The increased oppression (Exodus 5:5) 4. Israel ‘s complaint and Moses' prayer (Exodus 5:20) The people were willing and believed. Notice they believed after the signs were done. Faith was followed by worship. It is almost a constitutional thing with the Jew to see first and then believe. Compare with John 20:26 . Then the messengers of

EXODUS 5:1 TO EXODUS 6:1 (Exodus 5:1 f. and Exodus 5:4 E, the rest J). PHARAOH'S FIRST REFUSAL to let Israel go, and his increase of their burdens. The bulk of the story is taken from J, but part of the opening shows that E told it too. One spoke of the God of Israel, the other of the God of the Hebrews: both related the demand for leave of absence in order to worship. Observe in J the primitive dread of an approach of the Divine Being unless an acceptable offering be at hand (Exodus 5:3, _cf._ Num

WHO IS THE LORD? Figure of speech _Erotesis_ (App-6). Note the repetition of Pharaoh's "I", answered by Jehovah's "I "eighteen times in Exodus 6:1. VOICE. Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Cause). App-6. Voice put for commands uttered by it. ISRAEL. Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Adjunct). App-6....