Exodus 5:4

_AND THE KING OF EGYPT SAID UNTO THEM, WHEREFORE DO YE, MOSES AND AARON, LET THE PEOPLE FROM THEIR WORKS? GET YOU UNTO YOUR BURDENS._ Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works .... Without taking any notice of what they had said, the king treated them as turbulent 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....

4._And the king of Egypt said unto them. _It is surprising that the king, in the excess of his arrogance, did not more cruelly entreat these servants of God, whom he accounted the ringleaders of sedition. But he was undoubtedly restrained by God from proceeding at once to destroy them. By his pertinacity in resisting their departure, he will more clearly shew by and bye how important to his interests he considered it that the people should remain in Egypt; how comes it then that he is contented with verbal reproof, and refrains from shedding their blood, if it were not that God protected his servants under the shield of His defense? He harshly reproves them, indeed, and condemns them to the same labors, by which the rest of the people were oppressed; but since it is notorious that moderate rigor never satisfies tyrants, we conclude that they were preserved under the guardianship of God,...

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 5:4. _WHEREFORE DO YE, MOSES AND AARON_] He hints that the Hebrews are in a state of revolt, and charges Moses and Aaron as being ringleaders of the sedition. This unprincipled charge has been, in nearly similar circumstances, often repeated since. Men who have laboured to bring the mass of the common people from ignorance, irreligion, and general profligacy of manners, to an acquaintance with themselves and God, and to a proper knowledge of their duty to him and to each other, have been often branded as being disaffected to the state, and as movers of sedition among the people! Exodus 5:17. _LET THE PEOPLE_] תפריעו _taphriu_, from פרע _para_, to _loose_ or _disengage_, which we translate to _let_, from the Anglo-Saxon [Anglo-Saxon] lettan

LET - i. e. hinder....

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 THE KING OF EGYPT SAID TO THEM,.... For he was not struck dumb, as Artapanus g, afore cited writer, says: WHEREFORE DO YE, MOSES AND AARON, LET THE PEOPLE FROM THEIR WORKS? as they did when they gathered them together, and wrought signs before them; which Pharaoh it seems had heard of, and had got their names very readily: GET YOU UNTO YOUR BURDENS; meaning not Moses and Aaron, ordering them to go about their private and family business, but the people they represented, and on whose account they came; and it is highly probable the elders of the people, at least some of them, were with them, to whom these words might be more particularly directed. See Exodus 3:18. g Ut supra. (Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 27. p. 434.)...

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

THE KING OF EGYPT. See on Exodus 5:1, and App-37. Wherefore. Figure of speech _Erotesis._ App-6. LET. A. S. _to hinder._...