Exodus 5:8

_AND THE TALE OF THE BRICKS, WHICH THEY DID MAKE HERETOFORE, YE SHALL LAY UPON THEM; YE SHALL NOT DIMINISH OUGHT THEREOF: FOR THEY BE IDLE; THEREFORE THEY CRY, SAYING, LET US GO AND SACRIFICE TO OUR GOD._ Tale - an appointed number of bricks. The materials of their labour were to be no longer supplied; and yet, as the same amount of produce was exacted daily, it is impossible to imagine more aggravated cruelty-a more perfect specimen of Oriental despotism....

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 5:8. _AND THE TALE OF THE BRICKS_] _Tale_ signifies the _number,_ from the Anglo-Saxon [Anglo-Saxon], to _number_, to count, c. _FOR THEY BE IDLE THEREFORE THEY CRY - LET US GO AND SACRIFICE_] Thus their desire to worship the true God in a proper manner was attributed to their unwillingness to work; a reflection which the Egyptians (in principle) of the present day cast on these who, while they are fervent in spirit serving the Lord, are not slothful in business. Exodus 5:17....

EXPOSITION EXODUS 5:6-2 Rulers are not always content simply to refuse inconvenient demands. Sometimes they set to work with much ingenuity and worldly wisdom to prevent their repetition. This is especially the case where they entertain a fear of their petitioners. The Spartans removed Helots, who had earned their freedom, by the Crypteia. The massacre of St. Bartholomew was caused by the Huguenot demand for freedom of worship and the difficulty of repressing it. The Pharaoh now is not content to let things take their course, but devises a plan by which he hopes to crush altogether the aspirations of the Hebrew people, and secure himself against the recurrence of any such appeal as that which had been made to him by Moses and Aaron. The Israelites had recently been employed chiefly in brickmaking. They had had to dig the clay and temper it, to mix it with

AND THE TALE OF THE BRICKS, WHICH THEY DID MAKE HERETOFORE, YOU SHALL LAY UPON THEM,.... Oblige them to make and bring in the same number of bricks they used to do, when straw was brought to them and given them; by which it appears, that their daily task was such a number of bricks: YOU SHALL NOT DIMINISH OUGHT THEREOF; not make any abatement of the number of bricks, in consideration of their loss of time and their labour in going to fetch straw from other places: FOR THEY BE IDLE; and want to be indulged in a lazy disposition, which ought by no means to be connived at: THEREFORE THEY CRY, LET US GO AND SACRIFICE TO OUR GOD; suggesting, that this request and cry of theirs did not proceed from a religious principle, or the great veneration they had for their God, but from the sloth and idleness they were addicted to....

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

TALE. A. S. _talu,_. number. THEREOF. The suffix is Masculine and refers to the people, "diminish [your exactions] from them. " AND. Some codices, with one early printed edition, Targum of Onkelos, and Septuagint, read "that we may"....

THE TEXT OF EXODUS TRANSLATION 5 And afterward Mo-ses and Aar-on came, and said unto Pha-raoh, Thus saith Je-ho-vah, the God of Is-ra-el, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. (2) And Pha-raoh said, Who is Je-ho-vah, that I should hearken unto his voice to let Is-ra-el go? I know not Je-ho-vah, and moreover I will not let Is-ra-el go. (3) And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, pray thee, three days-' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice unto Je-ho-vah our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword. (4) And the king of E-gypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Mo-ses and Aar-on, loose the people from their works? get you unto your burdens. (5) And Pha-raoh said, Behold, the people of the land are now many, and ye make them rest from their burdens. (6) And the same day Pha-raoh commanded the taskmasters of...

INCREASE OF THE OPPRESSION 1. PHARAOH] probably P. Merenptah. See on Exodus 1:8. His court may have been at Zoan or Tanis during the events that ensued: cp. Psalms 78:12; Psalms 78:43; THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL] Heb. 'Jehovah the God of Israel': see on Exodus 3:13; Exodus 3:18. Similarly in the next v. Pharaoh says, 'Who is Jehovah?.. I know not Jehovah.' Jehovah not being known and worshipped in Egypt, Pharaoh does not acknowledge His right to command him....