✝
← Bible
ARCBLIVREKJVVBL

Êxodo 5

BLIVRE · Chapter 5/40

1Depois entraram Moisés e Arão a Faraó, e lhe disseram: O SENHOR, o Deus de Israel, disse assim: Deixa ir meu povo a celebrar-me festa no deserto.

2E Faraó respondeu: Quem é o SENHOR, para que eu ouça sua voz e deixe ir a Israel? Não conheço o SENHOR, nem tampouco deixarei Israel ir.

3E eles disseram: O Deus dos hebreus nos encontrou: iremos, pois, agora caminho de três dias pelo deserto, e sacrificaremos ao SENHOR nosso Deus; para que não venha sobre nós com pestilência ou com espada.

4Então o rei do Egito lhes disse: Moisés e Arão, por que fazeis cessar ao povo de sua obra? Ide a vossas cargas.

5Disse também Faraó: Eis que o povo da terra é agora muito, e vós lhes fazeis cessar de suas cargas.

6E mandou Faraó aquele mesmo dia aos capatazes do povo que o tinham à sua responsabilidade, e a seus governadores, dizendo:

7De aqui adiante não dareis palha ao povo para fazer tijolos, como ontem e antes de ontem; vão eles e recolham por si mesmos a palha;

8E haveis de pôr-lhes a tarefa dos tijolos que faziam antes, e não lhes diminuireis nada; porque estão ociosos, e por isso levantam a voz dizendo: Vamos e sacrificaremos a nosso Deus.

9Agrave-se a servidão sobre eles, para que se ocupem nela, e não atendam a palavras de mentira.

10E saindo os capatazes do povo e seus governadores, falaram ao povo, dizendo: Assim disse Faraó: Eu não vos dou palha.

11Ide vós, e recolhei palha de onde a achardes; que nada se diminuirá de vossa tarefa.

12Então o povo se espalhou por toda a terra do Egito a colher restolho em lugar de palha.

13E os capatazes os apressavam, dizendo: Acabai vossa obra, a tarefa do dia em seu dia, como quando se vos dava palha.

14E açoitavam aos supervisores dos filhos de Israel, que os capatazes de Faraó haviam posto sobre eles, dizendo: Por que não cumpristes vossa tarefa de tijolos nem ontem nem hoje, como antes?

15E os supervisores dos filhos de Israel vieram a Faraó, e se queixaram a ele, dizendo: Por que o fazes assim com teus servos?

16Não se dá palha a teus servos, e, contudo, nos dizem: Fazei os tijolos. E eis que teus servos são açoitados, e teu povo cai em falta.

17E ele respondeu: Estais ociosos, sim, ociosos, e por isso dizeis: Vamos e sacrifiquemos ao SENHOR.

18Ide, pois, agora, e trabalhai. Não se vos dará palha, e haveis de dar a tarefa dos tijolos.

19Então os supervisores dos filhos de Israel se viram em aflição, tendo lhes dito: Não se diminuirá nada de vossos tijolos, da tarefa de cada dia.

20E encontrando a Moisés e a Arão, que estavam à vista deles quando saíam de Faraó,

21Disseram-lhes: Olhe o SENHOR sobre vós, e julgue; pois nos fizestes repulsivos diante de Faraó e de seus servos, dando-lhes a espada nas mãos para que nos matem.

22Então Moisés se voltou ao SENHOR, e disse: Senhor, por que afliges a este povo? para que me enviaste?

23Porque desde que vim a Faraó para falar-lhe em teu nome, afligiu a este povo; e tu tampouco livraste a teu povo.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Moses and Aaron ask Pharaoh to let the people go into the desert to worship God, but Pharaoh refuses and increases the Hebrews' workload, withholding the straw for their bricks; the people turn against Moses.

Explanation

This chapter shows that the journey of deliverance does not begin with immediate victory but with a painful setback: instead of relieving the people's suffering, the first confrontation with Pharaoh results in even greater oppression, as he intensifies the work demands as a way to discredit Moses and Aaron. The people's reaction, blaming their own deliverers for having 'made their savour to be abhorred' before Pharaoh, reflects a common human response: quick discouragement when circumstances worsen, even when deliverance is already underway. Moses' frustration, as he directly questions God ('wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people?'), shows a raw honesty in the face of hardship, not treated as sin but as a real part of the process of faith. Today's lesson is that the first steps toward deliverance from a difficult situation often bring things worse before they get better, requiring perseverance and renewed trust.

Fun facts

  • The practice of making mud bricks mixed with chopped straw was a real and documented technique of ancient Egyptian construction, confirmed by paintings in Egyptian tombs that show foreign workers producing bricks under the supervision of overseers — a scene visually very close to the one described in this chapter.
  • The Hebrew foremen's statement, 'the Lord look upon you, and judge' (v. 21), shows how popular frustration even generated conflict among the Israelites themselves, revealing the emotional and social complexity of the deliverance process, which is rarely linear or immediately understood by everyone involved.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Êxodo 5:1After gathering the elders in the previous chapter, Moses and Aaron finally go to speak directly with Pharaoh — the book’s first direct confrontation between them and the king of Egypt.
  2. Êxodo 5:2Pharaoh is not asking out of curiosity: he is saying, in effect, that he recognizes no authority of a foreign god over him, since Pharaoh himself was treated as divine in Egypt. It is this refusal that sets off the confrontation that will stretch across several plagues.
  3. Êxodo 5:3Facing Pharaoh’s refusal, they press on, asking only for the three days of travel already agreed with God in chapter 3, citing the risk of divine punishment if they do not obey.
  4. Êxodo 5:4Pharaoh treats the request as a pretext for the people to stop working, not as something legitimately religious — his reaction is to send everyone back to their forced labor.
  5. Êxodo 5:5Pharaoh justifies his refusal by the size of the Hebrew population: to him, halting the labor of such a numerous people would mean too great a loss.
  6. Êxodo 5:6On the very day of the request, Pharaoh already takes a retaliatory measure, ordering the Egyptian taskmasters and the Hebrew foremen to carry out the punishment described in the following verses.
  7. Êxodo 5:7Making mud brick in ancient Egypt required mixing chopped straw into the clay for binding and strength, and up until then the government had supplied that straw to the workers. Pharaoh’s order to cut the supply while keeping the same daily brick quota is a calculated punishment: more work, the same deadline, no extra resources.
  8. Êxodo 5:8Pharaoh blames the people’s laziness, not their workload, for their wanting to go sacrifice in the desert — an accusation used to justify worsening their working conditions.
  9. Êxodo 5:9Pharaoh’s strategy is deliberate: overload the people even further so they have neither the time nor the energy to think of requests like that one.
  10. Êxodo 5:10The Egyptian taskmasters pass Pharaoh’s order directly to the people: from that day on, they would have to get their own straw.
  11. Êxodo 5:11The order makes clear that the daily brick quota remained the same, even with the extra work of gathering the straw — the same problem explained in verse 7.
  12. Êxodo 5:12No longer receiving straw from the government, the people scatter across the fields of Egypt looking for stubble, the dry stalks left over from the harvest, to use as a substitute.
  13. Êxodo 5:13The taskmasters demand the same pace of production as before, without accounting for the extra time now spent gathering their own straw.
  14. Êxodo 5:14It was not the ordinary Israelites who bore the physical punishment, but the Hebrew foremen themselves, held responsible by the Egyptian taskmasters for the delay.
  15. Êxodo 5:15The Hebrew foremen, beaten without just cause, appeal directly to Pharaoh trying to reverse the decision, but his response comes in the next verse.
  16. Êxodo 5:16The foremen explain to Pharaoh the contradiction in the order: without receiving straw, it is impossible to keep the same quota, yet it is the Hebrew people themselves who take the blame.
  17. Êxodo 5:17Pharaoh repeats the same accusation of laziness already made in verse 8, completely ignoring the Hebrew foremen’s practical explanation.
  18. Êxodo 5:18Pharaoh confirms that the order stands: no straw will be given, and the full brick quota will still be demanded.
  19. Êxodo 5:19The Hebrew foremen realize there is no more room to negotiate: Pharaoh’s order is final, and their situation is only going to get worse.
  20. Êxodo 5:20As they leave the audience with Pharaoh, the Hebrew foremen find Moses and Aaron waiting outside, ready to blame them for what happened, as the next verse shows.
  21. Êxodo 5:21The phrase about having “made our savour to be abhorred” before Pharaoh is an old way of saying that Moses and Aaron made the Hebrews hated in Pharaoh’s eyes, not about a literal smell. The Hebrew foremen themselves blame the two of them for making the people’s situation worse instead of better, since the request for freedom only brought more punishment.
  22. Êxodo 5:22Moses again speaks directly with God, this time in a tone of complaint: the mission that was supposed to free the people seems, so far, to have only made their lives worse.
  23. Êxodo 5:23Moses sums up his frustration: ever since he began speaking to Pharaoh in God’s name, the people’s situation has only gotten worse, and no deliverance has happened yet.

Chapters

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940

Our apps

Our apps →

Bible in Stories

The Bible told as a story, with audio and videos.

📱 Get the app

World in Stories

True stories of humanity that sound made up.

App StoreGoogle Play

Feito! Pequenas Vitórias

A light daily routine for people who lose track of the day.

App StoreGoogle Play