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Exodus 5

KJV · Chapter 5/40

1And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.

2And 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.

3And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.

4And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? get you unto your burdens.

5And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens.

6And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying,

7Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves.

8And 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.

9Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words.

10And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spake to the people, saying, Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw.

11Go ye, get you straw where ye can find it: yet not ought of your work shall be diminished.

12So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw.

13And the taskmasters hasted them, saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw.

14And the officers of the children of Israel, which Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and to day, as heretofore?

15Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants?

16There is no straw given unto thy servants, and they say to us, Make brick: and, behold, thy servants are beaten; but the fault is in thine own people.

17But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord.

18Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks.

19And the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were in evil case, after it was said, Ye shall not minish ought from your bricks of your daily task.

20And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh:

21And they said unto them, The Lord look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us.

22And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? why is it that thou hast sent me?

23For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.

📖 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 5:13The taskmasters demand the same pace of production as before, without accounting for the extra time now spent gathering their own straw.
  14. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 5:17Pharaoh repeats the same accusation of laziness already made in verse 8, completely ignoring the Hebrew foremen’s practical explanation.
  18. Exodus 5:18Pharaoh confirms that the order stands: no straw will be given, and the full brick quota will still be demanded.
  19. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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. Exodus 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.

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