Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

On Exodus 5:8-11

tale - an appointed number of bricks. The materials of their labor 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 perfect specimen of Oriental despotism.

John Gill

On Exodus 5:10

And the taskmasters of the people went out,.... From the presence of Pharaoh, out of his court, to the respective places where they were set to see that the Israelites did their work:

and their officers; the officers of the Israelites, who were under the taskmasters, and answerable to them for the work of the people, and their tale of bricks:

and they spake to the people, saying, thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw; that is, any longer, as he had used to do.

Keil & Delitzsch

On Exodus 5:9-11

"Let the work be heavy (press heavily) upon the people, and they shall make with it (i.e., stick to their work), and not look at lying words." By "lying words" the king meant the words of Moses, that the God of Israel had appeared to him, and demanded a sacrificial festival from His people. In Exo 5:11 special emphasis is laid upon אתּם "ye:" "Go, ye yourselves, fetch your straw," not others for you as heretofore; "for nothing is taken (diminished) from your work." The word כּי for has been correctly explained by Kimchi as supposing a parenthetical thought, et quidem alacriter vobis eundum est.

Matthew Henry

On Exodus 5:10-14

Pharaoh's orders are here put in execution; straw is denied, and yet the work not diminished. 1. The Egyptian task-masters were very severe. Pharaoh having decreed unrighteous decrees, the task-masters were ready to write the grievousness that he had prescribed, Isa 10:1. Cruel princes will never want cruel instruments to be employed under them, who will justify them in that which is most unreasonable. These task-masters insisted upon the daily tasks, as when there was straw, Exo 5:13. See what need we have to pray that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, Th2 3:2. The enmity of the serpent's seed against the seed of the woman is such as breaks through all the laws of reason, honour, humanity, and common justice. 2. The people hereby were dispersed throughout all the land of Egypt, to gather stubble, Exo 5:12. By this means Pharaoh's unjust and barbarous usage of them came to be known to all the kingdom, and perhaps caused them to be pitied by their neighbours, and made Pharaoh's government less acceptable even to his own subjects: good-will is never got by persecution. 3. The Israelite-officers were used with particular harshness, Exo 5:14. Those that were the fathers of the houses of Israel paid dearly for their honour; for from them immediately the service was exacted, and they were beaten when it was not performed. See here, (1.) What a miserable thing slavery is, and what reason we have to be thankful to God that we are a free people, and not oppressed. Liberty and property are valuable jewels in the eyes of those whose services and possessions lie at the mercy of an arbitrary power. (2.) What disappointments we often meet with after the raising of our expectations. The Israelites were now lately encouraged to hope for enlargement, but behold greater distresses. This teaches us always to rejoice with trembling. (3.) What strange steps God sometimes takes in delivering his people; he often brings them to the utmost straits when he is just ready to appear for them. The lowest ebbs go before the highest tides; and very cloudy mornings commonly introduce the fairest days, Deu 32:36. God's time to help is when things are at the worst; and Providence verifies the paradox, The worse the better.

Tyndale Study Notes

On Exodus 5:7-21

5:7 Straw is a binder to help clay and mud bricks retain their form while drying in the sun.

Tyndale Open Study Notes · CC BY-SA 4.0