Exodus 5:5

5 Pharaoh went on, "Look, I've got all these people bumming around, and now you want to reward them with time off?"

Exodus 5:5 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 5:5

And Pharaoh said, behold, the people of the land now are many,
&c.] So that if some were taken off, as suggested, there were enough of them to do business and so he cared not; but if allowed to go, they might mutiny and rebel, and give a great deal of trouble to quell them; or it may be, the sense is, they were very numerous, and too numerous already, and if they were took off of their work, and allowed to go a feasting, they would be more so, which agrees with the next clause:

and you make them rest from their burdens;
which was the way to make them more numerous still, and to frustrate the design of laying burdens upon them, which was originally intended to hinder the multiplication of them, ( Exodus 1:9-14 ) .

Exodus 5:5 In-Context

3 They said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness so we can worship our God lest he strike us with either disease or death."

4 But the king of Egypt said, "Why on earth, Moses and Aaron, would you suggest the people be given a holiday? Back to work!"

5 Pharaoh went on, "Look, I've got all these people bumming around, and now you want to reward them with time off?"

6 Pharaoh took immediate action. He sent down orders to the slave-drivers and their underlings:

7 "Don't provide straw for the people for making bricks as you have been doing. Make them get their own straw.