Exodus 5 Study Notes

5:1 Subservient groups in Egypt were allowed time off to worship their gods, but the way that Moses and Aaron spoke for the Lord told their hearers that this message was a command from Pharaoh’s superior. See note at 4:21-23.

5:2 Pharaoh intended his question as an insult, not as a request for information (like the question asked about Moses’s identity and authority in 2:14). Proverbs 30:9 describes the question “Who is the Lord?” as that of a self-satisfied person who is denying God’s providence. Pharaoh’s assertion I don’t know the Lord continues the insult and makes no admission of ignorance. Pharaoh would have believed the answer to his rhetorical question to be “The Lord is certainly no one that I need to recognize or obey.” Pharaoh was rejecting the Lord’s position of superiority. A right knowledge of and respect for the identity of the Lord is central to the issue of whether or not to obey him (cp. Jn 8:48-55); the events recorded in the book of Exodus answer Pharaoh’s question about who the Lord is for the benefit of the Israelites (Ex 6:7), the Egyptians (7:5), onlookers (18:11; Jos 2:8-11; Jdg 2:2-11; 1Sm 4:7-8; 6:6), and subsequent readers (Ps 105; Is 63:7-14), providing ample grounds for obedience.

5:3 Concern over consequences for failure to obey the Lord gave Pharaoh another indication that he was someone to be reckoned with and that Israelite allegiance must ultimately be to him rather than to Pharaoh (Is 8:11-13; Jr 1:17). The Lord had authority to command and power to enforce that Pharaoh did not have.

5:4-18 Obedience does not always bring immediate blessing. The Israelites accuse Moses and Aaron of being the cause of their increased workload.

5:19 Repeated mention of the daily quota (lit “the requirement/amount of a day in its day”) from 5:13 helps convey the oppressiveness of the situation: the Egyptians made demands and kept account of what the Israelites did every day.

5:20 The sight of Moses and Aaron standing on the outside, waiting to hear what had happened, only to be scolded by the foremen, further shows them as having little or no power.

5:21 Earlier when Moses intervened in a fight between Israelites, one of them challenged his right to act as a judge and accused Moses of intending to kill him (2:14). Now the foremen called on the Lord to judge Moses. They were not expecting freedom at this point. Their hopes for restoring the status quo had just been crushed, so much so that they considered Moses responsible for their impending death. They believed Moses had made the Israelites so offensive to the Egyptians (you have made us reek) that they would want to kill the Israelites. Their comment also shows that the Israelite foremen already knew that the Lord had the right and the ability to act as the ultimate Judge in the situation.

5:22-23 The foremen hoped to gain favor with Pharaoh by blaming others for the trouble. They still saw their welfare as under his control. When he spoke to the Lord, Moses boldly blamed both the Lord and Pharaoh (you caused trouble and he has caused trouble) for worsening conditions and asserted that the Lord had done nothing to rescue his people. Obedience of the Lord’s commands by Moses and Aaron and the elders had led to trouble rather than immediate ease.