Exodus 5:5

5 Then Pharaoh added, "Look how many people there are in the land! Do you want them to quit working?"

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 replied, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us travel three days into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God. If we don't go, he may kill us with a plague or a war."

4 The king of Egypt said to them, "Moses and Aaron, why are you distracting the people from their work? Get back to work!"

5 Then Pharaoh added, "Look how many people there are in the land! Do you want them to quit working?"

6 That same day Pharaoh gave these orders to the slave drivers and foremen:

7 "Don't give the people any more straw to make bricks as you have been doing. Let them gather their own straw,