Exodus 5:18

18 Go therefore now and work, for no firewood shall be given you, yet ye shall deliver the tally of bricks.

Exodus 5:18 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 5:18

Go therefore now, and work
Go about your business, attend to your work, even you officers, as well as your people; work yourselves, as well as see that your people do theirs, and do not trouble me with such impertinent applications:

for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of
bricks;
the usual number of bricks, as the Vulgate Latin version has it; though in ( Exodus 5:8 ) , it is rendered in that version the measure of bricks, and so another word is translated by them, ( Exodus 5:14 ) , and perhaps both may be intended, both number and measure; that is, that it was expected and insisted on that they delivered the full number of bricks they used to make, and these of full measure; for bricks were made of different measures, as Vitruvius ^F16 observes; some among the bricks were of two hands' breadth, others of four, and a third sort of five. (See Gill on Exodus 5:7).

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FOOTNOTES:

F16 Ut supra. (Vide Vitruvium de Architectura, l. 2. c. 3. p. 46)

Exodus 5:18 In-Context

16 There is no firewood given unto thy slaves, yet they say to us, Make brick. Behold, thy slaves are beaten; and thy people sin.

17 And he replied, Ye are idle, ye are idle, therefore ye say, Let us go and sacrifice unto the LORD.

18 Go therefore now and work, for no firewood shall be given you, yet ye shall deliver the tally of bricks.

19 Then the officers of the sons of Israel saw that they were afflicted after it was said, Ye shall not diminish any from the bricks of your daily quota.

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