Shemot 5:4

4 And Melech Mitzrayim said unto them, Why do ye, Moshe and Aharon, disturb the people from their works? Get you back unto your own sivlot (burdens).

Shemot 5:4 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 5:4

And the king of Egypt said to them
For he was not struck dumb, as Artapanus ^F7, afore cited writer, says:

wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works?
as they did when they gathered them together, and wrought signs before them; which Pharaoh it seems had heard of, and had got their names very readily:

get you unto your burdens;
meaning not Moses and Aaron, ordering them to go about their private and family business, but the people they represented, and on whose account they came; and it is highly probable the elders of the people, at least some of them, were with them, to whom these words might be more particularly directed. See ( Exodus 3:18 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 Ut supra. (Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 27. p. 434.)

Shemot 5:4 In-Context

2 And Pharaoh said, Who is Hashem, that I should obey His voice to let Yisroel go? I know not Hashem, neither will I let Yisroel go.

3 And they said, Elohei HaIvrim hath met with us; let us go, now, derech shloshet yamim into the midbar, and sacrifice unto Hashem Eloheinu; lest He fall upon us with dever (cattle disease), or with the cherev.

4 And Melech Mitzrayim said unto them, Why do ye, Moshe and Aharon, disturb the people from their works? Get you back unto your own sivlot (burdens).

5 And Pharaoh said, Hinei, the Am HaAretz now are many, and ye make them rest from their sivlot.

6 And Pharaoh commanded the same day the nogesim of the people, and their foremen, saying,