Exodus 5:4

4 Then sayde the kinge of Egipte vnto them: wherfore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people fro their worke, gett you vnto youre laboure.

Exodus 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.)

Exodus 5:4 In-Context

2 And Pharao answered: what felowe is the Lord, that I shulde heare his voyce for to let Israel goo?

3 I knowe not the Lorde, nether will let Israel goo.And they sayde: the God of the Ebrues hath mett with vs: let vs goo (we praye the) iij. dayes iourney in to the deserte, that we maye sacrifice vnto the Lorde oure God: lest he smyte vs ether with pestilence or with swerde.

4 Then sayde the kinge of Egipte vnto them: wherfore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people fro their worke, gett you vnto youre laboure.

5 And Pharao sayde further more: beholde, there is moch people in the londe, and ye make them playe and let their worke stonde.

6 And Pharao commaunded the same daye vnto the taskemasters ouer the people and vnto the officers saynge: