Exodus 5:18

18 Go therefore now, [and] work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the number 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 straw given to thy servants, and they say to us, Make brick: and behold, thy servants [are] beaten; but the fault [is] in thy own people.

17 But he said, Ye [are] idle, [ye are] idle: therefore ye say, Let us go, [and] do sacrifice to the LORD.

18 Go therefore now, [and] work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the number of bricks.

19 And the officers of the children of Israel saw [that] they [were] in evil [case], after it was said, Ye shall not diminish [aught] from your bricks of your daily task.

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