Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 5:6
And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying,
6. the taskmasters ] i.e. as in Exo 3:7, the Egyptian superintendents of the labour-gangs (LXX., as there, ): so vv. 10, 13, 14.
officers ] Heb. sherim: here of minor officials appointed (see v. 14) by the Egyptian superintendents (the ‘taskmasters’) from among the Israelites themselves, and acting as the immediate overseers of the labour-gangs. If the word were really felt to mean writers (LXX. , ‘scribes’: cf. the footnote), they no doubt also kept lists of the workmen, and accounts of the work done. Elsewhere, as Num 11:16 Deu 1:15 (see the writer’s note there), Exo 16:18, Exo 20:5, the term is used of various minor judicial and military officials. The ‘taskmasters’ dealt directly, not with the labourers, but with these sherim 1 [108] .
[108] The proper meaning of sherim is uncertain, the root not occurring in Heb. It may be writers (i.e. registrars), cf. the Ass. sharu, to write; or it may be, from what is seemingly the primary sense of the root in Arabic, to range in order (cf. Arab. saara, to rule (a book), sar, a row), arrangers, organizers (cf. mishr, Job 38:33, ‘ordered arrangement,’ ‘rule’).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
6 9. The Pharaoh commands the Egyptian ‘taskmasters’ (whom he must be supposed see v. 10 to have summoned to his presence) to increase the tasks imposed upon the Israelites: they are to find their straw themselves, and yet to make the same number of bricks. Bricks in Egypt (which in the earlier periods were much larger than our bricks, generally about 15 7 4 in.) were made (on Exo 1:14) from the mud of the Nile, mixed usually with chopped straw or reed, to give it coherence and prevent cracks while drying, and then dried in the sun ( EB. i. 609; cf. L. and B. i. 165). These bricks remained black. Burnt red brick was first introduced into Egypt by the Romans.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Their officers – Or scribes. Hebrews able to keep accounts in writing, appointed by the Egyptian superintendents, and responsible to them for the work; see Exo 5:14. Subordinate officers are frequently represented on Egyptian monuments, giving in written accounts to their immediate superiors.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. The task-masters of the people and their officers] The task-masters were Egyptians, (See Clarke on Ex 1:11), the officers were Hebrews; See Clarke on Ex 5:14. But it is probable that the task-masters Ex 1:11, who are called sarey missim, princes of the burdens or taxes, were different from those termed taskmasters here, as the words are different; nogesim signifies exactors or oppressors – persons who exacted from them an unreasonable proportion either of labour or money.
Officers. – shoterim; those seem to have been an inferior sort of officers, who attended on superior officers or magistrates to execute their orders. They are supposed to have been something like our sheriffs.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The
task-masters were Egyptians, and the
officers were Israelites, under-officers to them, Exo 5:14,15,19.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. Pharaoh commandedIt was anatural consequence of the high displeasure created by this interviewthat he should put additional burdens on the oppressed Israelites.
taskmastersEgyptianoverseers, appointed to exact labor of the Israelites.
officersHebrews placedover their brethren, under the taskmasters, precisely analogous tothe Arab officers set over the Arab Fellahs, the poor laborers inmodern Egypt.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people,…. Who were Egyptians, and whom Pharaoh sent for the same day, to give them orders to oppress them yet more and more, so far was he from complying with their request:
[and] their officers; who were Israelites, and were under the taskmasters, and accountable to them for each man’s work that they had the inspection and care of:
saying, as follows.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
As Pharaoh possessed neither fear of God ( ) nor fear of the gods, but, in the proud security of his might, determined to keep the Israelites as slaves, and to use them as tools for the glorifying of his kingdom by the erection of magnificent buildings, he suspected that their wish to go into the desert was nothing but an excuse invented by idlers, and prompted by a thirst for freedom, which might become dangerous to his kingdom, on account of the numerical strength of the people. He therefore thought that he could best extinguish such desires and attempts by increasing the oppression and adding to their labours. For this reason he instructed his bailiffs to abstain from delivering straw to the Israelites who were engaged in making bricks, and to let them gather it for themselves; but yet not to make the least abatement in the number ( ) to be delivered every day. , “ those who urged the people on, ” were the bailiffs selected from the Egyptians and placed over the Israelitish workmen, the general managers of the work. Under them there were the (lit., writers, lxx, from to write), who were chosen from the Israelites (vid., Exo 5:14), and had to distribute the work among the people, and hand it over, when finished, to the royal officers. : to make bricks, not to burn them; for the bricks in the ancient monuments of Egypt, and in many of the pyramids, are not burnt but dried in the sun ( Herod. ii. 136; Hengst. Egypt and Books of Moses, pp. 2 and 79ff.). : a denom. verb from , to gather stubble, then to stubble, to gather (Num 15:32-33). , of uncertain etymology, is chopped straw; here, the stubble that was left standing when the corn was reaped, or the straw that lay upon the ground. This they chopped up and mixed with the clay, to give greater durability to the bricks, as may be seen in bricks found in the oldest monuments (cf. Hgst. p. 79).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
6. And Pharaoh commanded. We shall more clearly perceive, as the narrative proceeds, that these taskmasters and officers were taken from amongst the children of Israel, although we have before read that some were Egyptians. But, as tyrants are ingenious in securing their own interests, Pharaoh in his subtlety wished to provide that none should escape, but that all alike should be brought in turn to the labor. For some, in such a multitude, might have evaded the Egyptians; but, when the charge was given to the Israelites, their familiar knowledge would prevent any from escaping. Besides, it is probable that with these taskmasters was deposited the straw, which they distributed either to parties of ten, or to individuals; he therefore doubles the work in this way, by commanding them to gather the straw with which the bricks were made. But, according to the proverb, that “the edicts of kings are monosyllables,” Moses shews the vehemence of the tyranny by the brevity of the command. But this passage teaches us, that when God has begun to regard us for the purpose of relieving our troubles, He sometimes takes occasion to increase the pressure of our burdens. Thus, when God had engaged to be the deliverer of the Israelites, their trouble became greater, by the tyrant adding to their ordinary tasks that of gathering the straw for themselves. For thus it pleases God to prove the faith of His people; and thus is it expedient to lift up to Him their minds, which are too much set on earth, whilst they do not immediately perceive the fruit of the grace promised to them, nay, whilst they feel that nothing else is brought them by God’s favour, except that their condition becomes worse. It is very useful for us to ponder this, that we may more patiently and calmly bear to be excited to the love and desire of heavenly blessings, by crosses and adversities. Now-a-days the Gospel procures hatred for many, deprives others of their pleasures, degrades others from their honours, brings to others the loss of their goods, sentences others to prison, others to exile, and endangers the life of some; in a word, the more God exerts His power, the more is Satan’s rage excited on the other side, and the wicked become more fiercely cruel. This offense would greatly shake us, unless we knew, from the admonition of this example, that the inestimable grace, which is offered us in Christ, ought to be so valued by us, that in comparison with it, riches, honours, and all that men seek after, should be accounted nothing; and that we should find no difficulty in despising inconveniences of whatever kind.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6) Taskmasters . . . officers.Three grades of officials are mentioned as employed in superintending the forced labours of the Hebrews(1) lords of service (sarey massim), in Exo. 1:11; (2) taskmasters (nogeshim), here and in Exo. 5:10; Exo. 5:13-14; and (3) officersliterally, scribes (shoterim), here and in Exo. 5:11-21. The lords of service were probably a small body who exercised a general superintendence, and determined the works in which the Hebrews should be employed. They were, no doubt, native Egyptians. The nogeshim, or taskmasters, were their subordinatesEgyptians like themselvescomparatively numerous, and serving as intermediaries between the lords and the officers. These last were Hebrews, and engaged mainly in keeping the tale of the bricks, and seeing that the proper number was reached. Such an organisation is consonant with all that we know of the Egyptian governmental system, which was bureaucratic and complex, involving in every department the employment of several grades of officials.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6-9. Increase of the oppression is the fierce and despotic reply to their request . Two grades of officers are now mentioned in addition to the sarim, or Egyptian superintendents, mentioned Exo 1:11, namely, the (Egyptian) overseers rendered taskmasters and (Hebrew) scribes, ( shoterim,) rendered officers. These Hebrew shoterim, or scribes, were so called because of the great amount of writing which the Egyptian method of supervision required. Writing was used as much in the ancient Egyptian business as it is in the American business of to-day. Wilkinson relates that in the accounts which the overseers of shepherds were required to present to the steward’s scribes, “Every egg was noted and entered, with the chickens and goslings. And, in order to prevent any connivance, or a question respecting the accuracy of a report, two scribes received it from the superintendent at the same moment. Every thing was done in writing. Bureaucracy was as consequential in Egypt as in modern Austria or France. Scribes were required, on every occasion, to settle public or private questions; no bargain of consequence was made without the voucher of a written document. They would have been in an agony of mind to see us so careless and so duped in many of our railway and other speculations.” Egyptian deeds and conveyances were documents most formidable for length, and bristled with circumlocution and circumstantiality enough to gladden the heart of a modern lawyer.
The following cut, from a Theban monument, represents a superintendent of an estate giving an account of stock to two scribes.
It will thus be seen how thoroughly the Hebrews were trained in writing during their Egyptian sojourn, and were thus providentially qualified to prepare and preserve the most valuable documents in the world. Yet we are not to think of them as learning the art in Egypt, for, as Ewald shows, ( Hist. Israel, i, p. 51,) this great art was known in the alphabetic form among the Shemitic nations before the time of Moses.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
EXPOSITION
Exo 5:6-9
Rulers are not always content simply to refuse inconvenient demands. Sometimes they set to work with much ingenuity and worldly wisdom to prevent their repetition. This is especially the case where they entertain a fear of their petitioners. The Spartans removed Helots, who had earned their freedom, by the Crypteia. The massacre of St. Bartholomew was caused by the Huguenot demand for freedom of worship and the difficulty of repressing it. The Pharaoh now is not content to let things take their course, but devises a plan by which he hopes to crush altogether the aspirations of the Hebrew people, and secure himself against the recurrence of any such appeal as that which had been made to him by Moses and Aaron. The Israelites had recently been employed chiefly in brickmaking. They had had to dig the clay and temper it, to mix it with straw, and mould it into the form of bricks; but the straw had been supplied to them. The king determined that this should be no longer done; the Israelites should find the straw for themselves. It has been estimated that by this change their labour was “more than doubled.” (Canon Cook.) It was a not unreasonable expectation that under this system popular meetings would cease (Exo 5:9); and that Moses and Aaron, not being backed up by the voice of the people, would discontinue their agitation.
Exo 5:6
The same day. Pharaoh lost no time. Having conceived his idea, he issued his order at once-on the very day of the interview with the two leaders. It would be well if the children of light were as “wise” and as energetic on all occasions as the children of darkness. Taskmasters and officers. The word translated “taskmaster” here is not the same as the expression similarly rendered in Exo 1:11; and it is thought not to designate the same class. The sarey massim of the former passage are thought to be general superintendents of works, few in number and of high rank, the nogeshim of the present place to be subordinates, numerous and inferior in position. Both of these classes were probably Egyptians. The “officers” (shoterim) were undoubtedly Hebrews. They were especially employed in keeping the tale of the bricks, and seeing that they reached the proper amount. Literally, the word shoterim means “scribes,” and is so rendered in most passages.
Exo 5:7
Straw to make brick. Straw was used in Egypt to bind together the clay, or mud, which was, of course, the main material of the bricks.
, to raise crops of cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic (Num 11:5), to catch fish (ibid.), and attend public meetings (Exo 4:30, Exo 4:31). They had, in fact, had time which they could call their own. Now this was to be so no more. The Pharaoh, however, misrepresents and exaggerates, speaking as if their forced labours had been a mere nothing, and mere want of occupation had led them to raise the cry”Let us go and sacrifice.” It would have been far nearer the truth to say, that the severity and continuousness of their labours had made the notion of festival time, during which they would cease from their toils, generally popular.
Exo 5:9
Let there more work be laid upon the men. Rather, as in the margin, “Let the work be heavy upon the men.” Let the tasks set them be such as to occupy all their time, and not leave them any spare moments in which they may be tempted to listen to mischievous talkers, like Moses and Aaron) who flatter them with vain (literally, lying, words. Pharaoh, no doubt, imagined that the hopes raised by the two brothers were vain and illusive. He was utterly blind as to the course which events were about to take.
HOMILETICS
Exo 5:6-9
The picture of a tyrant-crafty, energetic, and unsparing.
Scripture contains abundant portraitures, not only of good, but also of bad men, the Holy Spirit seeming to be as desirous of arousing our indignation against vice as our sympathy with virtue. Portraits are given us, as more effectual than precepts or general descriptions, appealing as they do to our feelings and imagination rather than to our intellect. The dramatic exhibition of a Pharaoh, an Ahab, a Sennacherib, a Judas Iscariot, is calculated at once to strike the soul and to remain indelibly impressed upon it. Here we have the portrait of a tyrant, characterised especially by three qualities
1. Craft or cleverness;
2. Energy; and
3. Mercilessness.
(1) Pharaoh’s craft is shown, first in the skilful way in which he “turns the tables” upon Moses and Aaron, stopping their mouths with the charge that they are “letting the people from their labours,” and “endamaging the king.” (See Ezr 4:13.) Secondly, it is shown in the rapidity and ingenuity of his thought”More work must be laid upon the Israeliteslet them be given no straw.” Thirdly, it is shown further on in his attempts to secure the return of the Israelites by the detention of their children (Exo 10:10) or of their cattle (Exo 10:24).
(2) Pharaoh’s energy appears in the immediate steps that he took to carry his plan out by giving orders for the withholding of the straw without any diminution in the tale of bricks, “the same day” (Exo 5:6). Finally,
(3) his mercilessness is seen, first, in his refusing a very moderato request (Exo 5:1, Exo 5:2); secondly, in his meeting the demand for a relaxation of labour by an addition to it; thirdly and especially, in his making such an addition as was impossible of performance, and involved a continued series of punishments (Exo 5:14-21). Pharaoh did not perhaps know the exact amount of misery which he was inflicting; but he was reckless in respect to ithe did not care what it might cost; the sighs and the groans of a whole nation were as nothing to him; and he adds insult to injury by the reproach (Exo 5:8 and Exo 5:17)”Ye are idle, ye are idle.”
Exo 5:7
Bricks without straw.
The requirement of “bricks without straw” is not always made by a tyrannical king. All employers of labour who expect certain results without allowing sufficient time for them, and then complain that the work is scamped, are guilty of it. So is the father who expects his son to turn out a great scholar, without giving him the necessary books and the necessary instruction to make him one. So is the mistress who scolds her cook for not sending up a first-rate dinner, yet grudges every penny for the kitchen expenses. There are congregations which demand perpetual sermons of a high quality, yet do not either provide their pastors with sufficient money to buy books, or allow them sufficient leisure time for reading them. There are incumbents who act similarly by their curates, mercantile men who, mutatis mutandis, act so by their clerks, officials of all kinds who so treat their subordinates. The demand for bricks without straw is, unfortunately, far too common a demand. Let this note be set against it, that it is Pharaonic and tyrannical.
Exo 5:9
Vain words.
There can be no doubt that “vain words” are unworthy of attention, deserve contempt, are foolish, unjustifiable. But what are “vain words’? What is the test whereby we are to know whether words are vain or not? Simply, the issue of them. Pharaoh thought that the promises of deliverance wherewith Moses and Aaron had excited the people were “vain words.” Sennacherib described similarly the words of trust and confidence in God uttered by Hezekiah (2Ki 18:20). The Athenians thought the same of St Paul’s words concerning the resurrection (Act 17:32). But we know that, in none of these cases, were the words uttered “vain.” The event justified or will justify them. When words then are uttered by any grave authority, especially if they are uttered in the name of God, we should hesitate to call them “vain.” We should await the end. Full often, what the scoffer has called “vain words” turn out “words of truth and soberness”words which tell with terrible force against those who have despised and rejected themwords which to have heard and despised is condemnation in the sight of the Almighty.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
Exo 5:4-10
Increased cruelty.
View Pharaoh’s conduct as illustrative
I. OF THE VIEW WHICH A WORLDLY MAN TAXES OF RELIGION. “Ye are idle” (Exo 5:8). This way of putting the matter was partly a pretexta tyrant’s excuse for adding to burdens already sufficiently heavy; but it had so far a ground in Pharaoh’s real way of viewing things, that he doubtless regarded the desire to go and sacrifice as an idle, foolish notion, one which would not have come into the people’s heads had they been worked hard enough, and which it was his interest to drive out again as soon as possible. Observe in this
1. A total incapacity to understand the origin of religious aspirations. Pharaoh had no better account to give of them than that they sprang from idleness. They were the fruit of a roving, unsettled disposition. The cure for them was harder work. This is precisely how the world looks on religion. It is the unpractical dream of people whose working faculties are not in sufficiently vigorous exercise. Of a true thirsting of the soul for God the world has not the slightest comprehension.
2. A total want of sympathy with these aspirations. Indulgence in them would be idlinga foolish and profitless waste of time. It is not idling to watch the markets, to speculate on stock, to read novels, to attend the Derby, to run to theatres, to spend evenings in the ball-room, to hunt, fish, shoot, or travel on the Continent, to waste hours in society gossip; but it would be idling to pray, or worship God, or engage in Christian work, or attend to the interests of the soul. To snatch an hour from business to attend a prayer-meeting would be reckoned egregious folly, and as little are the hours at one’s disposal when business is over to be spent in such “foolishness.” Even the Sabbath, so far as it cannot be utilised for pleasure, is deemed a day “wasted “a weariness (Amo 8:6; Mal 2:13).
3. A total disregard of the rights of others in connection with these aspirations. Thoroughgoing men of the world neither take pains to conceal their own contempt for religion (“vain words,” Exo 5:9), nor trouble themselves with any scruples as to the rights of others. They will, without hesitation, take from the religiously-disposed their opportunities of serving God, if these stand in the way of their own interests. Gladly, had they the power, would they turn the Sabbath into a work-day for the many that it might become (as on the Continent) a play-day for the few. Their own domestics and workpeople are over-driven, and unscrupulously deprived of Sabbath and sanctuary privileges. Where even the plea of humanity is disregarded, the plea of religion is not likely to be allowed much weight.
II. OF THE ALARMS FELT BY A TYRANT AT THE UPRISING OF FREE ASPIRATIONS IN THE SUBJECTS OF HIS TYRANNY. Pharaoh shrewdly foresaw the consequences of a further spread of these new-fangled ideas among the people. The request to go and sacrifice would not be long in being followed by a demand for freedom. Despotism and the spirit of liberty cannot coalesce. The tyrant knows that his power is put in peril the moment people begin to think for themselvesto cherish dreams of freedomto be moved by religious enthusiasms. His rule can only be maintained at the cost of the extinction in his subjects of the last vestige of mental and spiritual independence. If a spiritual movement like this which sprang up in Israel begins to show itself, it must be stamped out at once, and at whatever cost of suffering and bloodshed. Whatever tends to produce such movements is looked on with hostility. This applies to all kinds of despotismscivil, ecclesiastical, industrial, social. Hence, under despotic governments, the gagging of the press, suppression of free institutions, restriction of liberty of speech, ostracism of men of public spirit, and opposition to progress and to liberal ideas generally. Hence the antagonism of the Roman Church to learning and science, with the baleful effects which have followed from that antagonism in countries where her influence is supreme (see Laveleye on ‘Protestantism and Catholicism in their Bearings upon the Liberty and Prosperity of Nations’; and histories of the Reformation in Spain and Italy). “It has been wittily said, that in Madrid, provided you avoid saying anything concerning government, or religion, or politics, or morals, or statesmen, or bodies of reputation, or the opera, or any other public amusement, or any one who is engaged in any business, you may print what you please, under correction of two or three censors’ (McCrie). Hence the antipathy of the slave-drivers of industrythose who grind the faces of the poor, making their profit out of their poverty and helplessnessto the diffusion of intelligence among the masses. Hence, in slave-holding countries, the laws against teaching slaves to read, etc. The-slave-holder cannot afford to encourage the spread of intelligence, of anything which will enable his slave to realise his manhood. But tyranny of this kind is self-condemned.
1. As unnatural. It requires the extinction and suppression of everything noble and good in human nature. It sets itself in opposition to intelligence, freedom, progress, religion, and all holy and spiritual aspirations.
2. As inhuman. In consolidating its dominion, it stoops to perpetrate the grossest cruelties. Think of the work of the Inquisition! Think of the blood that has been shed on the shrine of civil liberty! Think of the George Harrises of slavery! “What business had his slave to be marching round the country, inventing machines, and holding up his head among gentlemen? He’d soon put a stop to it. He’d take him back, and put him to hoeing and digging, and see if he’d step about so smart?” (‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin.’) See also,
3. Its weakness. Tyranny of this kind cannot endure. Under the influence of ideas from without, a mental and moral awakening is certain to come some day, and the tyrant’s power is doomed.
III. OF THE PITILESS CRUELTY OF WHICH MEN GET TO BE CAPABLE IN THE PURSUIT OF INIQUITOUS ENDS: Exo 5:6-9. Pharaoh was determined to keep the Hebrews in slavery; and so, to suppress this new spirit of discontent which had broken out among them, he must heat their furnace sevenfold, and heap cruelty on cruelty. He may have urged the plea of state necessity, and justified himself by the reflection that less severe measures would not have served his purposethat he was driven to cruelty by the logic of events. A vain plea in any case, and one which only a heart rendered callous by a long course of inhumanity could have brought itself to entertain. Yet Pharaoh was thus far right, that, once a career of iniquity has been entered upon, events take the matter out of the sinner’s hands, and leave him no alternative but either to abandon his evil courses, or be driven on from one cruelty to a worse. And, contemporaneously with the movement of events, there is going on a hardening of the heart, which makes the cruelty possible. It is wonderful what pitiless deeds men get to be capable of, who have others in their power, and who acknowledge no higher law than their own interests. We have only to recall the iniquities of the slave-trade, connived at by many of our most respectable merchants; the inhumanities attendant on the employment of women and young children in mines and factories, as brought to light by Parliamentary Commissions; the former semi-brutal condition of agricultural labourers; the underpaying of needle-women; the horrors of the “sweating system;” the instances of cruelty and rapacity exhibited in the emigration trade, which are described as “among the most atrocious that have ever disgraced human nature” (Chambers’s ‘Encyc.’); the reckless disregard of the lives of sailors in their being sent to sea in heavily laden and untrustworthy ships (Plimsoll)to see how far, even in a civilised country, the thirst of gain will carry men, under circumstances where they can count upon impunity, and evade the censure of public opinion. A Pharaoh could hardly do worse. “Small manufacturers, working with insufficient capital, and in times of depression not having the wherewith to meet their engagements, are often obliged to become dependants on the wholesale houses with which they deal; and are then cruelly taken advantage of He (the manufacturer) is obliged to work at the wholesaler’s terms, and ruin almost certainly follows As was said to us by one of the larger silk-hosiers, who had watched the destruction of many of his smaller brethren’They may be spared for a while as a cat spares a mouse; but they are sure to be eaten up in the end “We read that in Hindostan, the ryots, when crops fall short, borrow from the Jews to buy seed, and once in their clutches are doomed. It seems that our commercial world can furnish parallels” (H. Spencer).
Learn:
1. To avoid the beginning of a course of injustice.
2. To guard against the hardening of the heart by cruelty.
3. To have an open ear to the cry of the oppressed, and a readiness to support every righteous measure for their protection and relief.
4. See in Pharaoh’s tyranny an image of the pitiless tyranny of Satan. He, too, is absolutely merciless in the power he obtains over us. His service is one which grows increasingly more rigorous. He, too, would have us make bricks without straw, driving us on by our lusts and passions in pursuit of ends impossible (in his service) of attainment. More acute than Pharaoh, be gets the sinner himself to believe that it is “idle” to sacrifice to God, and by this means lures him to his service, where he soon binds him in chains more terrible and galling than any which earthly tyrant ever put upon his slaves.J.O.
HOMILIES BY J. URQUHART
Exo 5:6-14
The increase of trouble for God’s people no proof of the failure of his purpose.
I. THE DEMANDS OF GOD PROVOKE THE WRATH OF THE UNGODLY. The mad persistence of Pharaoh in his injustice is marked
1. In his haste: his commands were issued “the same day.”
2. In the severity of the decree: they should find their own straw, and yet deliver the same number of bricks.
3. In his determination to have his commands obeyed. It is not meant to be an idle threat: the overseers are “straitly charged.” When God’s word is resisted the soul is inflamed to greater evil. The unregenerate spirit is the same everywhere. God’s claim has only to be pressed home to be repelled in the same fashion.
II. THE WAY TO DELIVERANCE SOMETIMES LIES THROUGH DEEPER TROUBLE. Israel’s case was now harder than it was before (Exo 5:11-14), and solely because God had arisen to fight for them: but it was the last struggle of a doomed foe. It is thus
1. In the Church’s struggle with the world of unbelief: God’s message is met with scorn, repression, and opposition of science falsely so called. But these shall vanish away like smoke, and their utterances and deeds will at last be the monuments of their infamy.
2. In the contest with the dominion of sin in the soul. The might of sin is felt most when the Spirit’s call is first heard; but God has said, “Let my people go,” and the wrath of the enemy will soon be swallowed up in his destruction.
3. In the breaking of the yoke of death. When God’s call is heard, “Come up higher,” we wrestle in pain and mortal weakness with the dread adversary. He seems to triumph. But the last tie that bound us is broken, and we bid an eternal farewell to the bondage and the grief.U.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Exo 5:6. Their officers See verses 14, 15, 19.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Exo 5:6 And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying,
Ver. 6. And Pharaoh commanded. ] He raged the more for the message of dismission: so, wholesome admonitions make ill men worse. Corruptions increase and get bigger by the law. Rom 7:8
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
taskmasters. Compare Exo 1:11, Egyptian.
officers: an Egyptian title, scribes, who kept account of work done.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
taskmasters: Nogesim, literally, exactors, oppressors. These taskmasters were Egyptians – Exo 1:11, but the officers were Hebrews. Exo 5:14. Exo 5:10, Exo 5:13, Exo 5:15, Exo 5:19, Exo 1:11, Pro 12:10
officers: Shoterim, from the Arabic saytara, to overlook, superintend, seems to denote, as musaytar in Arabic also does, overseers, superintendents. They may have been somewhat like the chiefs of trades, who are found in every city in the East; where every trade has a head, who is entrusted with authority over them, and is in some measure answerable for them to Government. Compare Exo 2:14. Num 11:16, Deu 1:15, Deu 16:18, Jos 8:33, Jos 24:1, Jos 24:4, 2Ch 26:11
Reciprocal: 1Ki 13:8 – If Job 3:18 – they
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
5:6 And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their {d} officers, saying,
(d) Who were of the Israelites, and had charge to see them do their work.