Exodus 5:4

4 The king of Mitzrayim said to them, "Why do you, Moshe and Aharon, take the people from their work? Get back to your burdens!"

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 Par`oh said, "Who is the LORD, that I should listen to his voice to let Yisra'el go? I don't know the LORD, and moreover I will not let Yisra'el go."

3 They said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the LORD, our God, lest he fall on us with pestilence, or with the sword."

4 The king of Mitzrayim said to them, "Why do you, Moshe and Aharon, take the people from their work? Get back to your burdens!"

5 Par`oh said, "Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens."

6 The same day Par`oh commanded the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying,