Exodus 5 Commentary

Verses 1 – 5 contain the account of Moses’ confrontation with Pharaoh. Moses begins by demanding that Pharaoh allow the Israelites to go into the wilderness to worship the LORD. Pharaoh flatly denies their request. Moses and the others try to convince Pharaoh that it is a matter of life-and-death. Pharaoh then concludes that this is just an excuse to avoid their labor.

Pharaoh immediately retaliated against the Israelites by making the already oppressive work even worse. He commanded that no straw be given to the Israelites, making them have to gather it themselves. On top of that, the quotas that the Israelites had to meet were not adjusted for the new task, so it simply made their plight much worse. When the daily quotas were not met, the Israelite foremen were beaten by their Egyptian taskmasters.

The burden of the new work rules was so bad that the Israelite foremen came before Pharaoh himself to inquire as to why this added work of gathering their own straw was imposed on them. Pharaoh told them they were lazy for and commanded them to go back to work. They then confronted Moses and Aaron, wishing the LORD’s judgment upon them. Moses then inquired of the LORD about this apparent failure.

Moses was upset by the confrontation with the foremen and the possible repercussions. He prayed to the LORD, asking why He caused things to be worse for His people. In other words, Moses blamed the LORD for his failure and for the Israelites’ situation going from bad to worse.