Chapter Overview
Summary
Exodus 5 is Moses and Aaron's first confrontation with Pharaoh and its disastrous aftermath — bricks without straw, beaten foremen, Israel's recrimination of Moses, and Moses' own complaint to God. LXX Exodus 5 tracks MT closely throughout. The chapter's theological significance lies in Pharaoh's 'Who is the LORD?' defiance at 5:2 and the 'God of the Hebrews' formula at 5:3, both of which establish the confrontation's monotheistic theme.
Notable Variants
Pharaoh's 'I do not know the LORD' (ouk oida ton kyrion) at 5:2 in its LXX form; the 'God of the Hebrews' formula at 5:3 that Paul inherits; minor interpretive renderings of the foremen's complaint and Moses' challenge.
Structural Notes
LXX Exodus 5 preserves MT's 23-verse structure.
Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and said to Pharaoh, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Let My people go so that they may celebrate a feast to Me in the wilderness."
The opening 'Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Let my people go' (tade legei kyrios … exaposteilon ton laon mou) is the scriptural template for the refrain that recurs throughout Exodus 5–11. 'Let my people go' (exaposteilon ton laon mou) became one of the most recognizable biblical phrases in Western culture.
Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and I will not let Israel go."
Masoretic (WLC)
מִי יְהוָה אֲשֶׁר אֶשְׁמַע בְּקֹלוֹ … לֹא יָדַעְתִּי אֶת־יְהוָה
Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice … I do not know the LORD
Septuagint (LXX)
τίς ἐστιν κύριος οὗ εἰσακούσομαι τῆς φωνῆς αὐτοῦ … οὐκ οἶδα τὸν κύριον
Who is the Lord that I should heed his voice … I do not know the Lord
Pharaoh's double denial — 'Who is YHWH?' and 'I do not know YHWH' — is the Exodus narrative's crystallization of gentile unbelief. The LXX's tis estin kyrios (the interrogative-gentile ignorance of the true God) and ouk oida ton kyrion (the gentile disavowal) become foundational vocabulary for NT theology of revelation.
Romans 1:21's 'they did not honor him as God or give thanks' and 1 Corinthians 1:21's 'in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God' echo the LXX Pharaoh's 'I do not know the LORD' as the emblem of all gentile rejection.
The chapter's central conflict — will Pharaoh come to know YHWH? — is precisely the 'so that they may know I am the LORD' refrain that recurs 70+ times in Ezekiel and is inherited by the Gospel of John in the series 'that you may know that I am' (ego eimi) sayings.
They said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three-day journey into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God, or He may strike us with pestilence or with the sword."
'The God of the Hebrews' (ho theos tōn Hebraiōn) is the LXX formula that Paul inherits as a designation for the Jewish-Christian God. The three-day journey request tracks MT.
The king of Egypt said to them, "Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their work? Get back to your labors!"
Pharaoh's rebuke of Moses and Aaron for distracting the people from labor is rendered directly in LXX.
Pharaoh also said, "The people of the land are now many, and you would have them stop working!"
Pharaoh's 'the people of the land are many' tracks MT closely. The phrase am ha-aretz ('people of the land') will acquire technical religious connotations in later Hebrew; here it is simply demographic.
That same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, saying,
Pharaoh's command to the taskmasters and foremen follows MT.
"You shall no longer give the people straw for making bricks as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves.
The withdrawal of straw provision is rendered directly in LXX.
But the quota of bricks that they were making before — you shall impose the same amount on them. You shall not reduce it, for they are lazy. That is why they cry out, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.'
Masoretic (WLC)
נִרְפִּים הֵם
they are lazy
Septuagint (LXX)
σχολάζουσιν
they are at leisure
The Hebrew niphim ('slack, idle') is rendered scholazousin ('they are at leisure, they have free time') — the same root as scholē from which 'school' derives. Pharaoh reads Israelite religious request as excess free time, which supplied medieval commentary with a standing satirical contrast: true piety vs. the world's dismissal of piety as idleness.
Let the work be heavier on the men so that they are occupied with it and pay no attention to lying words."
The command to increase the labor load tracks MT. 'Lying words' (ta kena logia) characterizes Pharaoh's disdain for the prophetic message.
So the taskmasters of the people and their foremen went out and said to the people, "Thus says Pharaoh: I will not give you straw.
The taskmasters' relay of Pharaoh's decree follows MT.
Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your workload will not be reduced at all."
The direction to self-gather straw with no workload reduction is rendered directly.
So the people scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.
Israel's dispersion through Egypt to gather stubble for straw tracks MT.
The taskmasters were relentless, saying, "Complete your daily work — the same amount as when straw was provided!"
The taskmasters' relentless demand for the full daily quota is rendered closely.
The foremen of the sons of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and asked, "Why have you not completed your required amount of bricks, both yesterday and today, as you did before?"
The beating of the Israelite foremen for production shortfalls tracks MT.
Then the foremen of the sons of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying, "Why do you treat your servants this way?
The foremen's appeal to Pharaoh follows MT.
No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, 'Make bricks!' And your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people."
The foremen's complaint about missing straw and wrongful beatings tracks MT.
He said, "You are lazy — lazy! That is why you say, 'Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.'
Pharaoh's repeated accusation of laziness — now with the same scholazete vocabulary that v. 8 used — closes the interrogation.
Now go and work! No straw will be given to you, but you must deliver the full number of bricks."
Pharaoh's final demand for full production tracks MT.
The foremen of the sons of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they were told, "You shall not reduce your daily number of bricks at all."
The foremen's realization of their trouble is rendered directly.
They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them as they came out from Pharaoh.
The meeting with Moses and Aaron outside Pharaoh's court follows MT.
They said to them, "May the LORD look on you and judge! You have made us repulsive in the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants and have put a sword in their hand to kill us."
Israel's recrimination of Moses and Aaron — 'the LORD look on you and judge' — uses the standard imprecation formula that recurs across the Hebrew Bible.
Then Moses returned to the LORD and said, "Lord, why have You brought harm upon this people? Why did You ever send me?
Moses' return to the LORD with the 'why have you sent me' complaint is rendered closely in LXX. The question-form is the prophetic lament that recurs at Jeremiah 20:7, Habakkuk 1:2, and Psalm 22.
From the time I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people, and You have not delivered Your people at all."
Moses' closing 'you have not delivered your people at all' sets up the divine response at 6:1: 'Now you will see what I will do.'