Exodus 1:13-14

1:13 and they ¹  made the Israelites serve rigorously. ²  1:14 They made their lives bitter ³  by ⁴  hard service with mortar and bricks and by all kinds of service ⁵  in the fields. Every kind of service the Israelites were required to give was rigorous. ⁶ 

Exodus 5:5-9

5:5 Pharaoh was thinking, ⁷  “The people of the land are now many, and you are giving them rest from their labor.”

5:6 That same day Pharaoh commanded ⁸  the slave masters and foremen ⁹  who were ¹⁰  over the people: ¹¹  5:7 “You must no longer ¹²  give straw to the people for making bricks ¹³  as before. ¹⁴  Let them go ¹⁵  and collect straw for themselves. 5:8 But you must require ¹⁶  of them the same quota of bricks that they were making before. ¹⁷  Do not reduce it, for they are slackers. ¹⁸  That is why they are crying, ‘Let us go sacrifice to our God.’ 5:9 Make the work harder ¹⁹  for the men so they will keep at it ²⁰  and pay no attention to lying words!” ²¹ 

Exodus 5:18

5:18 So now, get back to work! ²²  You will not be given straw, but you must still produce ²³  your quota ²⁴  of bricks!”

Exodus 5:1

Opposition to the Plan of God

5:1 ²⁵ Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “Thus says the Lord, ²⁶  the God of Israel, ‘Release ²⁷  my people so that they may hold a pilgrim feast ²⁸  to me in the desert.’”

Exodus 8:18

8:18 When ²⁹  the magicians attempted ³⁰  to bring forth gnats by their secret arts, they could not. So there were gnats on people and on animals.

Isaiah 47:6

47:6 I was angry at my people;

I defiled my special possession

and handed them over to you.

You showed them no mercy; ³¹ 

you even placed a very heavy burden on old people. ³² 

Isaiah 58:6

58:6 No, this is the kind of fast I want. ³³ 

I want you ³⁴  to remove the sinful chains,

to tear away the ropes of the burdensome yoke,

to set free the oppressed, ³⁵ 

and to break every burdensome yoke.

Jeremiah 28:13-14

28:13 “Go and tell Hananiah that the Lord says, ³⁶  ‘You have indeed broken the wooden yoke. But you have ³⁷  only succeeded in replacing it with an iron one! ³⁸  28:14 For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ³⁹  says, “I have put an irresistible yoke of servitude on all these nations ⁴⁰  so they will serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. And they will indeed serve him. I have even given him control over the wild animals.”’” ⁴¹ 

Matthew 11:29

11:29 Take my yoke ⁴²  on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

[1:13]  ¹ tn Heb “the Egyptians.” For stylistic reasons this has been replaced by the pronoun “they” in the translation.

[1:13]  ² tn Heb “with rigor, oppression.”

[1:14]  ³ sn The verb מָרַר (marar) anticipates the introduction of the theme of bitterness in the instructions for the Passover.

[1:14]  ⁴ tn The preposition bet (ב) in this verse has the instrumental use: “by means of” (see GKC 380 §119.o).

[1:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “and in all service.”

[1:14]  ⁶ tn The line could be more literally translated, “All their service in which they served them [was] with rigor.” This takes the referent of בָּהֶם (bahem) to be the Egyptians. The pronoun may also resume the reference to the kinds of service and so not be needed in English: “All their service in which they served [was] with rigor.”

[5:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “And Pharaoh said.” This is not the kind of thing that Pharaoh is likely to have said to Moses, and so it probably is what he thought or reasoned within himself. Other passages (like Exod 2:14; 3:3) show that the verb “said” can do this. (See U. Cassuto, Exodus, 67.)

[5:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “and Pharaoh commanded on that day.”

[5:6]  ⁹ tn The Greek has “scribes” for this word, perhaps thinking of those lesser officials as keeping records of the slaves and the bricks.

[5:6]  ¹⁰ tn The phrase “who were” is supplied for clarity.

[5:6]  ¹¹ sn In vv. 6-14 the second section of the chapter describes the severe measures by the king to increase the labor by decreasing the material. The emphasis in this section must be on the harsh treatment of the people and Pharaoh’s reason for it – he accuses them of idleness because they want to go and worship. The real reason, of course, is that he wants to discredit Moses (v. 9) and keep the people as slaves.

[5:7]  ¹² tn The construction is a verbal hendiadys: לֹא תֹאסִפוּן לָתֵת (lo’ to’sifun latet, “you must not add to give”). The imperfect tense acts adverbially, and the infinitive becomes the main verb of the clause: “you must no longer give.”

[5:7]  ¹³ tn The expression “for making bricks” is made of the infinitive construct followed by its cognate accusative: לִלְבֹּן הַלְּבֵנִים (lilbon hallÿvenim).

[5:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “as yesterday and three days ago” or “as yesterday and before that.” This is idiomatic for “as previously” or “as in the past.”

[5:7]  ¹⁵ tn The jussive יֵלְכוּ (yelÿkhu) and its following sequential verb would have the force of decree and not permission or advice. He is telling them to go and find straw or stubble for the bricks.

[5:8]  ¹⁶ tn The verb is the Qal imperfect of שִׂים (sim, “place, put”). The form could be an imperfect of instruction: “You will place upon them the quota.” Or, as here, it may be an obligatory imperfect: “You must place.”

[5:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “yesterday and three days ago” or “yesterday and before that” is idiomatic for “previously” or “in the past.”

[5:8]  ¹⁸ tn Or “loafers.” The form נִרְפִּים (nirpim) is derived from the verb רָפָה (rafah), meaning “to be weak, to let oneself go.” They had been letting the work go, Pharaoh reasoned, and being idle is why they had time to think about going to worship.

[5:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “let the work be heavy.”

[5:9]  ²⁰ tn The text has וְיַעֲשׂוּ־בָהּ (vÿya’asu-vah, “and let them work in it”) or the like. The jussive forms part of the king’s decree that the men not only be required to work harder but be doing it: “Let them be occupied in it.”

[5:9]  ²¹ sn The words of Moses are here called “lying words” (דִבְרֵי־שָׁקֶר, divre-shaqer). Here is the main reason, then, for Pharaoh’s new policy. He wanted to discredit Moses. So the words that Moses spoke Pharaoh calls false and lying words. The world was saying that God’s words were vain and deceptive because they were calling people to a higher order. In a short time God would reveal that they were true words.

[5:18]  ²² tn The text has two imperatives: “go, work.” They may be used together to convey one complex idea (so a use of hendiadys): “go back to work.”

[5:18]  ²³ tn The imperfect תִּתֵּנּוּ (tittennu) is here taken as an obligatory imperfect: “you must give” or “you must produce.”

[5:18]  ²⁴ sn B. Jacob is amazed at the wealth of this tyrant’s vocabulary in describing the work of others. Here, תֹכֶן (tokhen) is another word for “quota” of bricks, the fifth word used to describe their duty (Exodus, 137).

[5:1]  ²⁵ sn The enthusiasm of the worshipers in the preceding chapter turns sour in this one when Pharaoh refuses to cooperate. The point is clear that when the people of God attempt to devote their full service and allegiance to God, they encounter opposition from the world. Rather than finding instant blessing and peace, they find conflict. This is the theme that will continue through the plague narratives. But what makes chapter 5 especially interesting is how the people reacted to this opposition. The chapter has three sections: first, the confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh (vv. 1-5); then the report of the stern opposition of the king (vv. 6-14); and finally, the sad account of the effect of this opposition on the people (vv. 15-21).

[5:1]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Yahweh.”

[5:1]  ²⁷ tn The form שַׁלַּח (shallakh), the Piel imperative, has been traditionally translated “let [my people] go.” The Qal would be “send”; so the Piel “send away, release, dismiss, discharge.” B. Jacob observes, “If a person was dismissed through the use of this verb, then he ceased to be within the power or sphere of influence of the individual who had dismissed him. He was completely free and subsequently acted entirely on his own responsibility” (Exodus, 115).

[5:1]  ²⁸ tn The verb חָגַג (khagag) means to hold a feast or to go on a pilgrim feast. The Arabic cognate of the noun form is haj, best known for the pilgrim flight of Mohammed, the hajira. The form in the text (וְיָחֹגּוּ, vÿyakhoggu) is subordinated to the imperative and thus shows the purpose of the imperative.

[8:18]  ²⁹ tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated to the main clause as a temporal clause.

[8:18]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and the magicians did so.”

[47:6]  ³¹ tn Or “compassion.”

[47:6]  ³² tn Heb “on the old you made very heavy your yoke.”

[58:6]  ³³ tn Heb “Is this not a fast I choose?” “No” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[58:6]  ³⁴ tn The words “I want you” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[58:6]  ³⁵ tn Heb “crushed.”

[28:13]  ³⁶ tn Heb “Hananiah, ‘Thus says the Lord….” The translation uses an indirect quotation here used to eliminate one level of embedded quotation.

[28:13]  ³⁷ tn The Greek version reads “I have made/put” rather than “you have made/put.” This is the easier reading and is therefore rejected.

[28:13]  ³⁸ tn Heb “the yoke bars of wood you have broken, but you have made in its stead yoke bars of iron.”

[28:14]  ³⁹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” See the study notes on 2:19 and 7:3 for this title.

[28:14]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “An iron yoke I have put on the necks of all these nations.”

[28:14]  ⁴¹ sn The emphasis is on the absoluteness of Nebuchadnezzar’s control. The statement is once again rhetorical and not to be taken literally. See the study note on 27:6.

[11:29]  ⁴² sn A yoke is a wooden bar or frame that joins two animals like oxen or horses so that they can pull a wagon, plow, etc. together. Here it is used figuratively of the restrictions that a teacher or rabbi would place on his followers.