Exodus 5:10
Context5:10 So the slave masters of the people and their foremen went to the Israelites and said, 1 “Thus says Pharaoh: ‘I am not giving 2 you straw.
Exodus 5:16
Context5:16 No straw is given to your servants, but we are told, 3 ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are even 4 being beaten, but the fault 5 is with your people.”


[5:10] 1 tn Heb “went out and spoke to the people saying.” Here “the people” has been specified as “the Israelites” for clarity.
[5:10] 2 tn The construction uses the negative particle combined with a subject suffix before the participle: אֵינֶנִּי נֹתֵן (’enenni noten, “there is not I – giving”).
[5:16] 3 tn Heb “[they] are saying to us,” the line can be rendered as a passive since there is no expressed subject for the participle.
[5:16] 4 tn הִנֵּה (hinneh) draws attention to the action reflected in the passive participle מֻכִּים (mukkim): “look, your servants are being beaten.”
[5:16] 5 tn The word rendered “fault” is the basic OT verb for “sin” – וְחָטָאת (vÿkhata’t). The problem is that it is pointed as a perfect tense, feminine singular verb. Some other form of the verb would be expected, or a noun. But the basic word-group means “to err, sin, miss the mark, way, goal.” The word in this context seems to indicate that the people of Pharaoh – the slave masters – have failed to provide the straw. Hence: “fault” or “they failed.” But, as indicated, the line has difficult grammar, for it would literally translate: “and you [fem.] sin your people.” Many commentators (so GKC 206 §74.g) wish to emend the text to read with the Greek and the Syriac, thus: “you sin against your own people” (meaning the Israelites are his loyal subjects).