Exodus 5:13 - Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

Exodus 5:13

11 Go, get yourselves straw where you can find it; yet none of your work will be reduced.’ ”

12 So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw.

13 And the taskmasters forced them to hurry, saying, “Fulfill your work, your daily quota, as when there was straw.”

14 Also the ^aofficers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were ^bbeaten and were asked, “Why have you not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and today, as before?”

15 Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying, “Why are you dealing thus with your servants?

16 There is no straw given to your servants, and they say to us, ‘Make brick!’ And indeed your servants are beaten, but the fault is in your own people.”

Commentaries:

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

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Exodus 5:13-19

And the taskmasters hasted them . . . officers . . . beaten—As the nearest fields were bared and the people had to go farther for stubble, it was impossible for them to meet the demand by the usual tale of bricks. "The beating of the officers is just what might have been expected from an Eastern tyrant, especially in the valley of the Nile, as it appears from the monuments, that ancient Egypt, like modern China, was principally governed by the stick" [TAYLOR]. "The mode of beating was by the offender being laid flat on the ground and generally held by the hands and feet while the chastisement was administered" [WILKINSON]. (Deuteronomy 25:2). A picture representing the Hebrews on a brick field, exactly as described in this chapter, was found in an Egyptian tomb at Thebes.

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