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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Exodus 5:14 - 5:14
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As the Israelites could not do the work appointed them, their overlookers were beaten by the Egyptian bailiffs; and when they complained to the king of this treatment, they were repulsed with harshness, and told “Ye are idle, idle; therefore ye say, Let us go and sacrifice to Jehovah.” עַמֶּךְ וְחָטָאת: “and thy people sin;” i.e., not “thy people (the Israelites) must be sinners,” which might be the meaning of חָטָא according to Gen 43:9, but “thy (Egyptian) people sin.” “Thy people” must be understood as applying to the Egyptians, on account of the antithesis to “thy servants,” which not only refers to the Israelitish overlookers, but includes all the Israelites, especially in the first clause. חָטָאת is an unusual feminine form, for חָטְאָה (vid., Gen 33:11); and עַם is construed as a feminine, as in Jdg 18:7 and Jer 8:5.