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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Exodus 5:6 - 5:6
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As Pharaoh possessed neither fear of God (εὐσέβεια) nor fear of the gods, but, in the proud security of his might, determined to keep the Israelites as slaves, and to use them as tools for the glorifying of his kingdom by the erection of magnificent buildings, he suspected that their wish to go into the desert was nothing but an excuse invented by idlers, and prompted by a thirst for freedom, which might become dangerous to his kingdom, on account of the numerical strength of the people. He therefore thought that he could best extinguish such desires and attempts by increasing the oppression and adding to their labours. For this reason he instructed his bailiffs to abstain from delivering straw to the Israelites who were engaged in making bricks, and to let them gather it for themselves; but yet not to make the least abatement in the number (מַתְכֹּנֶת) to be delivered every day. בָּעָם הַנֹּגְשִׂים, “those who urged the people on,” were the bailiffs selected from the Egyptians and placed over the Israelitish workmen, the general managers of the work. Under them there were the שֹׁטְרִים (lit., writers, γραμματεῖς lxx, from שָׁטַר to write), who were chosen from the Israelites (vid., Exo 5:14), and had to distribute the work among the people, and hand it over, when finished, to the royal officers. לְבֵנִים לְבֹן: to make bricks, not to burn them; for the bricks in the ancient monuments of Egypt, and in many of the pyramids, are not burnt but dried in the sun (Herod. ii. 136; Hengst. Egypt and Books of Moses, pp. 2 and 79ff.). קשֵׁשׁ: a denom. verb from קַשׁ, to gather stubble, then to stubble, to gather (Num 15:32-33). תֶּבֶן, of uncertain etymology, is chopped straw; here, the stubble that was left standing when the corn was reaped, or the straw that lay upon the ground. This they chopped up and mixed with the clay, to give greater durability to the bricks, as may be seen in bricks found in the oldest monuments (cf. Hgst. p. 79).