9 Let heavier work be laid on the men, that they may labor therein; and don't let them pay any attention to lying words."
You say (but they are but vain words), [There is] counsel and strength for the war. Now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?
Shall vain words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?
But my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, didn't they overtake your fathers? "Then they repented and said, 'Just as Yahweh of Hosts determined to do to us, according to our ways, and according to our practices, so he has dealt with us.'"
You have said, 'It is vain to serve God;' and 'What profit is it that we have kept his charge, and that we have walked mournfully before Yahweh of Hosts?
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Exodus 5
Commentary on Exodus 5 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 5
Moses and Aaron are here dealing with Pharaoh, to get leave of him to go and worship in the wilderness.
Exd 5:1-2
Moses and Aaron, having delivered their message to the elders of Israel, with whom they found good acceptance, are now to deal with Pharaoh, to whom they come in peril of their lives-Moses particularly, who perhaps was out-lawed for killing the Egyptian forty years before, so that if any of the old courtiers should happen to remember that against him now it might cost him his head. Their message itself was displeasing, and touch Pharaoh both in his honour and in his profit, two tender points; yet these faithful ambassadors boldly deliver it, whether he will hear or whether he will forbear.
Exd 5:3-9
Finding that Pharaoh had no veneration at all for God, Moses and Aaron next try whether he had any compassion for Israel, and become humble suitors to him for leave to go and sacrifice, but in vain.
Exd 5:10-14
Pharaoh's orders are here put in execution; straw is denied, and yet the work not diminished.
Exd 5:15-23
It was a great strait that the head-workmen were in, when they must either abuse those that were under them or be abused by those that were over them; yet, it should seem, rather than they would tyrannize, they would be tyrannized over; and they were so. In this evil case (v. 19), observe,