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Exodus 5

Exodus book home•Chapter 5 of 40•23 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

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Exodus 5 Overview

Exodus 5 records the first direct confrontation with Pharaoh. Moses and Aaron deliver the LORD’s command to let Israel go and hold a feast in the wilderness. Pharaoh responds, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice?” and refuses. He then increases the people’s burden by requiring the same brick quota without supplying straw. Israelite officers are beaten, blame Moses and Aaron, and Moses turns back to the LORD asking why the situation has become worse. The chapter deliberately ends before the answer, showing that obedience to God can initially intensify opposition rather than produce immediate relief.

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Before you read Exodus 5

Coming from

Exodus 4 ends with Israel believing that the LORD has visited them and worshipping.

In this chapter

Pharaoh rejects God’s command, increases oppression, and turns Israel’s hope into immediate discouragement.

Leads into

Exodus 6 answers Moses’ complaint with a renewed declaration of God’s covenant name, promises, and determination to redeem Israel with great judgments.

Key understanding

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

Pharaoh’s central issue is not lack of information but refusal to recognize and obey the LORD’s authority.

Truth 2

Oppression is deliberately intensified to discredit Moses and make Israel associate obedience with suffering.

Truth 3

The Israelite officers are crushed between Pharaoh’s impossible demands and the suffering of their own people.

Truth 4

Moses brings his confusion directly to God instead of pretending the mission is proceeding smoothly.

Truth 5

Immediate circumstances are not a reliable measure of whether God’s promise is true.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Psalm 105 later recalls Egypt’s hatred and oppression within God’s covenant history.

Connection 2

Acts 7 summarizes the conflict between Moses, Pharaoh, and Israel’s deliverance.

Connection 3

2 Corinthians 4 provides a later ministry pattern in which obedience and affliction can coexist, though Paul’s setting is different.

Connection 4

The repeated Pharaoh-LORD conflict anticipates the judgments in Exodus 7–12 that answer Pharaoh’s question about who the LORD is.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

The worsening conditions do not mean Moses misunderstood the call; Exodus 3 had already warned that Pharaoh would resist.

Keep this clear 2

Moses’ complaint is recorded honestly. Readers should distinguish lament and confusion from final unbelief or rebellion.

Keep this clear 3

This chapter should not be used to promise that every act of obedience will make circumstances worse before they improve; it records this specific redemptive confrontation.

Keep this clear 4

Pharaoh’s economic oppression is part of a theological conflict over lordship: whose word will rule Egypt?

Read Exodus 5 watching for…

Pharaoh’s question, “Who is the LORD?”

The deliberate use of labor to suppress worship and hope.

The brick quota and removal of straw.

How quickly Israel’s attitude toward Moses changes.

The unresolved ending that drives the reader into God’s answer in chapter 6.

Chapter outline4 sections

1-5Moses and Aaron ask Pharaoh to let Israel go 6-14Pharaoh increases Israel's burdens 15-19The officers of Israel complain to Pharaoh 20-23The officers blame Moses and Moses cries to the LORD

And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.

And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go.

And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.

And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? get you unto your burdens.

And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens.

And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying,

Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves.

And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.

Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words.

And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spake to the people, saying, Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw.

Go ye, get you straw where ye can find it: yet not ought of your work shall be diminished.

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

And the taskmasters hasted them, saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw.

And the officers of the children of Israel, which Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and to day, as heretofore?

Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants?

There is no straw given unto thy servants, and they say to us, Make brick: and, behold, thy servants are beaten; but the fault is in thine own people.

But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the LORD.

Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks.

And the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were in evil case, after it was said, Ye shall not minish ought from your bricks of your daily task.

And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh:

And they said unto them, The LORD look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us.

And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? why is it that thou hast sent me?

For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.

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Exodus 5:11

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