1 And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, 'Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.'”
2 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.”
3 And they said, “The God of the Hebrews has 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.”
4 And the king of Egypt said unto them, “Who do you think you are, Moses and Aaron, to release the people from their work? Get back to work yourselves!”
5 And Pharaoh said, “Look what you have done! There are many slaves, and you have made them stop working.”
6 And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying,
7 “Stop giving the slaves straw to make brick, as before: from now on, let them go and gather straw for themselves.
8 And their tally of bricks, which they did make before, you shall require of them: Do not diminish their work; for when they are idle they cry out, saying, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.'
9 Therefore let more work be laid upon them, that they may labour continuously; and do not allow them to speak to each other about other things.”
10 And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spoke to the people, saying, “Thus said Pharaoh, 'I will not give you straw.
11 Go and get your own straw where-ever you can find it; you must do this in addition to your normal work.'”
12 So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw.
13 And the taskmasters hastened them, saying, “Fulfil your work, your daily tasks, as before when there was straw.”
14 And the officers of the children of Israel, which Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, “Why haven't you fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and today, as before?”
15 Then the officers of the children of Israel came and complained to Pharaoh, saying, “Why are you doing this to us, your servants?”
16 “There is no straw given to the servants, yet they say to us, 'Make brick!' and then they beat us, but the fault is in your taskmasters.”
17 But he said, “You are idle! You are idle, so you say 'Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.'
18 “Go back now, and work; there shall be no straw given to you, even so you shall deliver the full tally of bricks.”
19 And the officers of the children of Israel knew they were in a terrible plight, as they said “You shall by no means lessen the number of bricks each day.”
20 And they met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them after their meeting with Pharaoh;
21 And they said to them, “God will see what you have done to us and judge you! For you have made us look lazy in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his taskmasters. You have given them a reason to oppress us.”
22 And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, “Lord, why have you done this to your people? Why did you send me in the first place?”
23 “When I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he became angry and oppressed the people; you have not delivered them at all!”
h.ואחר באו משה ואהרן AND AFTERWARDS MOSES AND AARON CAME — But the elders slipped away one by one from behind Moses and Aaron until every-one of them had slipped away before they arrived at the palace, because they were afraid to go there. At Sinai they were punished for this, for it is stated (Exodus 24:2) “And Moses alone shall draw near unto the Lord, but they, (the elders; cf. Exodus 24:1) shall not draw near” — He bid them stay behind. (Exodus Rabbah 5:14)
h.פן יפגענו LEST HE LIGHT ON US — They should have said, “Lest He light on thee (Pharaoh) [with pestilence] etc.” — but they showed respect to royalty (the king) by thus expressing themselves. This term פגיעה “lighting on”, “meeting” denotes meeting with death (Exodus Rabbah 5:15).
h.תפריעו את העם ממעשיו means ye detach and take them away from their work, because they listen to you and believe that they may refrain from the work. Similar are: (Proverbs 4:15) “פרעהו pass not by it”, i. e. keep it far from thee, pass not by it; (Proverbs 1:25) “and ye withdraw (ותפרעו) all my counsel”; (Exodus 32:25) “for it is פרע” i. e. it had removed itself from the proper path and had made itself a thing to be abhorred (but cf. Rashi on this verse where he explains the word by מגולה — נתגלה שמצו וקלונו).
h.לכו לסבלתיכם. GO YE UNTO YOUR BURDENS — Go to your work which you have to do at home; but it cannot signify “go to your labours as slaves”, for he was speaking to Moses and Aaron who were of the tribe of Levi, and the work of Egyptian slavery had not been imposed on the tribe of Levi. You may know that this was so, because Moses and Aaron went and came just as they pleased (Exodus Rabbah 5:16).
h.הן רבים עתה עם הארץ BEHOLD THE PEOPLE OF THE LAND NOW ARE MANY upon whom lies the duty of working, and you make them rest from their burdens — this is a great loss to us, since so many will refrain from work.
h.הנגשים THE TASKMASTERS — These were Egyptians, and the שוטרים, bailiffs, were Israelites (cf. vv. 14, 15, 19) (Exodus Rabbah 5:18). A taskmaster (נוגש), was given charge over many bailiffs, and a שוטר was one who was appointed to have control over the workmen.
h.תבן STRAW — In old French estouble; English stubble. They used to knead this into the clay.
h.לבנים BRICKS — old French tuiles: English tiles, which they make from clay and dry in the sun; sometimes they are burnt in a kiln.
h.כתמול שלשם means as you have been doing UP TILL NOW (not “yesterday and the day before” as is the literal meaning, but merely “formerly”).
h.וקששו means AND LET THEM GATHER.
h.ואת מתכנת הלבנים means the total number of bricks which each made per day when straw was being supplied to them — that total you shall impose upon them now also, in order that the service may be hard upon them.
h.כי נרפים signifies because they have loosened themselves from the work; therefore (this word in Rashi corresponds to על כן in the Hebrew text) their mind turns to idleness and they cry out, saying, נלכה וגו׳ LET US GO [AND SACRIFICE etc.].
h.מתכנת — This word, and ותכן (v. 18), and the words of the same root in (I Samuel 2:3) “And by Him actions are counted (נתכנו)” and in (2 Kings 12:12) “the money that was counted (המתכן)”, all have the meaning of counting.
h.נרפים — The work is loose (רפויה) in their hand and neglected by them so that they are loosened (הם נרפים) from it. In old French retrait.
h.ואל ישעו בדברי שקר AND LET THEM NOT REGARD VAIN WORDS — let them not think and speak always about “words of wind” saying, “Let us go and sacrifice”. Of similar meaning is, (Psalm 119:117) “And I will speak of (ואשעה ב־) thy statutes continually”. The phrase (Deuteronomy 28:37) למשל ולשנינה “[thou shalt become] a proverb and a byword” we translate in the Targum by “a topic of conversation (שועי)”, and the word ויספר (Genesis 24:66) “and he related” by ואשתעי “and he spoke about”. One cannot possibly say that the word ישעו has the same meaning as the verbs in (Genesis 4:4) “And the Lord turned (וישע) to Abel” and in (Genesis 4:4) “but to Cain and his offering he did not turn (שעה)”, and that we must translate אל ישעו by “Let them not turn”, for if this were so Scripture should have written אל דברי שקר or לדברי שקר (instead of בדברי) for so is the construction in all such cases. Examples are: (Isaiah 17:7) “A man shall turn to (ישעה אל) his Maker”; (Isaiah 17:8) “and he shall not turn to (ישעה על) the altars”; (Isaiah 31:1) “they turn not unto (שעו על) the Holy One of Israel”. I do not find the construction of a ב following these verbs in the sense of “turning to”, but after an expression of דבר “speaking” — as when one intently directs his conversation upon a matter — the construction with כ is quite an appropriate one. For instance: (Ezekiel 33:30) “those who intently direct their conversation (הנדברים) upon thee (בך)”; (Numbers 12:1) “And Miriam and Aaron directed their speech (ותדבר) upon Moses (במשה)”; (Zechariah 4:1) “And the angel who directed his conversaion (הדובר) upon me (בי)”; (Deuteronomy 11:9) “To turn your conversation (לדבר) intently upon them (בם)”; (Psalm 119:46) “And I will direct my speech (אדברה) upon thy testimonies (בעדותיך)”. So, too, here: ואל ישעו בדברי שקר means “let them not always be conversing about vain and idle matters”.
h.אתם לכו קחו לכם תבן GO, YE, TAKE TO YOURSELVES STRAW — and you will have to go pretty quickly,
h.כי אין נגרע מעבודתכם דבר FOR THERE SHALL NOT BE DIMINISHED OF YOUR WORK A SINGLE THING from the whole total of bricks which you used to make daily when straw was supplied to you, ready to use, from the king’s store.
h.לקשש קש לתבן means TO MAKE A GATHERING, to make a collection FOR the purpose of STRAW for the clay.
h.קש denotes collecting. Because stubble is something that is strewn about and must be gathered (קושש) it is called קש in other passages.
h.אצים means PRESSING.
h.דבר יום ביומו means the full quantity due each day complete it on that day, as ye used to do when straw was ready at hand.
h.ויכו שטרי בני ישראל AND THE BAILIFFS OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL … WERE SMITTEN — These bailiffs were Israelites and they spared their fellow-Israelites, not urging them on to their work. When they handed over the bricks to the taskmasters who were Egyptians and something was deficient in the total they used to beat them because they had not urged on the Israelitish workmen. On this account these bailiffs were privileged to become members of the Sanhedrin later on, and there was taken some of the prophetical spirit that was upon Moses and it was placed upon them, as it is said, (Numbers 11:16) “Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel [whom thou knowest]” — of those about whom thou knowest the kindly acts which they did in Egypt, “for they are the real elders of the people having been their bailiffs” (Exodus Rabbah 5:20).
h.ויכו שטרי בני ישראל אשר שמו נגשי פרעה THEN WERE SMITTEN THE BAILIFFS OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WHOM PHARAOH’S TASKMASTERS HAD PUT as bailiffs עליהם OVER THEM (i. e. over the Israelites) לאמר מדוע וגו׳ SAYING, WHEREFORE etc. — Why were they beaten? because they (the taskmasters) said to them (the bailiffs) WHEREFORE DID YE NOT FINISH (גם תמול גם היום) BOTH YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY THE TASK SET FOR YOU (חקכם) IN MAKING BRICKS as ye did yesterday-in-the-third-degree (כתמול שלשם) — which means the day before yesterday — which was the time when straw was given to them.
h.Heb. וַיֻכּוּ They were the object of an action. [The word is in the “hoph’al” conjugation, the recipient of the “hiph’il.”] They were beaten by others; the taskmasters beat them.
h.ולבנים אמרים לנו AND BRICKS THEY — the taskmasters — SAY TO US עשו MAKE, just as the former number.
h.וְחָטָאת עַמֶּךָ BUT THE FAULT IS IN THINE OWN PEOPLE — If the word וחטאת had the vowel Patach under the ט I would say that it is a noun in the construct state, so that the meaning would be, “and this thing is the sin of thy people” But now, since the vowel is Kametz, it is a noun in the absolute case, and its meaning is as follows: “And this thing brings sin upon thy people”, as though it were written וחטאת לעמך. Sirnilarly we find ל omitted in, (Ruth 1:19) “When they were come בית לחם” which is the same as לבית לחם, to Bethlehem, and there are many similar examples.
ותכן לבנים means THE NUMBER OF THE BRICKS; similar is (2 Kings 12:12) “the money המתכן”, i. e. the money which was counted, just as it states in that passage (v. 11), “and they put it up in bags and counted the money”.
ויראו שטרי בני ישראל The meaning is: AND THE BAILIFFS OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL DID SEE [THEM] i. e. their fellow-lsraelites who were ruled by them, ברע — they saw them in the misfortune and trouble that befell them, because they had to make the labour hard upon them. לאמר לא תגרעו וגו׳ BY SAYING, YE SHALL NOT DIMINISH etc.
ויפגעו AND THEY MET — men of Israel met — את משה ואהרן וגו׳ MOSES AND AARON etc.; Our Rabbis explained that wherever it speaks of people “quarelling” (2:13; cf. Rashi on that verse) or “standing” these were Dathan and Abiram about whom it is stated (Numbers 16:27) “[And Dathan and Abiram] came out standing” (Nedarim 64b).
למה הרעתה לעם הזה WHEREFORE HAST THOU DONE SO EVIL TO THIS PEOPLE? — And if You ask, “What concern is that of yours?” I answer “I have to complain that You have sent me at all” (Exodus Rabbah 5:22).
h.הרע This is an expression denoting “he has caused something to happen” — he (Pharaoh) has brought even more evil upon them. It must be translated in the Targum by אבאיש “he has treated badly”.