And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens.
Pharaoh points to the large numbers of the people of the land and charges Moses and Aaron with interrupting their labor by making them rest from their burdens. The rest they requested was leave to go three days' journey into the wilderness to hold a feast and sacrifice to God in worship. He treats that request with contempt as mere idleness, as an excuse to avoid forced work, and as a loss to Egypt. Suspecting that the people are plotting revolt, he haughtily refuses the modest request while professing to know nothing of the God of Israel and refuses to ease their burdens.
He uses the request to justify harsher oppression, tightening labor demands and setting the stage for increased and more exacting exactions. The call for rest is an effort by Moses and Aaron to reform Israel's service to God and restore Sabbath observance, which has come to the notice of their oppressors. That notice leads directly to tightened demands and to oppression increased again and again.
While Israel is still in bondage, the taskmasters attempt to force them to labor on the Sabbath by increasing the amount of work required each week, making the conditions of labor again and again harder and more exacting. The verse shows that the Hebrews could not observe the Sabbath while enslaved in Egypt. This oppression brings the Sabbath institution prominently before the people of God, and their deliverance from bondage brings them to a place where they may observe unmolested all the precepts of Jehovah. By this confrontation God purposes to make Pharaoh know that His voice must be obeyed, that He is above all, and that He will compel proud rulers to bow.
Pharaoh points to the large numbers of the people of the land and charges Moses and Aaron with interrupting their labor by making them rest from their burdens. The rest they requested was leave to go three days' journey into the wilderness to hold a feast and sacrifice to God in worship. He treats that request with contempt as mere idleness, as an excuse to avoid forced work, and as a loss to Egypt. Suspecting that the people are plotting revolt, he haughtily refuses the modest request while professing to know nothing of the God of Israel and refuses to ease their burdens.
He uses the request to justify harsher oppression, tightening labor demands and setting the stage for increased and more exacting exactions. The call for rest is an effort by Moses and Aaron to reform Israel's service to God and restore Sabbath observance, which has come to the notice of their oppressors. That notice leads directly to tightened demands and to oppression increased again and again.
While Israel is still in bondage, the taskmasters attempt to force them to labor on the Sabbath by increasing the amount of work required each week, making the conditions of labor again and again harder and more exacting. The verse shows that the Hebrews could not observe the Sabbath while enslaved in Egypt. This oppression brings the Sabbath institution prominently before the people of God, and their deliverance from bondage brings them to a place where they may observe unmolested all the precepts of Jehovah. By this confrontation God purposes to make Pharaoh know that His voice must be obeyed, that He is above all, and that He will compel proud rulers to bow.