Exodus 5:16

Now they are not giving us any straw for making bricks, but they keep commanding us to make bricks. And now sometimes they beat us. But it is the fault of your own slave bosses that we cannot make as many bricks as before!”

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

15Then the Israeli supervisors went to the king and complained, saying “ Your Majesty, why are you treating us this way?

17But the king said, “You are lazy and do not want to work! That is why you keep saying, ‘Allow us to go to the desert and offer sacrifices to Yahweh.’

Read all of Exodus 5

Cross References

Ecclesiastes 4:1I thought some more about all the suffering that people are caused to experience on the earth [MTY]. I saw the tears of people who were ◄oppressed/treated cruelly► and who had no one to comfort/encourage them. Those who oppressed them had power, and there was absolutely no one who was able to comfort those who were being oppressed.

Matthew Henry on Exodus 5:16-23

15 Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants? 16 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. 17 But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord . 18 Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks. 19 And the officers of… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Exodus 5:16