But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you draw the people away from their work? Get back to your labor!”
Parallel translations
- WEB The king of Egypt said to them, “Why do you, Moses and Aaron, take the people from their work? Get back to your burdens!”
- KJV 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.
- NKJV Then the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your labor.”
- NASB But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you let the people neglect their work? Get back to your labors!”
- NLT Pharaoh replied, “Moses and Aaron, why are you distracting the people from their tasks? Get back to work!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Pharaoh accuses Moses and Aaron of distracting the people from labor and orders them back to work. He treats God's demand as mere idleness.
Overview
Pharaoh refuses the religious appeal and reduces it to a labor dispute, commanding the people back to their burdens. His response shows a heart that values productivity and control over the worship of God. By dismissing the divine claim as a pretext for laziness, Pharaoh sets himself against the LORD and intensifies the oppression that the coming verses describe.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Exod 1:11So the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. As a result, they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.
- Luke 23:2And they began to accuse Him, saying, “We found this man subverting our nation, forbidding payment of taxes to Caesar, and proclaiming Himself to be Christ, a King.”
- Acts 24:5We have found this man to be a pestilence, stirring up dissension among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes,
- Amos 7:10Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words,
- Acts 16:20–21They brought them to the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews and are throwing our city into turmoil
- Jer 38:4Then the officials said to the king, “This man ought to die, for he is discouraging the warriors who remain in this city, as well as all the people, by speaking such words to them; this man is not seeking the well-being of these people, but their ruin.”
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 5:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.