Let heavier work be laid on the men, that they may labor therein; and don’t let them pay any attention to lying words.”
Parallel translations
- KJV Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words.
- BSB Make the work harder on the men so they will be occupied and pay no attention to these lies.”
- NKJV Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words.”
- NASB Let the labor be heavier on the men, and have them work at it so that they will pay no attention to false words.”
- NLT Load them down with more work. Make them sweat! That will teach them to listen to lies!”
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 orders heavier work so the people ignore 'lying words.' He labels God's promise as deception and seeks to crush hope with toil.
Overview
Pharaoh deliberately increases the labor to occupy the people and distract them from Moses' message, which he calls lies. His strategy is to make the burden so consuming that faith in God's word seems foolish. This opposition reveals the spiritual battle beneath the physical oppression: the truth of God's promise against the lies of the oppressor who would smother hope.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Job 16:3Shall vain words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?
- Mal 3:14You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God;’ and ‘What profit is it that we have followed his instructions, and that we have walked mournfully before Yahweh of Armies?
- Jer 43:2then Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men spoke, saying to Jeremiah, “You speak falsely. Yahweh our God has not sent you to say, ‘You shall not go into Egypt to live there;’
- Zech 1:6But my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, didn’t they overtake your fathers? “Then they repented and said, ‘Just as Yahweh of Armies determined to do to us, according to our ways, and according to our practices, so he has dealt with us.’”
- 2 Kgs 18:20You say (but they are but vain words), ‘There is counsel and strength for war.’ Now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?
- Eph 5:6Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 5:9 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
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