Exodus 5:18

18 Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.”

Exodus 5:18 in Other Translations

KJV
18 Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks.
ESV
18 Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks."
NLT
18 Now get back to work! No straw will be given to you, but you must still produce the full quota of bricks.”
MSG
18 Well then, go - go back to work. Nobody's going to give you straw, and at the end of the day you better bring in your full quota of bricks."
CSB
18 Now get to work. No straw will be given to you, but you must produce the same quantity of bricks."

Exodus 5:18 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 5:18

Go therefore now, and work
Go about your business, attend to your work, even you officers, as well as your people; work yourselves, as well as see that your people do theirs, and do not trouble me with such impertinent applications:

for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of
bricks;
the usual number of bricks, as the Vulgate Latin version has it; though in ( Exodus 5:8 ) , it is rendered in that version the measure of bricks, and so another word is translated by them, ( Exodus 5:14 ) , and perhaps both may be intended, both number and measure; that is, that it was expected and insisted on that they delivered the full number of bricks they used to make, and these of full measure; for bricks were made of different measures, as Vitruvius F16 observes; some among the bricks were of two hands' breadth, others of four, and a third sort of five. (See Gill on Exodus 5:7).


FOOTNOTES:

F16 Ut supra. (Vide Vitruvium de Architectura, l. 2. c. 3. p. 46)

Exodus 5:18 In-Context

16 Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.”
17 Pharaoh said, “Lazy, that’s what you are—lazy! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’
18 Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks.”
19 The Israelite overseers realized they were in trouble when they were told, “You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day.”
20 When they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them,

Cross References 1

  • 1. S Genesis 15:13
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