V.
FIRST APPLICATION OF MOSES TO PHARAOH, AND INCREASE OF THE OPPRESSION.
(1) Went in. — Heb., went — i.e., left their usual residence, and approached the Court, which, according to the Psalms (Psalms 78:12; Psalms 78:43), was held at Zoan (i.e., Tanis). This was the ordinary residence of Rameses II. and his son Menephthah.
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel. — Heb., Thus has said Jehovah, God of Israel. The Pharaohs claimed to hold direct communications with the Egyptian deities, and could not deny the possibility of the Hebrew leaders holding communications with their God. Menepthah himself — the probable “Pharaoh of the Exodus” — gave out that he had received a warning from Phthah in the fifth year of his reign (Brugsch, History of Egypt, vol. ii., p. 119; 1st ed.).
That they may hold a feast unto me. — God’s entire purpose is not at once revealed to Pharaoh. He is tried with a moderate demand, which he might well have granted. By refusing it he showed himself harsh, unkind, and inconsiderate, so tempting God to lay upon him a greater burthen.
In the wilderness — i.e., beyond the frontier, or, at any rate, beyond inhabited Egypt — that the Egyptians might not be driven to fury by seeing animals sacrificed which they regarded as sacred. (See Exodus 8:26, and the comment ad loc.)