The Situation Worsens (Exodus 5:1-23).
After the wonder of what they had seen probably all the parties involved considered that the future would be plain sailing. For who could resist such wonders? They had overlooked someone who thought of himself as a god and beyond being touched by men and their tribal gods.
The first Confrontation with Pharaoh (Exodus 5:1-4).
a Moses and Aaron come to Pharaoh and in the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, request that he let them go to feast to Yahweh in the wilderness (Exodus 5:1).
b Pharaoh contemptuously asks who Yahweh is and says that he does not know Him (Exodus 5:2).
b They reply that He is the God of the Hebrews Who has met with them and called on them to make offerings and sacrifices in the wilderness (Exodus 5:3).
a The king of Egypt's reply is to ask why they are seeking to release the people from their obligatory service and to demand that they return to their burdens (Exodus 5:4).
Note the parallel between (a) their desire to hold a religious feast to Yahweh and in the parallel the implication that their true service lies in slaving for the king of Egypt. His anger was probably aroused by the request that all may go. That would seriously hinder the building work being done. Permission might have been given to a few.
‘And afterwards Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.' ” '
Moses and Aaron now sought the privilege of approaching Pharaoh. There is no suggestion that Moses is seen as a prince or given special privileges. He and Aaron approach as representatives of the children of Israel and would need to go through all the necessary formalities. We know that even lowly slaves were permitted to appeal freely to Pharaoh, at least in the days of the Ramesside dynasty. Pharaoh probably liked to see himself as a father to his subjects.
“Yahweh, the God of Israel.” The children of Israel are now being depicted as a tribal grouping, Israel, and Yahweh is declared to be their God.
“A feast to me in the wilderness.” No doubt more was said than we have here. Pharaoh would be used to the flowery requests put before him by trained orators, and Aaron would no doubt follow the pattern (it was this that Moses had demurred at). But the end request was made that they be permitted to have a pilgrimage to the place where their God had revealed Himself, which would include a period of worship, followed by feasting, in the wilderness to honour the God Who had appeared to Moses in a great theophany in the wilderness.
Later it would also be pointed out that it was necessary to go out of sight of their Egyptian neighbours because they would be offended at the sacrifices offered by the Israelites at such a great feast (Exodus 8:26). For some of the animals slaughtered were seen as sacred by many Egyptians, and to see them killed would be to rouse them to extreme violence.
‘And Pharaoh said, “Who is Yahweh that I should listen to his voice to let Israel go? I do not know Yahweh and moreover I will not let Israel go.”
That Pharaoh had been willing to see them indicates that their request, which would have been explained to high officials, was considered appropriate to be offered. But he refused to consider it, and replied with contempt.
“Who is Yahweh? --- I do not know Yahweh.” As a god and companion of the gods he indicated that Yahweh was an unknown among the gods. Certainly he did not acknowledge Him, for He was a nonentity. Why then should He listen to Him? His voice would be filled with contempt. He possibly recognised that this Yahweh must be a ‘God of the Hebrews', but that was different from acknowledging Him and respecting Him. Then he came down to earth. ‘Moreover I will not let Israel go.' His reply was final. It should be recognised that this revealed this Pharaoh as a particularly unyielding person. Many kings would have been willing to acknowledge the gods of their slaves even though they did not themselves worship them. To refute such gods was to display religious arrogance of an unusual kind. This might point to Amenophis IV as the Pharaoh, for he sought to restrict worship to the worship of Aten.
“I do not know Yahweh.” By this he probably meant that he did not acknowledge that He had any rights. As far as he was concerned Yahweh could be ignored.
“Israel”. Pharaoh usually thinks of the children of Israel as just ‘Israel' (compare Exodus 14:5).
‘And they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us go, we pray you, three days journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to Yahweh our God, lest he fall on us with pestilence and the sword.”
Courageously they pressed their request further to urge its crucial importance. ‘The God of the Hebrews has met with us.' They assured him that there had been a wonderful theophany and that He had made certain demands on them. They dare not refuse, otherwise they may suffer pestilence and physical violence by the sword. Pharaoh might not acknowledge Yahweh but they did, and they were fearful of what He might do. It was widely believed that such afflictions resulted from not honouring gods sufficiently.
They possibly hoped that this would give Pharaoh pause for thought. Pestilence would affect his people as well and ‘the sword' could only indicate an invasion. Significantly Goshen was near the Egyptian northern borders, the direction from which invasion would probably come, and from which the Hyksos had previously come. It was thus in everyone's interest that the God of the Hebrews be propitiated.
“The God of the Hebrews.” An attempt to explain more of Whom Yahweh is. Pharaoh might not know who ‘Israel' are, but he will know who ‘the Hebrews' are. So they explain that Yahweh is their God. To Pharaoh ‘the Hebrews' would equate with ‘the Habiru', the landless and wild people who had no settled place, who gathered in bands and came out of the wilderness and even attacked cities, who worked in mines and many of whom he had now himself enslaved. The ‘prw, as the Egyptians called them, are mentioned in a number of Egyptian texts and range from fighting men in Canaan to captives employed as servants to strain wine, to prisoners given to the temples, to workers in the quarries of the Wadi Hammamat.
“Three days journey.” A stereotyped term. Not a great distance but sufficient to be able to reach ‘the wilderness' proper. It could be less than two actual days (an evening, a day and a part morning) They did not want the request to sound too demanding. They would only be gone a short time.
‘And the king of Egypt said to them, “Why do you, Moses and Aaron, loose the people from their works. Get you to your burdens.”
As we have seen constantly, the ancient writer liked to use variety when writing, thus here ‘Pharaoh', the father of his people, now becomes the stern ‘king of Egypt'. It is not as ‘father' of his people that he speaks but as the despotic king. He had now lost patience with them and accused them of simply trying to find an excuse to avoid working, to obtain for the people a holiday. He commanded that they cease such foolishness and get down to the tasks assigned to them. Their loyalty lay in serving him. That was where their true religious service lay.
It should be noted that at this point no signs and wonders had been shown to Pharaoh. The appeal had been made to him on the basis of common justice and seeking the favour that would be expected from a just ruler. Pharaoh had been given his chance to prove himself just and wise.
“Moses and Aaron.” The fact that Moses and Aaron are mentioned together in this way suggests that Moses has approached as a representative of the children of Israel rather than as a prince of Egypt. The latter thought never appears at any stage. It was probably better that Pharaoh did not know who he was.
“The king of Egypt.” This is an indication of what Pharaoh is. In comparison with Yahweh he is only the king of Egypt, an earthly monarch with a limited kingdom.