Exodus 5:4 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron— Though the elders of Israel were with them, Pharaoh addresses and considers Moses and Aaron as the principals: and so far from attending to, or granting their petition, he treats them as ringleaders of a seditious multitude; and, with haughty insolence, remands them to those labours which he had so severely enjoined, and which he seems to think his just tribute. It is evident that the cruel edict for destroying the infants had been long abolished; as, otherwise, the people could not well have been many, as Pharaoh asserts they were, Exodus 5:5 nor could their resting from their burdens, i.e. their ceasing from their labours, have been of any material consequence.