Exodus 5:1-5·~1 min

Pharaoh’s First Refusal

Moses and Aaron ask Pharaoh to let Israel go hold a feast to the LORD, but Pharaoh answers with defiance. He does not know the LORD and refuses to release the people, even after the request is restated as a brief journey to sacrifice.

A¹fter that, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let My people go, so that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’” ²But Pharaoh replied, “Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and I will not let Israel go.” ³“The God of the Hebrews has met with us,” they answered. “Please let us go on a three-day journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the LORD our God, or He may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”

Pharaoh dismisses the request as an attempt to pull the people from their work. Seeing Israel as numerous, he treats continued labor as the proper way to keep them under control.

⁴But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you draw the people away from their work? Get back to your labor!” ⁵Pharaoh also said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you would be stopping them from their labor.”

Section summaryMoses and Aaron bring the LORD’s command to Pharaoh, but Pharaoh rejects both the request and the God behind it. He treats worship as a disruption of labor and sees Israel’s numbers as a reason to keep them working.

Role in the chapterThis section begins the contest by setting the LORD’s word against Pharaoh’s will. It frames the coming oppression as Pharaoh’s answer to God’s claim over Israel.