Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Moses with his brother carries out God's embassy to Pharaoh: he despises it, and presses the Hebrews more heavily. They therefore remonstrate with Moses; Moses finally has recourse to God.
Vulgate Text: Exodus 5:1-23
1. After this Moses and Aaron went in and said to Pharaoh: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Let My people go, that they may sacrifice to Me in the desert. 2. But he answered: Who is the Lord, that I should hear his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go. 3. And they said: The God of the Hebrews has called us, that we may go a journey of three days into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest perhaps pestilence or the sword befall us. 4. The king of Egypt said to them: Why do you, Moses and Aaron, distract the people from their work? Go to your burdens. 5. And Pharaoh said: The people of the land are numerous; you see that the multitude has grown; how much more if you give them rest from their labors? 6. Therefore on that day he commanded the overseers of the works and the taskmasters of the people, saying: 7. You shall no longer give the people straw for making bricks, as before, but let them go and gather stubble for themselves. 8. And the measure of bricks which they made before, you shall impose upon them, and you shall not diminish anything of it; for they are idle, and therefore they cry out, saying: Let us go and sacrifice to our God. 9. Let them be oppressed with work, and let them fulfill it, that they may not heed lying words. 10. And so the overseers of the works and the taskmasters went out and said to the people: Thus says Pharaoh: I will not give you straw. 11. Go and gather it wherever you can find it, and nothing of your work shall be diminished. 12. And the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather straw. 13. And the overseers of the works pressed them, saying: Complete your work every day, as you used to do when straw was given to you. 14. And those who were set over the works of the children of Israel were beaten by Pharaoh's taskmasters, who said: Why have you not fulfilled your measure of bricks as before, neither yesterday nor today? 15. And the overseers of the children of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying: Why do you deal thus with your servants? 16. Straw is not given to us, and bricks are demanded of us in the same way. Behold, your servants are beaten with scourges, and injustice is done against your people. 17. And he said: You are idle, you are idle, and therefore you say: Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord. 18. Go therefore and work; straw shall not be given to you, and you shall deliver the customary number of bricks. 19. And the overseers of the children of Israel saw themselves in evil straits, because it was said to them: Nothing shall be diminished of the bricks for each day. 20. And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood opposite them as they came out from Pharaoh. 21. And they said to them: May the Lord look upon you and judge, because you have made our odor stink before Pharaoh and his servants, and you have given him a sword to kill us. 22. And Moses returned to the Lord and said: Lord, why have You afflicted this people? Why did You send me? 23. For from the time that I went in to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has afflicted Your people, and You have not delivered them.
Verse 1: After This Moses and Aaron Went In
1. AFTER THIS MOSES AND AARON WENT IN — with the elders of the people, says Lyra: for so the Lord had commanded in chapter III, verse 18. Tostatus and Pererius better judge that only Moses with Aaron carried out this embassy: for only they are named here and in verse 4. For in place of the elders, whom God had initially added to the fearful Moses, He afterwards substituted Aaron, who would be Moses' companion and leader of the word, as is evident from chapter IV, verse 14.
Note here that the spirit and character of Moses were different from that of Calvin, who, under the pretext of reformed religion, propagates his gospel by inciting the people to arms and rebellion against their rulers. For Moses does nothing of the sort, but by God's command he approaches the king himself, admonishes and beseeches him to obey God's command and release the people.
Note here, second, the remarkable and courageous obedience of Moses toward God, and his charity toward the people: for he could justly have feared being rejected by the tyrant, and yet he approaches him, reveals God's commands, and requests the release of the people.
THAT THEY MAY SACRIFICE. — In Hebrew vejachoggu, that is, that they may celebrate a feast, namely by solemn sacrificing: for it is by solemn sacrifices above all that we celebrate feasts.
Verse 2: Who Is the Lord?
2. Who is the Lord? — Pharaoh expresses the proud contumacy of the devil, says Rabanus; for blind pride had so blinded his mind that the fool said: There is no God; there is no power mightier than me, especially not the deity of a foreign, humbly admitted, and despised Hebrew nation, which could compel me to release the Hebrews and force me to obey it.
I do not know the Lord — I do not know your God, O Moses and Hebrews. Again, I do not know any God who can command me with such authority that I should release the Hebrews. Therefore this Pharaoh was supremely proud, and hence an atheist. So says Pererius. For although that God exists is known of itself, if we consider the matter in itself, yet to us it is not known of itself, but must be demonstrated to us from effects: for otherwise there would not be so many pagans and atheists. So says St. Thomas, I Part, Question II, article 1.
Verse 3: The God of the Hebrews Has Called Us
3. THE GOD OF THE HEBREWS HAS CALLED US. — Artapanus, cited by Eusebius in book IX of the Preparation, last chapter, adds that four miracles happened to Moses when he went to Pharaoh. First, that fire erupted from the earth with a voice saying that the Hebrews would soon be freed by him and led back to their ancient homeland. Second, that Moses was imprisoned by Pharaoh, but went out from there at night, the guards having died and the doors having been broken, to the king himself. Third, that the king himself, when the tetragrammaton name was pronounced in his ear by Moses, was struck dumb, but was soon healed by Moses. Fourth, that all the priests of Pharaoh expired from a spasm at the same name. But these appear to be Jewish inventions.
LEST PERHAPS PESTILENCE OR THE SWORD BEFALL US. — In Hebrew: lest perhaps (God) fall upon us with pestilence or the sword, namely if we do not obey Him, so that we go out of Egypt and sacrifice to Him in the desert. Whence it is clear that the explanation of Blessed Cyril in book I of On Worship in Spirit and Truth, folio 21, is not genuine; for he explains it as if Moses were saying: We must sacrifice in the desert, and not in cities or fields, lest perhaps there we encounter a corpse slain by pestilence or the sword, which among you and other idolaters is customarily avoided as impure in sacrificing. For in Hebrew it does not say "lest perhaps pestilence befall us," but "fall upon us with pestilence," that is, lest God strike us with pestilence.
Verse 4: You Distract the People
4. You distract. — In Hebrew, you cause to cease.
Verse 5: The Multitude Has Grown
5. AND PHARAOH SAID — to his overseers of the works.
YOU SEE THAT THE MULTITUDE HAS GROWN. — Hence it is clear that the law of infanticide, as infamous and execrable, had long since been abrogated. So says Cajetan.
Verse 7: You Shall No Longer Give Straw
7. YOU SHALL NO LONGER GIVE THE PEOPLE STRAW FOR MAKING BRICKS. — Straw is used for bricks not to kindle the fire by which the bricks are baked, as St. Bernard, who will be cited shortly, explains, but chopped straw is mixed into the clay so that it may hold the clay together and bind and unite it to itself, so that the bricks may be more tenacious and firm, says Lyra. For straw is mixed into the clay with which clay walls are plastered, and perhaps Egyptian soil coheres less and is less coagulated than ours, so that it must be joined and consolidated with straw into bricks.
Symbolically, St. Bernard, in sermon 34 among the short sermons: "Under the yoke of Pharaoh," he says, "works of clay are made, that is, dissolute and sordid works; by him straw is given, that is, light thoughts. It is the nature of straw to be easily kindled and consumed in a moment: so also evil thoughts sent by the devil are quickly kindled in our minds, with the softness of the flesh consenting; but if we manfully strive to resist, with God's help they are immediately extinguished. With straw kindled, the clay was baked and hardened into bricks: similarly, wicked thoughts, which are like clay (as St. Gregory teaches, book XXXIV of the Moralia, chapter IX), are kindled by the straw of delight. When they pass into action, then they are baked; but when they are led into habit, then they are hardened as into bricks."
Verse 8: The Measure of Bricks
8. AND THE MEASURE OF BRICKS WHICH THEY MADE BEFORE, YOU SHALL IMPOSE UPON THEM. — As if to say: You shall compel them to deliver daily the customary allotment and task of bricks, both as to number and as to structure and mass. Whence the Septuagint translates, syntaxin tes plintheias, that you render the customary construction, or structure of brick-making.
FOR THEY ARE IDLE — they are lazy and slack, they languish in idleness. So the Hebrew text.
Verse 9: That They May Not Heed Lying Words
9. THAT THEY MAY NOT HEED LYING WORDS. — Behold, Pharaoh does not listen to Moses, nor does he believe that he was sent by God, but thinks either that he is lying about this, or that he dreamed it, as the Lord had foretold in chapter III, 19.
Verse 10: I Will Not Give You Straw
10. I will not give — I shall not give you straw: this is an interchange of tenses. Behold here the subtle tyranny of Pharaoh, by which he burdens the Hebrews and drives them almost to the rope and to despair, so that they may have no desire to think about departure or about the God who calls them. But when the most violent temptation pressed in, salvation was nearest; so God is accustomed to act. Whence Procopius mystically notes that Pharaoh, that is the devil, by denying the straw of comforts to sinners who strive to give themselves to God, makes wickedness difficult, lest satiety of it breed disgust in its devotee; for we always strive toward what is forbidden, and desire what is denied.
Verse 12: The People Were Scattered
12. And the people was dispersed. — For part of them mixed the earth and formed the bricks, part arranged them, part baked them, part collected the straw; for the quota of bricks was not demanded from individuals one by one (for this would have been an exceedingly long operation, and a great multitude of overseers would have been needed for this task), but it was demanded in common and collectively by the Hebrew overseers, whose duty it was to press their own people to the work and to the quota to be completed, and who, if anything was lacking in the quota, were punished before the Egyptian overseers.
Verse 16: It Is Dealt with Unjustly
16. It is dealt with unjustly. — So as not to offend the king, they attribute his injustice to the fault and cruelty of others, namely the overseers: whence they do not say: "You act unjustly," but rather, "it is acted" (impersonal); in the Hebrew it is: "it is sinned against your people."
Verse 17: You Are Idle
17. You are idle. — In Hebrew, "idle you idle," or "lazy lazy," that is, you are the laziest. "Idleness," says he, "slays the body, and sloth the mind: exercise makes both most excellent." St. Chrysostom, Homily 45 on Genesis: "A grave evil," he says, "is idleness, and it causes all easy things to seem difficult; just as by diligence and vigilance even steep and difficult things become easy for us." And Homily 54 on the Acts: "Cares," he says, "and anxieties are the gymnasium and school of philosophy, etc. If iron lies idle, it corrodes; if it is exercised, it shines: similarly it is with the soul that is moved and labors." St. Bernard, On Consideration, Book II: "One must beware," he says, "of idleness in leisure; slothfulness must be fled, the mother of trifles, the stepmother of virtues." St. Ambrose, Sermon 11 on Psalm 118: "Leisure tempts," he says, "those whom wars had not broken; dangerous therefore are the leisures of peace." The same saint said of himself in Epistle 41 to Sabina: "Never am I less alone than when I seem to be alone; nor less idle than when I am idle." See St. Augustine, in the book On the Work of Monks.
Afflicted by the tedium of solitude, St. Anthony exclaimed: I desire to be saved, O Lord, and my thoughts oppose me. As soon as he came out of his cell, he beheld a man (it was an angel) girded in monastic garb, now weaving baskets, now kneeling down to pray, who said to him: Do likewise, Anthony, and you will conquer temptations. Wherefore St. Anthony shunned idleness, and he who was to lead an excellent life was exhorted both to labor and to carefully examine with himself what he had done by night and what by day, says Sozomen, Book I of his History, chapter 13. The same was the view of the monk Theodosius in Theodoret's History of the Holy Fathers, chapter 10. Indeed even Alexander the Great said: "It is kingly to labor, it is servile to be devoted to idleness and luxury." Finally this was the maxim of the ancient monks: "He who works is assailed by one demon; the idle are assailed by many." Cassian is the witness, chapter 23, Book X of the Institutes.
Verse 19: They Saw Themselves in Evil
19. They saw themselves in evil, — that is, in troubles, in distress. Here is expressed the type of the callings and illuminations of God, which temptation immediately accompanies, but for those who persist bravely, liberation is near.
First, therefore, the Hebrews are called by God out of Egypt through Moses; second, they believe the calling, and immediately they are most cruelly scourged; third, shortly afterward God liberates and leads them out by wondrous portents. Aeneas Silvius relates in his History of Bohemia that this was a saying of Capnion: "When the bricks were doubled, then the liberator Moses came," by which he signified that God's help is at hand when adversities press upon us. The same was the pattern and progression of the entire Christian Church; the same applies to every individual calling, so that one who finds himself in the second stage should not doubt his calling, but should rather know that he is progressing in the right order established by God, and should await the third stage with complete certainty. So St. Gregory, Book XXIX of the Moralia, chapter 14: "When," He says, "the divine light illumines the human heart, immediately temptations arise from the devil, so that they feel themselves pressed more by temptations than when they did not see the rays of the interior light." And Origen here in Homily 3: "Unless," he says, "the trumpet of the word of God sounds, the battle is not joined; but where the signal of battle has sounded from the trumpet of preaching, there every fight of tribulations arises. Hence we learn from daily experience," says St. Bernard, "that those who deliberate about converting are tempted more fiercely by the concupiscence of the flesh; and that those who strive to escape the rule of Pharaoh are pressed more heavily in the works of clay." So he himself says in On Conversion, to Clerics, chapter 18.
Cassian likewise, Conference 21, chapter 28, reports that the elder Fathers in the desert had observed with careful attention that during the days of Lent, when people are accustomed to turn to better things, and monks to more perfect things, then monks are harassed by demons more fiercely and more troublesomely than usual, and are incited to leave their monasteries and to abandon their solitude.
Note secondly: God wills that in the benefits He has promised, we be prepared for temptations: and therefore when He gives someone great hope, He soon tests him through those things that seem to bring despair, and He seems to want to demolish the hope He gave, or to make it doubtful and uncertain. Thus God promised Abraham through Isaac a most numerous offspring, and soon commanded that Isaac himself be sacrificed to Him. Thus He commanded the Hebrews to fight against the Benjaminites and soon permitted them to be slain by them a second time, Judges chapter 20. So here He promised Moses and the Hebrews liberation from Pharaoh, and soon permitted them to be more grievously afflicted by him.
Verse 20: They Met Moses and Aaron
20. And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood opposite, as they came out from Pharaoh. — The word "coming out" is to be referred not to Moses and Aaron, but to "met" and to the overseers of the Hebrews, whom Moses was waiting for at a certain place as they went to Pharaoh and returned from him, eager to know what answer they had brought. This also our Translator sufficiently indicates when he says that Moses and Aaron were standing: for it is impossible for those coming out to be standing still at the same time.
The meaning therefore is: the overseers of the Hebrews, after their complaint, coming out from Pharaoh, met Moses and Aaron, who stood opposite, in order to observe and learn the whole matter.
Verse 21: May the Lord See and Judge
21. May the Lord see and judge. — In the Hebrew is added: "Upon you," that is, may He take vengeance on you. So the Chaldean. For the Hebrews often by metonymy take "judgment" for the end and outcome of judgment, so that "to judge" is the same as "to avenge," and "judgment" is the same as "vengeance." Behold the weak and ungrateful faith of the people: Moses and Aaron, whom shortly before they had believed to be their liberators, they now slander as murderers.
You have made our odor to stink before Pharaoh, — you have made us hateful and abominable to Pharaoh: it is a metaphor. The same phrase occurs in Genesis 34:30, in the Hebrew; 2 Corinthians 2:15: "We are," he says, "the good odor of Christ," because evidently we spread the good reputation of Christ and of Christianity, so that people may think and speak well of us and of Christ. "For character has its own colors, and has its own odors; color in the conscience, odor in reputation," says St. Bernard, Sermon 71 on the Song of Songs.
And you have given him a sword to kill us. — You have given him an occasion to oppress us with burdens, since you provoked him while he was raging against us. Where note: In Scripture, everything that stings, strikes, torments, or tortures is called a "sword," says St. Jerome on Isaiah 66. Hence Amos 9:10 says: "All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword." And Psalm 7:13: "Unless you are converted, He shall brandish His sword."
Verse 22: Lord, Why Have You Afflicted This People?
22. And Moses returned to the Lord. — The Septuagint translates: "he turned to the Lord"; for since Moses saw the overseers of the Hebrews harshly received by Pharaoh, afflicted and agitated by excessive suffering, and therefore incapable of being corrected, he fell silent, withdrew into his private place, and after his custom turned in prayer to God, the sole refuge in difficulties. Hence St. Basil wisely, in his Sermon On Giving Thanks to God, prescribes the manner of consoling the afflicted, saying: "Him whom you wish to console, first allow to complain a little while. Then when his grief has been somewhat calmed through tears and lamentation, then you shall gently and humanely admonish him, and so gradually recall him to patience and tranquility of spirit. For horse tamers too, when horses do not obey the bridle, do not immediately restrain them with the reins or drive them with spurs: for in that way they learn to throw off and unseat their riders; but by yielding to them from the beginning and not at all resisting, after they see the anger and impetuosity gradually spent and failing, then by a certain skill they render them obedient and docile in all things."
Again see here how the unconquered patience and constancy of Moses overcame the murmurings of the Hebrews, and rendered them obedient to him. Let the faithful hear the admonition of St. Augustine, Sermon 18 On the Words of the Lord: "When any Christian," he says, "has begun to live well, to be fervent in good works, and to despise the world; in the very newness of his works he suffers reproachers and opponents — lukewarm Christians. But if he shall have persevered, and shall have overcome them by enduring, and shall not have fallen away from good works, those very same people will yield to us, who before were hindering us."
Lord, why have You afflicted this people? — Why did You give him an occasion for affliction, by sending me to Pharaoh, and yet not liberating the people from him, but rather permitting them to be more heavily burdened?
Why did You send me? — Calvin here severely blames Moses, as though he had abandoned his duty and with bitter weariness had sought dismissal and release from his office. A harsh critic indeed: a milder judge is St. Augustine, Question 14, when he says: "These are not words of stubbornness or indignation, but of inquiry and prayer." And that this is so is clear from the Lord's response, who does not rebuke Moses' lack of faith, but instructs him in what he ought to do. Moses already knew, having been taught by God beforehand, that Pharaoh would harden his heart and would not let the people go; yet about this affliction of the people he had learned nothing from God, and he hoped that Pharaoh, once warned, even if he would not let the people go, would nevertheless deal more gently with them; but he now sees that the opposite has happened, and therefore he piously remonstrates with God.
Verse 23: You Have Not Delivered Them
23. For from the time that I went in to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has afflicted Your people, and You have not delivered them.
Moral Lesson: On the Harshness of Servitude
Learn from this chapter how harsh was the servitude of the Hebrews in Egypt, and consequently how great a benefit God bestowed upon them when He led them out from there; which He therefore everywhere impresses upon them, that they may be grateful to God, and love and worship Him: "I," He says, "am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of the Egyptians, that you should not serve them, and who broke the chains from your necks, that you might walk upright," Leviticus 26:13. For servitude is a kind of death, namely the loss of civil life, that is, of liberty: hence nations fight for it, and prefer to die rather than to serve. King Philip, bursting into Spartan territory, said to a certain Spartan: What will you do now, Spartans? He replied: "What else, but die bravely? For we alone among the Greeks have learned to be free, and not to obey others."
After the defeat suffered under the command of Agis, when Antipater demanded 50 boys as hostages, Eteocles the Ephor refused to hand them over, lest they be badly educated and, falling away from the institutions of their fatherland, become a harm to the city: but he offered double the number of old men or women, if he wished. And when Antipater threatened atrocities unless they were given, he replied in the name of the state: "If you command things more difficult than death, it will be easier for us to die." Hence a Laconian, when asked what he knew, said: "I know how to be free": so Plutarch in the Laconian Sayings.