Matthew Henry on Exodus 5:10-14
Pharaoh's orders are here put in execution; straw is denied, and yet the work not diminished. 1. The Egyptian task-masters were very severe. Pharaoh having decreed unrighteous decrees, the task-masters were ready to write the grievousness that he had prescribed, Isa 10:1. Cruel princes will never want cruel instruments to be employed under them, who will justify them in that which is most unreasonable. These task-masters insisted upon the daily tasks, as when there was straw, Exo 5:13. See what need we have to pray that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, Th2 3:2. The enmity of the serpent's seed against the seed of the woman is such as breaks through all the laws of reason…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Exodus 5:12
So the people were scattered--It was an immense grievance to the laborers individually, but there would be no hindrance from the husbandmen whose fields they entered, as almost all the lands of Egypt were in the possession of the crown (Gen 47:20).
Adam Clarke on Exodus 5:8
And the tale of the bricks - Tale signifies the number, from the Anglo-Saxon to number, to count, etc.
For they be idle; therefore they cry - Let us go and sacrifice - Thus their desire to worship the true God in a proper manner was attributed to their unwillingness to work; a reflection which the Egyptians (in principle) of the present day cast on these who, while they are fervent in spirit serving the Lord, are not slothful in business. See Clarke below Exo 5:17 (note).
John Gill on Exodus 5:12
So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt,.... That part of it where they dwelt:
to gather stubble instead of straw; straw not being easy to come at, they were obliged to gather stubble that was left in the fields, after the corn was gathered in. Ben Melech observes, that the word signifies small straw, or small sticks of wood, and Kimchi (m), and if so, this must be to burn the bricks with in the furnaces.
(m) Sepher Shorash, rad.
