Exodus 5:7

Summary

Exodus 5:7 records Pharaoh's command halting the supply of straw to the Israelite slaves. The people are now required to go out themselves and collect the straw needed to make bricks, a task previously supported by the state.

Key words

• to.si.Fu ("you will repeat/continue", H3254) — Hiphil (causative) imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural, with a paragogic nun (H9013) attached for emphasis. The causative stem turns "add" into "cause to continue," and combined with lo' ("not", H3808) it forms the prohibition "you shall no longer continue."
• lin.Bon ("to make bricks", H3835B) — Qal infinitive, expressing purpose: the straw is given for the purpose of brick-making.
• hem ("they", H1992) — independent personal pronoun placed before the verb yelkhu, creating emphasis on the subject: it is precisely they (the people), not the officials, who must go.
• ko.she.Shu ("they may gather", H7197A) — Piel (intensive) form with prefixed vav, continuing the imperfect sequence begun with yelkhu; the intensive stem suggests effortful or repeated gathering activity, not a single simple act.
• la.Hem ("for themselves", H9038) — preposition + 3rd person masculine plural suffix, reinforcing that the gathering benefits no one but the workers themselves.

What the text says

The verse opens with a negated causative verb, lo' to.si.Fun, built on the root meaning "to add" (H3254G) in the Hiphil stem. This produces the sense "you shall not continue to do X," where X is expressed through the following infinitive la.Tet ("to give", H5414G). The infinitive construction la.Tet Te.ven la.'Am ("to give straw to the people") specifies the object of the discontinued action: providing straw. The next infinitive, lin.Bon ha.leve.Nim ("to make the bricks"), expresses the purpose for which the straw was formerly supplied, linked by the preposition li (H9005).

The comparative phrase ki.t.Mol shil.Shom ("as yesterday, the day before", H8543, H8032) sets up a contrast between prior practice and the new order. The second half of the verse pivots with the emphatic pronoun hem ("they") preceding the imperfect verb ye.le.Khu ("let them go", H1980G), stressing that the burden shifts to the workers themselves. The following clause ve.ko.she.Shu la.Hem Te.ven uses a Piel form of qashash (H7197A), an intensive stem that can imply sustained or effortful collecting, followed by la.Hem ("for themselves") — doubly marking that the people must now supply their own material with their own labor.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders to.si.Fu with Οὐκέτι προστεθήσεται ("it shall no longer be added"), using a passive construction rather than the active Hebrew causative addressed to "you" (plural). The Vulgate's dabitis ("you shall give") keeps the active second-person form closer to the Hebrew structure. The Hebrew phrase ki.t.Mol shil.Shom ("as yesterday, the day before yesterday") is rendered in the LXX literally as καθάπερ ἐχθὲς καὶ τρίτην ἡμέραν, while the Vulgate simplifies this idiom to sicut prius ("as before"), losing the specific temporal idiom.