So Moses returned to the LORD and asked, “Lord, why have You brought trouble upon this people? Is this why You sent me?
22. And Moses returned. This return unto the Lord is here used in a bad sense for forsaking his office; for Moses is not related to have either calmly prayed, or, as in a difficult emergency, to have humbly sought counsel of the Lord; but, leaving the men with whom he had to do, to have gone back in disgust to God, to demand his dismissal.
The foremen faced a cruel bind: obey their taskmasters or protect those beneath them. Rather than tyrannize, they chose to suffer it themselves. They petitioned Pharaoh as they ought, yet their complaint only worsened their lot. Pharaoh mocked them for idleness while beating them senseless, calling their sacred obedience to God slothfulness toward his work. Men judge by appearance; God judges the heart.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 5:15-23
And Moses returned unto the Lord,.... Bishop Patrick thinks, that this not only intimates that the Lord had appeared to Moses since he came into Egypt, but that there was some settled place where he appeared, and where he might resort to him on all occasions, and therefore is said to return to him; though it may signify no more, than that, instead of staying...