But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the LORD.
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
But he said, ye are idle, ye are idle,.... Instead of expressing indignation at the taskmasters, and relieving the officers and the people, he insults them in a flouting sarcastic way, charging them with sloth and idleness; and which, for the certainty of it, or, however, to show how strongly persuaded and fully assured he was of the truth of it, repeats it, and gives...
Ye are idle - therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice - It is common for those who feel unconcerned about their own souls to attribute the religious earnestness of others, who feel the importance of eternal things, to idleness or a disregard of their secular concerns. Strange that they cannot see there is a medium!