Teks -- Exodus 5:12 (NET)

5:12 So the people spread out through all the land of Egypt to collect stubble for straw.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

JFB: Exo 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).

Calvin: Exo 5:12 - So the people were scattered abroad

12.So the people were scattered abroad This circumstance proves how bitterly they were afflicted, and what labor beyond their strength was imposed upon them. In order to make bricks, at least, they should have remained in a particular spot, but straw is not supplied to them for the purpose; they are obliged, therefore, to disperse here and there, and to gather stubble instead of straw in the distant parts of Egypt. They could not do both; it was then in fact just to procure a false pretext, which he might catch at as the ground of their condemnation: as now we often see the enemies of Christ inventing the most insupportable torments, by which the unhappy Church may be driven to deny the faith. For it was the design of Pharaoh to drive Moses and Aaron far away, that they might never agitate any more for the departure of the people; and if he had obtained this wish, he would doubtless have remitted some part of his abominable cruelty; but, because they did not cease, he wished to extort from the people by bitter sufferings, that they should send them away themselves, or refuse even to lend an ear to the commands of God. For although he must have been perfectly conscious that there was no reason to accuse the people of idleness, but that the tale of bricks was not delivered, because the poor wretches, who had been hardly able before to perform half their labor, were now incapable, by the utmost exertion, to bear their burdens, and therefore sees that they are altogether overwhelmed by them; yet still he reproaches them with reveling in idleness, in order that they may turn away from Moses, and renounce and abandon the hope presented to them from on high. And, because he can only torment them more by killing them outright, he commands their officers to be beaten, that by their punishment the whole people might be in greater dread. Finally, those whom he saw standing too firmly, he determined to drive at last to despair. He is deaf to every excuse of the officers; for when he had once made up his mind to crush the people until he had destroyed in them all recollection of God, there is no more feeling or pity in him than in a stone.

TSK: Exo 5:12 - stubble

stubble : Exo 15:7; Isa 5:24, Isa 47:14; Joe 2:5; Nah 1:10; Oba 1:18; 1Co 3:12

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Exo 5:12 - All the land of Egypt

All the land of Egypt i.e. all that part of it; which is a very usual synecdoche.

Haydock: Exo 5:12 - Straw

Straw. While some continued at the works, (Menochius) others went about the fields to gather up every grain of chaff and piece of straw which they could find.

Gill: Exo 5:12 - So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt // to gather stubble instead of straw

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.