Charles Ellicott Commentary Exodus 5:1

"And afterward Moses and Aaron came, and said unto Pharaoh, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness." — Exodus 5:1 (ASV)

Went in. — Hebrew, went — that is, they left their usual residence and approached the Court, which, according to Psalm 78:12; Psalms 78:43, was held at Zoan (that is, Tanis). This was the ordinary residence of Rameses II and his son Menephthah.

Thus saith the Lord God of Israel. — Hebrew, Thus has said Jehovah, God of Israel. The Pharaohs claimed to hold direct communications with the Egyptian deities and could not deny the possibility of the Hebrew leaders holding communications with their God. Menephthah himself—the probable “Pharaoh of the Exodus”—declared that he had received a warning from Phthah in the fifth year of his reign (Brugsch, History of Egypt, vol. ii., p. 119; 1st ed.).

That they may hold a feast unto me. — God’s entire purpose is not immediately revealed to Pharaoh. He is tested with a moderate demand, which he might well have granted. By refusing it, he showed himself harsh, unkind, and inconsiderate, so tempting God to lay upon him a greater burden.

In the wilderness. — that is, beyond the frontier, or, at any rate, beyond inhabited Egypt—so that the Egyptians might not be driven to fury by seeing animals sacrificed which they regarded as sacred. (See Exodus 8:26 and the comment on that passage.)