John Calvin Commentary Exodus 14:5

"And it was told the king of Egypt that the people were fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was changed towards the people, and they said, What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?" — Exodus 14:5 (ASV)

And it was told the king.

Moses does not simply mean that the king then first heard of the flight of the people, which had been anything but secret, but that the circumstances were reported to him which stirred him up to make an attack upon them.

When he hears, then, that the people fled in haste, he thinks that they may be retained by the slightest obstacle. Nor is he alone influenced by this foolish thought, but all his courtiers blame their own inertness for letting the people go.

They inquire among themselves, "Why have we let the children of Israel depart?"

As if they had not endeavored in every way to prevent their free exit—as if their pertinacity had not been ten times divinely overcome—as if God had not at length torn the people from them, in spite of their reluctance.

But this is the stupidity of the wicked: that they only dread God’s present hand and immediately forget all that they have seen.

They were worn out by the fierce and dreadful punishments; but now, as if nothing had happened, they discuss why they had not resisted God even to the end, when he had compelled them to submit with extreme reluctance, after they had ten times found out that they struggled against Him in vain.

But such is the pride by which the reprobate must be blinded, that they may be driven onwards to their own destruction, while they are persuaded that there is nothing difficult for them and fight against God.