John Calvin Commentary Exodus 5:19

"And the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were in evil case, when it was said, Ye shall not diminish aught from your bricks, [your] daily tasks." — Exodus 5:19 (ASV)

And the officers of the children of Israel did see. Some take the Hebrew word רע⁷⁰, rang, for “grief,” but refer it to the people, as if it were said, “the officers did see the people sorrowful when they informed them of the king’s command.” But the simpler sense, in my opinion, is that they saw no remedy for their plight, and that they could not be delivered from the cruel bondage in which they were. Some also explain that the officers themselves felt, from their own experience after they had been so inhumanly repulsed by the king, how unhappy their condition was.

But if I must choose a meaning, I prefer what I have stated above: that they themselves sympathized with the public calamity, while they could see no hope of deliverance. Unless, perhaps, it would be better to interpret it this way: that when they came into the people’s presence, they themselves had sad countenances and looked upon them with expressions downcast by sorrow and shame, because they brought the cruel edict for doubling their labour.

And I certainly willingly embrace this meaning: that when they were forced to proclaim the king’s command, their countenances betrayed their sorrow, because they could not evade the necessity of being the ministers of his ungodly tyranny and cruelty. For Moses adds immediately after that they delivered the edict. Therefore, their mournful appearance was because they unwillingly oppressed their brethren, whose troubles they would have preferred to alleviate.

In sum, their situation was utterly desperate, because the officers themselves conveyed this message of the tyrant’s unchangeable cruelty, and by the distress evident in their countenances, bore witness that no mitigation could be hoped for.

⁷⁰ רע, evil; A V., they (were) in evil (case.) The question for translators has been whether the pronoun in this clause may be rendered themselves S M has said, cum moerore; Hebraice cum malo, scilicet aspectu. Alii exponunt hic אותם pro נפשם, ut est sensus, viderunt praefecti Israelitorum se esse in magno moerore. The LXX. and the V. have rendered the pronoun by words equivalent to themselves — W