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Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. They built storage cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses.
Verse Takeaways
1
A Calculated Cruelty
Commentators explain this was not random cruelty but a calculated state policy. Pharaoh appointed high-ranking officials, or "taskmasters," with the specific goal of afflicting the Israelites through forced labor. As John Calvin notes, this was an act of profound injustice, breaking faith with a people who had been welcomed into the land. The aim was to crush their spirits and halt their growth.
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Book Overview
Exodus
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5
18th Century
Presbyterian
Taskmasters - The Egyptian “Chiefs of tributes.” They were men of rank, superintendents of the public works, such as are often represented o…
19th Century
Anglican
Task-masters. —Hebrew, chiefs of tributes. The Egyptian system of forced labour, which it was now resolved to extend to t…
16th Century
Protestant
Therefore they did set over them. The Egyptians devised this plan to gradually diminish the children of Israel. Since the Israelites were …
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17th Century
Reformed Baptist
Therefore they did set taskmasters over them, to afflictthem with their burdensThis w…
The land of Egypt became a house of bondage to Israel. The place where we have been happy may soon become the place of our affliction; and that may…
