But he said, "You are idle! You are idle! Therefore you say, 'Let us go and sacrifice to Yahweh.'
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The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.
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But he said, "You are idle! You are idle! Therefore you say, 'Let us go and sacrifice to Yahweh.'
But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the LORD.
And he said, “You are lazy! Lazy! That is why you are saying, ‘Let us go sacrifice to Yahweh.’
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
But he said, "You are idle! You are idle! Therefore you say, 'Let us go and sacrifice to Yahweh.'
“You are slackers!” Pharaoh replied. “Slackers! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’
“You are slackers!” Pharaoh replied. “Slackers! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’
But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the LORD.
But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and sacrifice to Jehovah.
But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.
But he said, Ye are to much idle: therfore ye say, Let vs goe to offer sacrifice to the Lord.
And he said: You are idle, and therefore you say: Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.
And he saith, `Remiss -- ye are remiss, therefore ye are saying, Let us go, let us sacrifice to Jehovah;
And he says, “Remiss—you are remiss, therefore you are saying, Let us go, let us sacrifice to YHWH;
But Pharaoh said, “You are lazy! You are lazy! You say, 'Allow us to go sacrifice to Yahweh.'
And he said, “You are lazy! Lazy! That is why you are saying, ‘Let us go sacrifice to Yahweh.’
And he said, Ye are idle, idle! therefore ye say, Let us go and sacrifice to Jehovah.
But Pharaoh said, “You are idle! You are idle! Therefore you say, ‘Let’s go and sacrifice to the LORD.’
But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go, and do sacrifice to the LORD.
“No, you're just lazy, lazy people!” Pharaoh replied. “That's why you keep on asking, ‘Please let us go and offer sacrifices to the Lord.’
But he said, You have no love for work: that is why you say, Let us go and make an offering to the Lord.
But he said: 'Ye are idle, ye are idle; therefore ye say: Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.
Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).
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These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →
Shared distinctive vocabulary
נִרְפִּ֥ים to relax H7503 occurs in 45 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
Verb forms
Repetition
Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 19 words from the Hebrew and 23 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.
A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.
Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.
In the original languages it is 11 Hebrew tokens and 14 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.
Topical passages linked to Exodus 5:17 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).
The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.
These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.
וַיֹּ֛אמֶר נִרְפִּ֥ים אַתֶּ֖ם נִרְפִּ֑ים עַל כֵּן֙ אַתֶּ֣ם אֹֽמְרִ֔ים נֵלְכָ֖ה נִזְבְּחָ֥ה לַֽיהוָֽה
But he said, "You are idle! You are idle! Therefore you say, 'Let us go and sacrifice to Yahweh.'
World English Bible · Public Domain
καί εἶπον αὐτός σχολάζω σχολαστής εἰμί διά οὗτος λέγω πορεύομαι θύω ὁ θεός ἐγώ
And he said to them, You⌃ are idle, you⌃ are idlers: therefore you⌃ say, Let us go and do sacrifice to our God.
LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain
Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →
The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.
וַאֲמַר בַּטְלָנִין אַתּוּן בַּטְלָנִין עַל כֵּן אַתּוּן אָמְרִין נֵזֵיל נְדַבַּח קֳדָם יְיָ:
(no public-domain English translation for this verse)
Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
וַאֲמַר בַּטְלָנִין אַתּוּן בַּטְלָנִין בְּגִין כֵּן אַתּוּן אָמְרִין נֵזִיל נְדַבַּח נִכְסַת חַגָא קֳדָם אֱלָהָנָא
But he said, You are idle, idle: therefore you are saying, Let us go and over the sacrifice of a festival before our God.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.
Exodus, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 11 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is râphâh (“to relax”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Commentary
Notes on Exodus 5:17 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.
Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →
Trapp's Complete Commentary
John Trapp
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Geneva Bible (1599)
Geneva Bible translators
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.
Adam Clarke's Commentary
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill's Exposition
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Pulpit Commentary
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.