What Does Exodus 5:18 Mean in the King James?

Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks.

Exodus 5:18 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The same Hebrew root marks what the workers are denied and what they are still commanded to give.

THE MEANING

This verse names a coercive pattern alive now: the means are withheld while the full measure remains demanded. The missing material is built into the order itself, so the unmet demand cannot be read simply as a failure of effort.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that an unchanged demand proves the conditions are adequate: here the straw is withheld while the brick count remains due.

THE ROOT

יִנָּתֵן

yinnāten

GROWS FROM

נתן

Give, set, place.

“given / deliver” in this verse is yinnāten. The Hebrew repeats ⁨נתן⁩ for the straw that will not be given and the bricks the workers must give. The same root carries both sides of the exchange, exposing how provision is withheld while output is still extracted.

ALSO GROWS

yinnāten: be given

יִנָּתֵן

This form says the straw will not be given to the workers.

tittēnû: you shall give

תִּתֵּנּוּ

This form uses the same root for the brick count the workers must hand over.

עִבְדוּ

ʿivdû

GROWS FROM

עבד

Work, serve.

The command rendered “work” comes from ⁨עבד⁩, also the source of words for servant and service. The root keeps the labor tied to subjection: the work is done under the authority that controls both the straw and the quota.

ALSO GROWS

ʿeved: servant, slave

עֶבֶד

This branch keeps the command to work connected to the condition of serving under another’s authority.

ʿavodah: work, service

עֲבֹדָה

This noun carries both senses together, as the command in this verse does.

תֹּכֶן

tōḵen

GROWS FROM

תכן

Measure, weigh, reckon.

Here “tale” carries its older sense of count or measure, making the demand a fixed quantity of bricks. The root’s measuring sense sharpens the imbalance: the provision shrinks, but the measured output does not.

ALSO GROWS

tāḵan: measure, weigh

תָּכַן

This verb form shows the tally as output measured against a standard.

matkōnet: measure, prescribed quantity

מַתְכֹּנֶת

Exodus 5:8 uses this related form for the brick quota that is not to be reduced.

THE PATTERN

Coercion keeps its quota intact while withholding what makes the work possible.

And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.

Exodus 5:8 · KJVThe order makes the unchanged brick tally explicit even as straw is withheld.

Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates:

Deuteronomy 24:14 · KJVThis command names the vulnerable worker’s need as no grounds for oppression.

For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

Matthew 23:4 · KJVThe burden is imposed on others while those with power refuse to help carry it.

THE THREAD

That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good.

Psalm 104:28 · KJV

The Hebrew root ⁨נתן⁩ appears again in “thou givest,” but here the giving opens into gathering and fullness. The shared root draws out the contrast between withheld provision and the life that can gather when provision is given.

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