What Does Exodus 5:19 Mean in the King James?
And the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were in evil case, after it was said, Ye shall not minish ought from your bricks of your daily task.
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 command to keep the quota unchanged is the moment its cruelty becomes visible.
THE MEANING
The officers see the people’s harmful condition once the daily quota is declared nonnegotiable. The verse lets you see the burden for what it is: not a neutral number, but a demand enforced without relief. Its fixedness is part of the injury.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
An unchanged quota is fair because no one has formally reduced it.
THE ROOT
תִגְרְעוּ
tigreʿu
GROWS FROM
גרע
to diminish, withdraw, or take away
English makes “minish” sound like a small adjustment to a number, but this root also describes being held back or kept from something. The officers recognize that refusing any reduction is itself part of the harm.
ALSO GROWS
niggaraʿ: be held back; be kept from
נִגָּרַע
In Numbers 9:7, the same root describes people asking why they should be kept from offering the LORD’s offering; it can name what is withheld from people as well as what is reduced.
tigreʿu: diminish; subtract
תִגְרְעוּ
Deuteronomy 4:2 uses this same form for diminishing from God’s instruction, revealing the root’s sense of subtraction.
דְּבַר־יוֹם בְּיוֹמוֹ
devar-yom beyomo
GROWS FROM
דבר
to speak; word, matter, or thing
The quota is called the day’s “matter,” binding a concrete amount of work to each day. The same root links that matter to speech, so the daily task is also a spoken charge repeated day by day.
ALSO GROWS
davar: word; matter; thing
דָּבָר
The quota is the day’s assigned matter, not an abstract measure.
dibber: spoke; declared
דִּבֶּר
The shared root links the day’s work to the spoken instruction that fixes it.
THE PATTERN
When power fixes a burden and refuses relief, the burden itself exposes the injustice.
Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee.Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.THE THREAD
Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.The same root translated “minish” here appears in Deuteronomy’s “neither shall ye diminish ought from it.” In Exodus, Pharaoh forbids reducing the imposed work; in Deuteronomy, the root names subtraction from instruction, making the shared question one of who controls what can be taken away.
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