Exodus Chapter 5 verse 21 Holy Bible
and they said unto them, Jehovah look upon you, and judge: because ye have made our savor to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us.
read chapter 5 in ASV
And they said to them, May the Lord take note of you and be your judge; for you have given Pharaoh and his servants a bad opinion of us, putting a sword in their hands for our destruction.
read chapter 5 in BBE
And they said to them, Jehovah look upon you and judge, that ye have made our odour to stink in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his bondmen, putting a sword into their hand to kill us!
read chapter 5 in DARBY
And they said unto them, The LORD look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savor to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us.
read chapter 5 in KJV
And they said to them, The LORD look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savor to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hands to slay us.
read chapter 5 in WBT
and they said to them, "May Yahweh look at you, and judge, because you have made us a stench to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us."
read chapter 5 in WEB
and say unto them, `Jehovah look upon you, and judge, because ye have caused our fragrance to stink in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants -- to give a sword into their hand to slay us.'
read chapter 5 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 21. - They said unto them. The officers were too full of their wrongs to wait until questioned. They took the word, and, without relating the result of their interview, implied it. The Lord look upon you, and judge, they said, meaning "the Lord (Jehovah) consider your conduct, and judge it" not exactly, "condemn it and punish it" (Keil and Delitzsch) - but "pass sentence on it," "judge whether it has been right or not." We make this appeal because ye have at any rate done us a great injury - ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh. (Note the mixed metaphor, which shows- perhaps rather that "in the eyes" had lost its original meaning, and come to signify no more than "with" or "in respect of," than that the literal meaning of making a person's savour to "stink" did not occur to the writer.) Nay, ye have done more - ye have put a sword in the hand of his servants to slay us. That is to say, "ye have armed them with a weapon wherewith we expect that they will take our lives." Either they will beat us to death - and death is a not infrequent result of a repeated employment of the bastinado - or when they find that punishment unavailing they will execute us as traitors. On the use of the bastinado as a punishment in Egypt, see Chabas, 'Melanges Egyptologiques,' 3me serie, vol. 1. pp. 100-6. CHAPTER 5:22, 23
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(21) Ye have made our savour to be abhorred.--Heb., to stink. An idiom common to the Hebrews with the Egyptians (Comp. Genesis 34:30; 1Samuel 13:4; 2Samuel 10:6, &c, with Papyr. Anastas. 1:27, 7), and very expressive. The English idiom, "to be in bad odour with a person," is similar, but lacks the force of the Hebrew phrase.In the eyes.--Mixed metaphors occur in all languages, and may generally be accounted for by the literal meaning of some familiar expression having come to be forgotten. In Heb., liphney, "in the face of," and be'eyney, "in the eyes of," were mere prepositions, having the force of "before," "with," "in regard to."A sword . . . to slay us.--This was not, perhaps, mere Oriental hyperbole. The officers may have feared that their inability to enforce the Pharaoh's impracticable demands would ultimately lead to their execution.
