DID YOU KNOW?

In Exodus 5, Moses and Aaron stand before Pharaoh for the first time. What do they ask him to let the Israelites do?

The answer

Three days in the wilderness to sacrifice. The famous line comes first: "Let my people go, so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the wilderness" (Exodus 5:1). When Pharaoh refuses, they spell it out: a three days' journey "into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord our God" (Exodus 5:3). After the plague of flies they ask for the same three days (Exodus 8:27).

Why it’s interesting

A study Bible, the New Oxford Annotated Bible, reads this as a request for a three-day leave, not permanent freedom. Pharaoh's answer is to stop giving out straw and keep the brick count the same (Exodus 5:7-8). The same note adds that "Let my people go" later became a refrain of the spiritual "Go Down, Moses."

Scholarly consensus

Learn the Bible.

Not just the stories, but the history, authorship, and scholarship behind it.