שמות, פרק ה׳, פסוק י״ז

A tyrant's response to the cries of the oppressed rarely involves compassion; instead, it relies on victim-blaming and sheer callousness. As the Israelites cry out for relief, their ruler merely entrenches himself in his cruelty. He takes pleasure in the suffering of the miserable, entirely unwilling to change his harsh decrees [אבן עזרא, ביאור יש״ר].

Pharaoh dismisses their pleas by repeatedly branding them as lazy, driving his point home through sheer repetition [קאסוטו]. He accuses them not only of having an inherently idle nature but also of actively slacking off from their royal duties [העמק דבר]. This double accusation points to a continuous state of laziness. In Pharaoh's eyes, they were lazy in the past—which is why their original brick quota was set so low—and they remain lazy now, unable to meet even those basic expectations [מלבי״ם].

The primary approach among commentators is that Pharaoh weaponizes their spiritual aspirations, using their desire to serve God as ultimate proof of their idleness. He insists that they are fully capable of completing their physical labor [בכור שור]. However, the very fact that they have the time to entertain hopes of spiritual freedom reveals that they are not working hard enough [ספורנו, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. He views their request to go and offer sacrifices as nothing more than a convenient excuse to escape their duties [ספורנו, בכור שור]. Therefore, his solution is to increase their burden even further to force them into action.

Interestingly, when Pharaoh mocks their request to sacrifice to God, he deliberately uses God's explicit name. He recognizes that when addressing the Israelites, he must invoke the specific Deity they know and follow, even if he himself does not acknowledge Him [העמק דבר].