Moses said: Thou shalt give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings, to the Lord our God.

And Moses said, Thou must give also sacrifices and burnt-offerings into our hands, that we may sacrifice to Jehovah our God.

and Moses saith, 'Thou also dost give in our hand sacrifices and burnt-offerings, and we have prepared for Jehovah our God;

But Moses said, You will have to let us take burned offerings to put before the Lord our God.

Moses said: "You must also permit us victims and holocausts, which we may offer to the Lord our God.

Dixitque Moses, Tu quoque dabis in manu nostra sacrificia et holocausta, ut faciamus Jehovae Deo nostro.

And Moses said. Moses no less severely repudiates all exceptions, than as if he authoritatively demanded of the king what God had enjoined. And assuredly, by this austere and abrupt manner of speaking he evidenced his courage, whereby he might humble the arrogance and audacity of the impious king. His pretext indeed was, that they had need of victims, and in this way he avoids the tyrant's greater displeasure; but, at the same time, by directly excluding all conditions, and by not leaving even a hair in the power of the king, he asserts the indivisible right of God alone; that Pharaoh may know that all his evasions will profit him nothing. The expression" there shall not a hoof be left behind," contains a severe reproof, accompanied with anger and contempt; as if he would purposely pique [1] the virulent mind of the tyrant. But we have already said that there was no dissimulation in these words: for, although the holy man knew that the counsel of God had a further object, he still thought it sufficient to deliver the commands which were prescribed to him; nor would it be proper to suppose that God is under an obligation always to make the wicked acquainted with all His purposes.

Footnotes

1 - The Fr. thus resolves the metaphor: -- "Comme s'il picquoit de propos delibere le courage envenime du tyran, pour en faire crever l'aposthume;" as if he purposely lanced the envenomed audacity of the tyrant, to let out its matter.

And Moses said, thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings,.... Sheep, rams, and goats for sacrifices, and oxen for burnt offerings; and that of his own, as Jarchi interprets it; but rather the meaning is, that besides having their little ones with them, they must be allowed also to take their cattle for sacrifices and burnt offerings:
that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God; might have wherewith to offer up in sacrifice to him as he shall require.