עוד נגע אחד, “one more plague;” this paragraph was communicated by G-d to Moses and Aaron while they were standing in front of Pharaoh. It had to be so, as we never read of Moses seeing Pharaoh again. However, he received this communication outside the capital as we understand from 7,15: “here when he goes to the water (to have his daily bowel movement)” [this explains that Moses could not receive communications from G-d while in a ritually contaminated area. Ed.] As far as this last communication is concerned, the Midrash states that G-d lifted Moses more than ten hand breadths from the floor of the palace in order to communicate with him. (Compare Torah shleymah 11,27) After that, Moses predicted the plague of the killing of the first born with which G-d would smite Egypt.

דבר נא, “speak please;” Moses was to do this at this time as they would not have any time to do so once Pharaoh would discharge them unconditionally, i.e. even expel them. If the people had made these requests still earlier, Egyptians would have demanded that they would give back what they had borrowed, seeing that Pharaoh had refused to allow them to leave permanently.

וישאלו איש, “they each asked for, etc.” they complied with what G-d had asked them to do, so that He could fulfill His promise to Avraham that after servitude to a land other than the land of Canaan, they would leave that country as free people with a great deal of wealth. (Genesis 15,14). Some commentators insist that the expression: וישאלו refers to asking for an outright gift. (Rabbeinu Chananel) They claim that Psalms 2,8: 'שאל ממני ואתנה וגו, “ask something of Me and I will grant it,” is proof of this.

מאת רעהו, “from his friend or comrade;” to the question of: “since when were the ordinary Egyptians the personal friends of the Israelites?” The answer is that after the plagues had ceased, the Egyptians’ attitude towards the Israelites underwent a drastic change, and they became very willing to let them use their vessels.

כלי כסף וכלי זהב, “silver vessels and golden vessels.” It was no more than a fair exchange, seeing that the Israelites left behind their houses and their fields which no one compensated them for. We read already in Genesis 47,27 ויאחזו בה, that the sons of Yaakov instead of or in addition to being shepherds, also became land owners.

גם האיש משה גדול מאד, “also the person called Moses was a very greatly esteemed man.” The Torah writes this in order for us to understand the reason why the Torah reports that the Israelites “emptied out” Egypt. Many Egyptians gave gifts to the Israelites as a sign of their high esteem for their leader Moses.

ובעיני העם, “as well as in the eyes of the people.” (the Egyptian people, not only in the eyes of Pharaoh’s officials.)

ויאמר משה, Moses said: according to Rashi this paragraph was told to him while he was still standing in the palace in the presence of Pharaoh as he never saw him again later. The words: נאמרה לו, “were said (revealed) to him,” refer to Moses relating his latest prophecy to Pharaoh. The proof of this is that if these words were only now communicated to Moses by G-d, why did Rashi not comment this on verse 1 of our chapter? We must therefore understand Moses as having announced the plague of his own volition without a commandment at that time, as he had already done so with the plague of the locusts, as stated in Pessikta on the verse 29 in chapter 12. This is also the way it is described in Tanchuma 12,37 (older version) concerning that paragraph commencing with: “it was at about midnight;”

כחצות הלילה, “approximately at midnight;” actually when midnight struck; here the prefix כ is used in the prediction whereas at the actual hour of the dying of the firstborn, the Torah describes it as having occurred precisely at midnight. We find something similar in Exodus 13,4 where Moses tells the people: היום אתם יוצאים בחודש האביב, “you are leaving this day in the month of spring.” (Rash’bam)

אני יוצא, “I am going out (taking a walk);” seeing that Pharaoh had failed to heed Moses’ warning, I will personally descend from heaven to carry out what Moses had threatened would happen at this hour.”

כל בכור, “every firstborn.” Both the firstborn of a mother and the firstborn of a father were included.

הבכור פרעה, “from the firstborn of Pharaoh,” i.e. a firstborn of the father, to עד בכור השפחה, “including the firstborn of a servant maid,” i.e. the firstborn of a mother.

עד בכור השפחה, according to Rashi, seeing that most commentators here understand the words בכור השפחה, to be identical to בכור השבי in 12,29, they use that term in their commentary on this verse. They assume that Rashi agreed seeing that nearly all prisoners of war become slaves. [According to my understanding of Rashi on 2,29, there are degrees in the hierarchy of slaves. The Torah uses both terms, as the slave who was a prisoner of war is considered as at the rockbottom of that hierarchy. Ed.] Another reason for the two terms being used by the Torah for servant women; when the firstborn sons of servant maids heard Moses use the term שפחה in our verse, they decided to become captives so as to escape the threat of being killed. Upon noticing this, G-d said: while it is true that I had only spoken about the firstborn of the servant maid being killed, now I must include also the firstborn of a woman prisoner. A different interpretation: the expression בכור השבי is subordinate to the general heading of בכור השפחה. The prophets in their way of expressing themselves (as opposed to the Torah itself) do not bother with stylistic effects but are concerned with the basics. Such nuances as השקני “let me drink,” as opposed to הגמאיני, “let me sip,” when Eliezer is quoted as speaking to Rivkah, (Genesis 24,38) or the two versions of the commandment to keep the Sabbath in the Ten Commandments no less, i.e. in Yitro it says: זכור for “remember,” whereas in the Book of Deuteronomy, the text of which is attributed to Moses, it says: שמור to express the same commandment, or minor differences such as swearing a false oath which in Yitro is described as לשוא, and in Leviticus 19,12, לשקר, or differences such as לא תחמוד, for “do not covet,” and לא תתאוה, in the version of the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5,18, are to be viewed as if two sides of the same coin. [My words, Ed.] Both expressions convey the same basic thought. Still another explanation: when Moses said: ומת כל בכור, “and every firstborn will die,” the firstborn of the maidservants rejoiced noting that they are not considered in the eyes of the Jewish G-d from the firstborn of the nobility. When their masters noted their joy, they threw them in a dungeon to teach them a lesson and not to forget their place in the Egyptian hierarchy. As a result they died, while still in the dungeon. In effect what happened is simply that the first born who had been only slaves at the time the plague had been announced had become also prisoners by the time the plague became effective.

אשר אחרי הרחים, “who walks behind the millstones to help grind. When the plague was over the Torah describes these people as having been in a dungeon. This is another example of what we discussed earlier on this page. Some commentators believe that these two verses are actually to be understood as a single verse, i.e. that these lowly slaves performed one kind of task by day and another by night. We find an example of this in the Book of Judges when Shimshon had to perform the task of pushing the millstone by day, whereas at night he was put back into the dungeon and the millstone was placed on to prevent him from escaping. (Judges 16,21.)

וכל בכור בהמה “and every firstborn of the domestic animals.” According to Rashi, G-d first punishes a people’s deities and then the people themselves. We see this from Exodus 7,17, where the river Nile, a major deity of the Egyptians was struck before the people suffered as a result of this.

אשר כמוהו לא נהיתה, “the like of which had never occurred and will never occur again.” [The following is a comment on the grammatical incongruity in this verse where masculine and feminine constructions have been used inconsistently. Ed.] We find this kind of incongruity not only here but also in Leviticus 6,9: והרים ממנו בקומצו, as well as in Leviticus 27,9. Compare also Genesis 32,9. A different explanation: the word כמוהו, does not refer to the outcry of the Egyptians but to the night, לילה, which is masculine also. In chapter 11 verse 4, G-d had said that He would go out during that night. In our verse here the reference is to that night.

לא יחרץ כלב לשונו, “not a single dog will whet its tongue;” it was customary for the dogs to bellow at midnight as midnight was the time when the watches changed as we know from the Talmud in B’rachot folio 3. When the Israelites made ready to leave, each one with his walking stick in his hand, these watchdogs did not raise their voices in protest and gave no alarm.

לא ישמע אליכם פרעה, “Pharaoh will pay no heed to you.” You might argue that this contradicts what we read in verses 30-31, where Pharaoh and his servants are described as rising in the middle of the night, showing that he certainly did not ignore Moses’ warning. We therefore have to understand our verse here as referring to the entire period during which Moses was “negotiating” the release of the Jewish people. G-d had told Moses already at the burning bush that Pharaoh would not pay heed to his demands or threats. (Exodus 3,19) He had told him at that time that the reason for the lengthy negotiations was to demonstrate to him and his people G-d’s power by orchestrating the plagues.

Another exegesis of the line: לא ישמע אליכם פרעה. Since I knew in advance that Pharaoh would not heed your warnings I should have smitten him and his people with the last plague at once in order to make good on what you told him that you were afraid that any delay would result .in the Israelites being punished by Me. The reason why instead of you being punished with the sword and pestilence, as you had warned him, is that now I am entitled to punish him with what he had not minded that you would be punished. His obstinacy enabled me to demonstrate My power.

את כל המופתים האלה, “all these miracles.' This refers to the nine plagues that had preceded the killing of the firstborn. G-d’s performing the 10th plague, however, would result in Pharaoh finally heeding all the warnings he had ignored previously. After the dying of the firstborn he will discharge the whole people and their portable belongings.