. עתה תראה, now that you have seen yourself the sin of Pharaoh who has the nerve to hold on to the Israelites with the authority of his office, you will see that he will not only release them voluntarily, but ביד חזקה ישלחם, not only will he release them, but he will be forced to get rid of them post haste due to the problems he will have while they are still in his country.

וביד חזקה יגרשם מראצו, in contrast with his keeping the Israelites enslaved in his country at this time, he will eventually be forced to expel them by force so that not a single one of them will remain behind.

'אני ה, the One Who maintains the entire universe all alone. I have not only called it into existence, but I also maintain it, and there is no other prime cause which exercises any independent influence on any part of My universe. Compare Nechemyah 9,6 ואתה מחיה את כולם “and You alone provide the nourishment to keep all creatures alive.” Unless I had given My consent no creature could continue to exist.

וארא, in a vision, a communication by G’d just below that of the level we know as נבואה, prophecy. Genesis 18,1 was one such example of G’d “appearing” to Avraham after his circumcision.

בא-ל שדי, by the attribute which demonstrates that I have created existence as such, as was pointed out in Genesis 17,1.

ושמי ה' לא נודעתי להם, the letter ב in the expression בא-ל שדי applies to the word ושמי. In effect what G’d is saying is that He has not made a point of becoming familiar to the patriarchs by His attribute Hashem when appearing to them, such as in the example mentioned. This was because He never experienced the need to change the laws of nature on their behalf. Seeing that the patriarchs could not have passed on knowledge about Me which I had not revealed to them, they in turn had not been able to pass on such knowledge to their children. I have to do this now in order to ensure that I can preserve the Children of Israel as My people.

וגם הקימותי, I have also sworn, as per Onkelos in Genesis 31,53 on the word וישבע which he renders as וקיים. “G’d swore to keep His promise.” Compare a similar phrase but worded differently in Psalms 106, 44-45. “When He saw that they were in distress, when He heard their cry, He was mindful of His covenant and in His great faithfulness He relented.”

(1) I HAVE ALSO HEARD. And the third cause of the redemption is that I have heard their moaning and their prayers in their distress.

(2) AND I HAVE REMEMBERED MY COVENANT. And in this way, they showed themselves fit for Me to remember My covenant, as with (Ps. 106:44-45), "Upon seeing that they were in distress, and on His hearing their cry, He recalled His covenant."

'לכן אמור לבני ישראל אני ה. The Torah speaks of three reasons (stages of the redemption) why G’d at this time reveals knowledge about Himself which He had not revealed previously.

1. והוצאתי אתכם מתחת סבלות מצרים there will be an immediate cessation of the Israelites performing slave labour for the Egyptians.

2. והצלתי, on the day the Israelites would depart from Ramses, when they would cross the border out of the land of Egypt.

3. וגאלתי, on the day the pursuing Egyptians would be drowned in the sea, as testified in Exodus 14,30 ויושע ה' ביום ההוא, “on that day the Lord orchestrated salvation, etc.” After the death of the ones who enslaved, the enslaved are obviously free.

ולקחתי אתכם לי לעם, this will occur at the revelation at Mount Sinai.

וידעתם, then the Israelites will realise that all of G’d’s promises have indeed come true. We find a similar verse in Deuteronomy 11,2 וידעתם היום כי לא את בניכם אשר לא ידעו, “you will know this day, that not with your children who did not know, etc.” but

כי אני ה' אלוקיכם המוציא, that inasmuch as it is I, the Lord your G’d Who leads you out and watches over you very closely, AM THE ONE who will do everything that I promised.

והבאתי אתכם אל, once they would mentally digest all this you would be worthy of My bringing you to the land, and I will give it to you.

ולא שמעו אל משה, to mentally absorb all this, so that they would have full trust in the salvation of G’d and give Him credit for this. This is where they were different from Avraham in his time, who believed implicitly in an impossible-sounding promise, and who gave credit to G’d for making such a promise. This was eventually the reason why this part of G’d’s promise was not fulfilled in the lifetime of the people who were being addressed at this time.

מקצר רוח, for it did not appear believable to their present state of mind, so that their heart could not assimilate such a promise.

ומעבודה קשה, if it had not been for the heavy labour which they had to perform they would have paid much more attention to Moses’ words, and they would have understood that Moses’ arguments made what he said very believable.

הן בני ישראל לא שמעו אלי, he believed that this was due to the fact that from the moment he had started speaking to Pharaoh the latter had become worse in his attitude and the people, putting two and two together, had concluded that his mission had failed. If he felt that way, Pharaoh would certainly not pay any heed to him and continue doing what he liked.

This was especially so, seeing that he was also an ערל שפתים, afflicted with a speech handicap. He mentioned this as he did not believe that Aaron would accompany him other than for the time he identified himself as G’d’s emissary when he spoke to the people.

ויצום, He appointed them as ministers. We find something parallel in Numbers 27,23 when ויצוהו means that Moses appointed Joshua as his successor with the same authority as he had possessed during the previous 40 years. Also in Samuel I 25,30 the words וצוך לנגיד, refer to David being appointed the supreme authority over the Jewish people. There are more similar examples in Scripture.

אל בני ישראל, the same as על בני ישראל, “over the Children of Israel,” i.e. to be in charge of them. Compare Ezekiel 18,6 אל ההרים לא אכל which means: “he did not eat on the mountains.”

ואל פרעה מלך מצרים להוציא, as well as in charge of Pharaoh the King of Egypt, for the purpose of leading the Jews out, etc.. Concerning this topic both Pharaoh and the people of Israel were placed under the direction of Moses and Aaron.

אלה ראשי בית אבותם, Moses and Aaron were justifiably referred to as the heads of the various tribal groups of Israel, as they were the most respected and most honoured. ראובן בכור ישראל, seeing that none of his descendants were particularly noteworthy except his sons who had been part of the original 70 persons who had come to the land of Egypt from Canaan, none other are mentioned. All those 70 persons had already died as we know from Exodus 1,6. The same consideration held true for the descendants of Shimon. On the other hand, Levi, the longest surviving member of the original 70 Hebrews who migrated to Egypt, managed to raise even his grandchildren to become leaders of the people in their own right. Amram produced three outstanding children in the persons of Aaron, Moses and Miriam, all of whom attained prophetic stature. Aaron married a sister of Nachshon who had been considered the most notable member of the nation in his time. He begat leaders of the generation who were later on appointed as priests. Eleazar, son of Aaron took as a wife one of the daughters of Putiel who was also considered outstanding in his generation (compare Nachmanides). This union produced Pinchas who was granted a covenant of “peace” by G’d as a reward for spontaneously slaying a high ranking Israelite prince who flagrantly engaged in forbidden sex with a Midianite princess and had challenged Moses to do something about it. (Numbers 25,12) אלה ראשי אבות הלוים, just to tell us that Moses and Aaron were the respective heads of the Levites.

אלה ראשי אבות, just to tell us that Moses and Aaron were the respective heads of the Levites.

הוא אהרן ומשה, repeated, seeing these two were the most honoured of their families and it was therefore they who were fit to be entrusted by G’d with the command: הוציאו את בני ישראל, seeing that their voices would be heeded by their compatriots, of all the various tribes.

על צבאותם, the entire community including all their respective members, simultaneously.

הם המדברים, they were fit to be the spokesmen to Pharaoh and to be listened to by him with respect.

ויהי ביום דבר ה' אל משה, when G’d spoke to Moses that he should speak to Pharaoh and he answered G’d that Pharaoh would not listen to him, i.e. after G’d had already appointed Moses and Aaron as the leading authorities over Israel as well as over Pharaoh, as reported, G’d explained that He had not intended to give both Moses and Aaron equal status, but that Moses would be an authority, G’d like, for Pharaoh, whereas Aaron would be his mouthpiece, his interpreter.