כִּ֣י עִ֤יר בְּצוּרָה֙ בָּדָ֔ד נָוֶ֕ה מְשֻׁלָּ֥ח וְנֶעֱזָ֖ב כַּמִּדְבָּ֑ר שָׁ֣ם יִרְעֶ֥ה עֵ֛גֶל וְשָׁ֥ם יִרְבָּ֖ץ וְכִלָּ֥ה סְעִפֶֽיהָ׃
Porque la ciudad fortalecida será asolada, la morada será desamparada y dejada como un desierto: allí se apacentará el becerro, allí tendrá su majada, y acabará sus ramas.
Shemot Rabbah
“The child grew and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he was a son to her. She named him Moses and she said: Because I drew him from the water” (Exodus 2:10).
“The child grew.” She nursed him for twenty-four months and you say “the child grew”? Rather, it was that he was growing in a manner that was atypical in the land.
“She brought her to Pharaoh’s daughter…” Pharaoh’s daughter was kissing, hugging, and loving him as though he were her son, and would not take him out of the king’s palace. Because he was beautiful, everyone desired to see him, and anyone who saw him would not leave him. Pharaoh would kiss him and hug him, and he would take Pharaoh’s crown and place it on his head, as he was destined to do when he grew older.
Likewise, the Holy One blessed be He said to Ḥiram: “I have drawn fire from your midst….” (Ezekiel 28:18),60Meaning, the fire that will destroy him will originate in his household. and likewise Pharaoh’s daughter was raising the one who was destined to exact retribution from her father. The messianic king, too, who is destined to exact retribution from Edom, resides with them in the same country, as it is stated: “There the calf will graze and there it will lie [and consume its branches]” (Isaiah 27:10).
The magicians of Egypt were sitting there, and said: ‘we are afraid of this one who takes your crown and places it on his head, lest he be the one regarding whom we said that he is destined to wrest your kingdom from you.’ Some of them said to behead him, some said to burn him. Yitro was sitting in their midst and saying to them: ‘This boy has no intelligence. Rather, test him. Bring before him a bowl with gold and a hot coal. If he extends his hand to the gold, he has intelligence and [you should] execute him; and if he extends his hand to the coal, he has no intelligence and he has no sentence of death.’ Immediately, they brought it before him and he extended his hand to take the gold. Gabriel came and pushed his hand. He seized the coal and placed his hand with the coal into his mouth, and his tongue was burned. From that he became “slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Exodus 4:10).
“She named him Moses” – from here you learn the reward of those who perform of acts of kindness. Although Moses had many names, the name that was set for him throughout the Torah was only the one that Batya daughter of Pharaoh called him. Even the Holy One blessed be He did not call him by any other name.
“The child grew.” She nursed him for twenty-four months and you say “the child grew”? Rather, it was that he was growing in a manner that was atypical in the land.
“She brought her to Pharaoh’s daughter…” Pharaoh’s daughter was kissing, hugging, and loving him as though he were her son, and would not take him out of the king’s palace. Because he was beautiful, everyone desired to see him, and anyone who saw him would not leave him. Pharaoh would kiss him and hug him, and he would take Pharaoh’s crown and place it on his head, as he was destined to do when he grew older.
Likewise, the Holy One blessed be He said to Ḥiram: “I have drawn fire from your midst….” (Ezekiel 28:18),60Meaning, the fire that will destroy him will originate in his household. and likewise Pharaoh’s daughter was raising the one who was destined to exact retribution from her father. The messianic king, too, who is destined to exact retribution from Edom, resides with them in the same country, as it is stated: “There the calf will graze and there it will lie [and consume its branches]” (Isaiah 27:10).
The magicians of Egypt were sitting there, and said: ‘we are afraid of this one who takes your crown and places it on his head, lest he be the one regarding whom we said that he is destined to wrest your kingdom from you.’ Some of them said to behead him, some said to burn him. Yitro was sitting in their midst and saying to them: ‘This boy has no intelligence. Rather, test him. Bring before him a bowl with gold and a hot coal. If he extends his hand to the gold, he has intelligence and [you should] execute him; and if he extends his hand to the coal, he has no intelligence and he has no sentence of death.’ Immediately, they brought it before him and he extended his hand to take the gold. Gabriel came and pushed his hand. He seized the coal and placed his hand with the coal into his mouth, and his tongue was burned. From that he became “slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Exodus 4:10).
“She named him Moses” – from here you learn the reward of those who perform of acts of kindness. Although Moses had many names, the name that was set for him throughout the Torah was only the one that Batya daughter of Pharaoh called him. Even the Holy One blessed be He did not call him by any other name.
Shemot Rabbah
“Pharaoh heard this matter and he sought to kill Moses. Moses fled from before Pharaoh, and he settled in the land of Midyan, and sat alongside the well” (Exodus 2:15).
“Pharaoh heard” – because Datan and Aviram arose and informed on him. “He sought to kill Moses.” Pharaoh sent and they brought an incomparable sword and he struck his neck ten times, but Moses’s neck became like an ivory tower and it did not harm him, as it is stated: “Your neck is like an ivory tower” (Song of Songs 7:5).
“Moses fled from before Pharaoh.” Rabbi Yannai says: Is it possible for flesh and blood to flee from the monarchy? Rather, at the moment that they apprehended Moses and sentenced him to beheading, an angel descended from the heavens and appeared to them in the image of Moses. They seized the angel and Moses fled.
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: All the legal advisers who were sitting before Pharaoh became [impaired]; some mute, some deaf, and some blind. He [Pharaoh] was saying to the mutes: ‘Where is Moses?’ but they did not talk; to the deaf, but they did not hear; to the blind, but they did not see. That is what the Holy One blessed be He said to Moses: “Who gives a mouth to man?” (Exodus 4:11). Who gave a mouth to Pharaoh, who said with his mouth: ‘Bring Moses to the platform to execute him’? “Or who makes one mute,” (ibid.) – who rendered the deputies mute, deaf, and blind so they did not bring you? And who made you clever so you would flee? “Is it not I, the Lord?” (ibid.). I was with you there, and I stand with you today.
“Pharaoh heard” – because Datan and Aviram arose and informed on him. “He sought to kill Moses.” Pharaoh sent and they brought an incomparable sword and he struck his neck ten times, but Moses’s neck became like an ivory tower and it did not harm him, as it is stated: “Your neck is like an ivory tower” (Song of Songs 7:5).
“Moses fled from before Pharaoh.” Rabbi Yannai says: Is it possible for flesh and blood to flee from the monarchy? Rather, at the moment that they apprehended Moses and sentenced him to beheading, an angel descended from the heavens and appeared to them in the image of Moses. They seized the angel and Moses fled.
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: All the legal advisers who were sitting before Pharaoh became [impaired]; some mute, some deaf, and some blind. He [Pharaoh] was saying to the mutes: ‘Where is Moses?’ but they did not talk; to the deaf, but they did not hear; to the blind, but they did not see. That is what the Holy One blessed be He said to Moses: “Who gives a mouth to man?” (Exodus 4:11). Who gave a mouth to Pharaoh, who said with his mouth: ‘Bring Moses to the platform to execute him’? “Or who makes one mute,” (ibid.) – who rendered the deputies mute, deaf, and blind so they did not bring you? And who made you clever so you would flee? “Is it not I, the Lord?” (ibid.). I was with you there, and I stand with you today.
Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael
And thus do you find that the Holy One Blessed be He is destined to exact punishment of the wicked in Gehinnom with the east wind, viz. (Isaiah 30:33) "For Tafteh (Gehinnom) is ready from yesterday. It is readied for the king (Sancheriv). He has deepened and widened it. Its pyre has much fire and wood. The breath of the L–rd, as a stream of sulfur, burns in it." And it is written (Ibid. 27:8) "He spoke His stern words on the day of the east wind." Here, too, "And the L–rd drove the sea with a strong east wind": the strongest of the winds, the east wind.