Commentaire sur L’Exode 10:10

כאשר אשלח אתכם ואת טפכם [MAY THE LORD BE WITH YOU] AS I WILL LET YOU AND YOUR LITTLE ONES GO — even though I were to let go also the flocks and herds as you have said.

SEE YE THAT EVIL IS BEFORE YOUR FACE. “The intent of the verse is as the Targum [Onkelos] explained it.” Thus the language of Rashi. Now how commendable it would have been if Rashi had written out [the text of Onkelos he referred to], since there are variant texts of this Targum! In some texts, it is written: “See, the evil you are about to do is set against you.”³⁰This is not the text found in our version of Targum Onkelos. Ramban will later mention two other variants of Onkelos’ text here. See Note 34 for the text found in our version of the Targum. According to this text, it appears that Onkelos intended to explain: “the evil you are contemplating to do is set before you, bearing witness against you that it is your desire to escape altogether.” This is similar to the verse, And set two men, base fellows, before him [Naboth], and let them bear witness against him, saying, etc.³¹I Kings 21:10. It is also similar to [the expressions]: And they sat down to eat bread,³²Genesis 30:25. which the Targum translates v’istacharu (and they sat down), [the same as the term istacharat that appears to be in the Targum here]; Arise, I pray thee, sit,³³Ibid., 27:19. which the Targum translates istachar (sit).
And there are versions of [Targum Onkelos] in which it is written: “will turn against yourself.”³⁴This text appears in our version of Targum Onkelos. The purport thereof is thus: “Behold, this evil you are about to do is destined to turn against you, for it will pass upon you.” This is similar to the expression, So shall no inheritance of the children of Israel pass from tribe to tribe,³⁵Numbers 36:7. which the Targum translates: lo tistachar (not pass), [similar to the Targum here, l’istachro]. This explanation finds authority in the Midrash of the Sages, who said in Eileh Shemoth Rabbah:³⁶Shemoth Rabbah 13:5. “[Pharaoh said]: ‘It is the custom of young men and the elders to offer sacrifice, but is it the custom of children and the little ones to do so? He who says so intends only to escape. See that which you want to do, namely to escape, will turn against you, that you will not go forth from here,’” a kind of measure for measure.
And I have found yet another version in the Targum: “your countenance does not bear witness to the absence of this evil,” meaning that “your countenance does not bear witness to the removal of the evil in your hearts. On the contrary, the show of your countenance bears witness against you.”
In line with the plain meaning of Scripture, [the intent of the verse is to be understood as follows]: “Know that evil is before you, ready and imminent to come upon you from me, for I will requite you evil when I see that you want to escape.”

כי רעה נגד פניכם. You have foolish designs in your hearts. The accuracy of this interpretation is reflected by Isaiah 5,21 הוי חכמים בעיניהם ונגד (פניהם) נבונים, “Ah, those who are so wise, in their own opinion, so clever in their own judgment.” Pharaoh was at pains to tell Moses that what he thought was good for the Jews was not good for them at all.

כאשר אשלח אתכם ואת טפכם, even less your livestock.

And your little ones. Pharaoh asked, “Who is going to provide for your needs in the desert? Will you not die of hunger?” This is the significance of his warning, “for evil confronts you.” That is, you are seeking your own misfortune by taking your little ones into the barren desert.

ראו כי רעה נגד פניכם, “see here, your evil intent is staring you in the face.” The evil you plan to embark on, i.e. your attempt to flee from Egypt, is clear from the fact that you want to take even your small children with you. Another possible explanation for the above line is: you should face the fact that you will shortly be faced with retaliation by me, so that your illusion of freedom will be short-lived. Alternatively, the words ראו כי רעה נגד פניכם, could mean “the evil which you intend to do will boomerang and hit you in your faces.” I will forbid you to leave altogether, and you will be paid back tit for tat.

Even were I to send. . . Rashi explains as he does because their flocks and cattle were more valuable to Pharaoh than were their children; for note that after the plague of darkness Pharaoh said (v. 24): “Just let your flocks and cattle stay behind. Even your little ones can go with you.” This implies that even though Pharaoh agreed to their children going with them, he still did not want their flocks and cattle to go with them. Accordingly, this is the meaning of the verse. Pharaoh said to them: You asked to send your children, flocks and cattle. May Hashem be with you [to protect you from disaster] if I send you and your children, and surely if I also send the flocks. This is because אף כי is like כל שכן (all the more so). And so it is in Parashas Vayelech (Devarim 31:27): “ אף כי (all the more so) after my demise.” (See Kitzur Mitzrachi for other versions of Rashi)

V. 10. רעה נגד פניכם wie: לא אשית לנגד עיני דבר בליעל (Ps. 101,3), euer Angesicht ist auf etwas Böses gerichtet, ihr habt etwas Böses im Sinne.

ראו כי רעה, “see you are planning something wicked;” i.e. “you are planning to escape from the land and all your obligations.”

ראו כי רעה נגד פניכם Understand this as the Targum takes it: See, the evil you are about to do wilt turn against yourself. I have heard a Midrashic explanation: There is a certain star the name of which is רעה “Evil”. Pharaoh said to them, “By my astrological art I see that star rising towards you in the wilderness whither you wish to proceed. It is an emblem of blood and slaughter”. Consequently, when Israel sinned by worshipping the calf and the Holy One, blessed be He, intended to slay them, Moses said in his prayer, (Exodus 32:12) “Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, He brought them forth together with רעה (i. e. under the influence of the star רעה); this is, indeed, what he (Pharaoh) has already said, “See, the ‘רעה’ is before you”. At once, “the Lord bethought Himself concerning ‘רעה’”, and He changed the blood of which this star was an emblem to the blood of the circumcision because indeed Joshua had them circumcised. This is the meaning of what is said, (Joshua 5:9). “This day have I rolled from off you the reproach of the Egyptians”, for they said to you. “We see blood impending over you in the wilderness. (Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 1:392; cf. also Rashi on Joshua 5:9.)

ראו כי רעה נגד פניכם. I warn you that what you have in mind will boomerang on you and instead of improving your lot will worsen it. Pharaoh used this expression in a sense similar to Esau rejecting his birthright saying הנה אנכי הולך למות, “I am pursuing a path which will lead to my premature death, anyway” (Genesis 25,32). A similar meaning is Solomon saying in Proverbs 5,5 of the immoral woman: רגליה יורדות מות “her feet go down to death.” Our sages in Berachot 28 described the same thought as והם רצים לבאר שחת.

נגד פניכם, “it is clearly visible from your whole mien, as if written on your faces. This is why you insist on taking all your portable belongings with you.