Tafsiran Keluaran 1:9: Or HaChaim, Chizkuni, Kli Yakar & Rav Hirsch

ויאמר אל עמו הנה עם בני ישראל, He said to his people: "here we have the nation of the children of Israel, etc." The expression הנה in this verse may be understood once we remember the interpretation of Genesis 34,30 where Jacob censured his sons saying עכרתם אותי, "you have made my image clouded" (as opposed to clearly transparent). Bereshit Rabbah 80,12 states that Jacob and the Canaanites had a long standing tradition that the Jews would overpower the Canaanites. This was supposed to take place after the Jews numbered at least 600.000. Now that Shimon and Levi had jumped the gun by destroying the inhabitants of Shechem, Jacob was afraid that such a premature action would backfire. Pharaoh, king of Egypt referred to this ancient prediction that the Jewish people would display such military strength, when he observed how the Jews constantly gained in numbers and vigour. הנה, i.e. the time has arrived of which the prophecy foretold.

ויאמר אל עמו, “he said to his people: he initiated this new policy. Our sages in tractate Sotah foliol 1, state that there were three advisors of this king who were discussing how to preempt a saviour of the Israelites who would take them out of their land.[We must remember that a “people” who had come to Egypt only about 100 years previously, numbering only twelve families, and who had meanwhile multiplied and not only not assimilated, but had come to be viewed as an existentialist threat to the original Egyptians, were known to have a powerful G-d, and the Egyptians had made a point to know the source of this people’s strength. They had studied the traditions of that “people.” Ed.] The most radical advisor of Pharaoh among the three advisors, Yitro, Job and Bileam, was the latter who advised Pharaoh to commit genocide. Some of you my readers may wonder how Bileam, could have been alive still in the days of Balak when he had already been a senior advisor of Pharaoh, before Moses had been born even? This question is especially relevant in light of the tradition according to which Bileam was thirty three years old? He was still alive when the people killed him in the war against Midian in the 40th year in the desert, at which time Moses was almost 120 years old! According to the Talmud in Sanhedrin folio 106, when a heretic asked a Rabbi how old Bileam was when he was killed he was told that he was 33 or 34 years old, based on the fact that the wicked supposedly do not even reach the halfway mark of a normal lifespan of 70 years. The Rabbi who had given this answer had not been accurate, as he had based himself on the statement by Mar de brey de Ravino to his son, a scholar in the immediate post Talmudic period, according to which although we are asked to report historic events accurately, Bileam is an exception, as if one can find a way to make him look worse even than he was, we have full latitude to do so. There is an opinion according to which the Bileam who was an advisor to Pharaoh was not the same as the one we encounter in the Book of Numbers. The one mentioned here was the grandfather of the one who blessed the Jewish people in Numbers. There is also an opinion according to which there were three men who hatched the plot to seduce the Israelites to engage in sexual relations with the daughters of Moav, but that this had nothing to do with what is reported here.

“Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more numerous and powerful than we.” He added the word “people” because he should have [just] said “Behold, the children of Israel.” Also, why does it say, and he said to his people — did he speak to all the people? It should have said “and he said to his officers and his wise men.” Rather, Pharaoh said to them that it is not proper for two opposing nations to dwell in one country. Therefore, it says, “and he said to his people” for the sake of his people, meaning to say that “you are a unique people in the land, but behold, the people of the children of Israel” — for the children of Israel have also become a people themselves. In a short time, they became numerous, and even though they are not yet more numerous than us, nevertheless they are stronger than us; they are naturally mighty. For all twins tend to be naturally weak, but here six were born in one womb and nevertheless they are naturally stronger than we are. Therefore, “let us deal wisely with him lest he multiply” — for in addition to their natural strength, they might also become more numerous than us. And even though with the word “multiply” it is not yet clear that they would be more numerous than them, nevertheless he continued and clarified his words afterward and said, “and it will happen that when war occurs, they will add to our enemies.” It is as if he said “and he will also add against us,” meaning they are already stronger than us, and if they multiply further, then they will also increase against us. And the word “also” refers to [being beside] their strength. And that which he said “against our enemies” is like one who attributes his curse to his enemies, saying they will become numerous against our enemies, though his main intention is to say they will become numerous against us. And he did not want to say “against us” to attribute the curse to himself, so he attributed it to his enemies, saying they will be numerous and additional against our enemies. Even though regarding strength he attributed it to himself, saying “stronger than us” because this was already the case, but the multiplication that was to occur in the future he did not want to attribute to himself.