Tafsiran Keluaran 10:21: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi, Rashbam & Sforno

“A darkness that can be touched” [10:21]. God said to Moses: hold out your hand against the sky and a great darkness will come. This darkness will begin when the darkness of the night will end. Therefore, the Holy One said: let the dawn begin; the whole world should see that it is day and the darkness begins again. Thus, they will see that it is a plague from the Holy One.¹¹Rashi, Exodus, 10:21.

Hizkuni and Imre Noam ask a question. Why did Moses not warn Pharaoh, if you will not send out Israel, I will darkness upon you? The explanation is that if the Egyptians had been warned they would have hidden all their gold and silver and Israel would not have been able to borrow from them. Therefore, there was the darkness.¹²Hizkuni, Exodus, 10:21; Imre Noam, Exodus, 10:21.

If an Israelite came to an Egyptian and asked to borrow a silver goblet or a gold chain, the Egyptian said that he did not have these things that he was asked to be borrowed. The Israelite responded: I see them there, all the things that I desire. Of all the vessels, I desire these. The Egyptians said: since you see in the darkness and I do not see, nonetheless, I will give it to you.¹³Exodus Rabbah, 14. 3.

וימש חשך signifies and it (the darkness mentioned in the preceding phrase, ויהי חשך) shall darken for them the natural darkness to a higher degree than the darkness of night: i. e. the darkness of night shall become even more black and dark.