Pemikiran Yahudi Mazmur 103:7: Akeidat Yitzchak

The lack of confirmation by the Torah that shortly after leaving Egypt the Israelites slaughtered sacrifices wholesale makes Pharaoh's incredulity at the statement that all the livestock would be demanded by the Jewish G-d appear more plausible. The Torah also does not report that Pharaoh did indeed supply animals of his own to be slaughtered on his behalf as predicted by Moses (10,25). To prove that Moses’ss demand that not a hoof would remain in Egypt was indeed a Divinely authorized demand and not merely a ploy by Moses to bait Pharaoh, a further plague had to be announced. On the one hand, feeling sure that Moses had overstepped the bounds of what was reasonable, Pharaoh threatened to kill him should he dare to appear before him again. He refers twice to previous statements by Moses such as "as you said" (12,31; 12,23). The first may refer to what he had perceived to be G-d’s instructions, the second to what he believed to have been Moses’ss own intiative. Moses announces the time and extent of the next plague to justify himself and announces that instead of his coming to Pharaoh's Court, the order will be reversed, and Pharaoh's ministers will come to the Jews pleading for them to leave. The final plague combined the three elements that have characterized the previous three groups, and this is the reason verse 13,15 refers to the obstinacy of Pharaoh causing him to suffer this plague. The creation of new criteria, i.e. the selection of only the first borns as victims, is suggestive of the "I am G-d" demonstrated during the first three plagues. The distinction between the houses having the blood of the Passover sacrifice on their doorposts, and those that did not, corresponds to the second group of plagues, when G-d left Jewish residential areas or Jewish property unharmed. The uniqueness of the event, never to be repeated is representative of the lesson contained in the third group of plagues.