Midras Yehezkiel 24:16: Shemot Rabbah, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Midrash Aggadah & Bereshit Rabbah

“Go and gather the elders of Israel, and say to them: The Lord, the God of your fathers, God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying: I have remembered you, and what is being done to you in Egypt” (Exodus 3:16).
“Go and gather the elders of Israel.” The elders always uphold Israel, and thus it says: “And all Israel, and its elders, and its officers, and its judges, stood on this side and on that side of the ark” (Joshua 8:33). When is Israel capable of standing? It is when they have elders. Why, when the Temple was standing, did they consult with the elders, as it is stated: “Ask your father and he will tell you; your elders and they will say to you” (Deuteronomy 32:7)? It is because anyone who takes counsel from elders does not fail. Know that when ben-Hadad sent to the king of Israel, as it is stated: “So said ben-Hadad: Your silver and your gold are mine” (I Kings 20:3), the king of Israel sent to him: “As you said, my lord king: I, and everything that I have are yours” (Ibid. 20:4). He sent to him a second time: “But tomorrow at this time, I will send my servants to you and they will search your house, and the houses of your servants; and it will be, that everything precious [maḥmad] to you, they will seize, and take it” (I Kings 20:6). Was everything that he demanded initially not precious? He demanded silver and gold and they are precious, as it is stated: “And the precious items [ḥemdat] of all the peoples will come” (Haggai 2:7). ²²The following verse in Haggai states: “Mine is the silver, and Mine the gold, the utterance of the Lord of hosts.” He demanded women and they are precious, as it is stated: “Son of man, behold, I am taking away from you the desire [maḥmad] of your eyes…” (Ezekiel 24:16). He demanded children, and they are precious, as it is stated: “And I will slay the beloved fruit [maḥmad] of their womb” (Hosea 9:16). You must say: Everything he demanded initially was precious, and “everything precious to you” is an item that is ultimately precious, that is the Torah, as it is stated: “More precious than gold and more than much fine gold” (Psalms 19:11).
When the king of Israel heard this, he said: ‘This is not mine, but rather it belongs to the elders.’ Immediately, “The king of Israel called all the elders of the land…and all the elders and all the people said to him: Neither heed nor consent” (I Kings 20:7–8). Once he heeded the counsel of the elders, immediately: “The king of Israel went out, and smote the horses and the chariots” (I Kings 20:21). That is Israel consulting the elders. Therefore, the Holy One blessed be He said to Moses: “Go and gather the elders of Israel.”
“Say to them…I have remembered [pakod pakadeti].” He said to him: ‘They have a tradition from Joseph that I will deliver them with this expression.²³“God will remember [pakod yifkod] you” (Genesis 50:24). Go and say to them: This is the sign.’ What is pakod pakadeti? Pakod in Egypt, pakadeti at the sea; pakod in the future, pakadeti in the past. “And what is being done to you in Egypt” – in other words, I will remember for the Egyptians what they are doing to you, as it is stated: “I remember what Amalek did to you” (I Samuel 15:2). ²⁴The verse actually states: “I remember what Amalek did to Israel.” This statement precedes God’s command to King Saul to annihilate Amalek.
“And I said: I will take you up out of the affliction of Egypt, to the land of the Canaanites and the Hitites and the Emorites and the Perizites and the Hivites and the Yevusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey. They will listen to your voice and you shall go, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt and you shall say to him: The Lord, God of the Hebrews, happened upon us. And now, please, let us go a journey of three days in the wilderness, and we will sacrifice to the Lord our God.” (Exodus 3:17-18).
“And I said: I will take you up” – Say to them that, as I said to Jacob their ancestor, so I will do. What did He say to him [Jacob]? “I will also take you up” (Genesis 46:4). ²⁵God promised Jacob when he went to Egypt that he would take his descendants out of Egypt. Likewise, Jacob said to his sons: “God will be with you and He will return you…” (Genesis 48:21). Immediately, “they will heed your voice.” Why? It is because they have a tradition of deliverance, that any deliverer who comes and says to them a double expression of remembrance [pakod pakadeti] is a genuine deliverer. Then “you shall go, you and the elders of Israel…” – He showed respect for the elders. “You shall say to him: The Lord, God of the Hebrews, happened upon us.” Why does it call them Hebrews [ivrim]? It is because they crossed [avru] the sea.
“And now, please, let us go a journey of three days...” Why did they say three days and did not say, please let us go forever? Why did they say this? It was so the Egyptians would be misled and pursue them when they left, and would say: ‘He delivered them only so they would go three days and sacrifice to Him, and it is they who have delayed for so long.’ And they will pursue them after three days and He will drown them in the sea to punish them with a punishment to fit their crime, as they said: “Every boy that is born you shall cast into the Nile…” (Exodus 1:22).

Our Rabbis were taught: One who dies suddenly, he is said to have died an abrupt death; if the death was preceded by one day's sickness, it is a hastened death. R. Chanina b. Gamaliel, however, says: "The latter case is termed a plague-death, as it is said (Ez. 24, 16) Son of man, behold, I will take away from thee the desire of thy eyes by a sudden death (plague); and it is written again (Ib. 18) And when I had spoken unto the people in the morning, my wife died in the evening." When one has been sick for two days and dies, it is considered a hurried death; after three days, it is considered a rebuked death; after four days, it is a frowned death; but if one dies after having been sick five days, it is considered an ordinary death. Said R. Chanin: "What is the Biblical passage to prove this? (Deut. 31, 14) And God said unto Moses, Hehn Karbu yamecha lamuth (Behold, thy days approach that thou must die). Hehn means one in Greek; karbu (in the plural) is two; yamecha (in the plural) is also two, which make a total of five." Death at the age of fifty is Kareth; at fifty-two, is the age at which Samuel of Ramah died; at sixty, an ordinary death. Said Mar Zutra: "Whence is this deduced? (Job 5, 26) Thou wilt go in a ripe age, unto the grave; the word Bakelach (ripe age) equals the number sixty." Seventy is called an old age; eighty, an age of uncommon vigor, as it is written (Ps. 90, 10) Our days are seventy years, and if by uncommon vigor they be eighty. Rabba, however, said: "From fifty to sixty it is Kareth; and the reason why this is not stated in the Baraitha is because of the honor of Samuel." When R. Joseph arrived at the age of sixty, he gave an entertainment to the Rabbis, for he said: "I have passed the years of Kareth." Said Abaye to him: "It is true that the master has passed the years of Kareth, but has then the master already passed the days of Kareth?" Whereupon R. Joseph answered him: "Be content with one half in your hand." R. Huna died suddenly, which caused the Rabbis great worry. A couple of sages of Hadaeb taught them: "It was stated [regarding a sudden death] that only when the deceased has not reached the age of eighty; but if he has, it is, on the contrary, considered a death caused by a kiss."

"And he was no more, for God took him." Because he was a righteous man, the Holy One Blessed Be He took him from humanity and made him an angel and he is Metatron. There is a disagreement between Rabbi Akiva and his fellows on this matter. And the Sages say that Hanoch was sometimes a righteous man and sometimes a wicked man. The Holy One Blessed Be He said: While he is righteous, I will remove him from the world, meaning I will make him truthful, as it is stated, "Behold, I am about to take away the delight of your eyes from you through pestilence." (Ezekiel 24:16)