Commento su Esodo 12:12

ועברתי AND I WILL PASS — This is not to be taken literally, but is speaks of God as one speaks of a king who passes from place to place (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 12:12:1) but in this case all were punished at a single passage and in one moment.

AND AGAINST ALL THE GODS OF EGYPT WILL I EXECUTE JUDGMENTS. The idol of wood rotted, and the one of metal melted.¹⁸³This is the language of Rashi. The Mechilta here has it: “the metal idols corroded.”
Now Scripture did not elucidate the nature of these judgments because the vanities by which they are instructed are but timber.¹⁸⁴Jeremiah 10:8. In other words, Scripture finds it inappropriate to speak at length about these hollow and worthless abominations. Similarly, at the time when this actually took place, it is written, And the Eternal smote all the firstborn … and all the firstborn of cattle,¹⁸⁵Further, Verse 29. but does not mention the judgments executed against their gods. Their apprehension [on that night] concerned the death of the firstborn, as it is said, And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians,¹⁸⁶Ibid., Verse 30. The verse there clearly states that “the great cry” was due to the death of the firstborn. whereas the judgments executed against their idols did not come to be known till the morning when they went to the house of their abominations. And it is written, And the Egyptians were burying them that the Eternal had smitten among them, even all their firstborn, and upon their gods the Eternal executed judgments.¹⁸⁷Numbers 33:4. The verse clearly hints that on the morning [of the fifteenth day of Nisan], when the Egyptians were burying the dead, they discovered that judgments had also been executed against their idols.
In my opinion, Scripture alludes here to the lords on high, the gods of Egypt, something like the verse, The Eternal will punish the host of the high heavens on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.¹⁸⁸Isaiah 24:21. Thus He subdued the power of the Egyptians and that of the lords over them. But Scripture hints and deals briefly with hidden matters.

ועברתי, in the sense of Psalms 78,50 יפלס נתיב לאפו, “He cleared a path for His anger;” something an agent, i.e. angel could not do. [once the agent has been given permission to wreak havoc, he cannot distinguish between the innocent and the guilty in that domain. Ed.]