출애굽기 5:18의 인용 해설

Counted. An expression of number, as in, "and the number [וְתֹכֶן] of bricks shall you give."⁴Shemos 5:18.

אשר נאכל במצרים חנם [WE REMEMBER THE FISH] WHICH WE DID EAT IN EGYPT FOR NOTHING — If you say that they meant that the Egyptians gave them fish for nothing (without payment), then I ask, “But does it not state, (Exodus 5:18): [Go, therefore, now, and work], for there shall no straw be given you”? Now, if they did not give them straw for nothing, would they have given them fish for nothing! — What then is the force of the word חנם? It means: free from (i.e. without us having been burdened with) heavenly commands (Sifrei Bamidbar 87).

A Midrashic approach based on Sifri Behaalotcha 87. The Midrash asks: how could the Israelites’ argument that they ate these fruit and fish for free be taken at face value when we know that the Egyptians did not even supply the Jewish labourers with the straw they needed for their brickmaking for free (Exodus 5,18)? Therefore we cannot understand the word חנם to mean “free” in the sense of “without payment;” rather the meaning is that they did not have to undertake any obligations of a ritual nature in order to eat fish. By using the word חנם here, the people indicated that the commandments of the Torah were a burden for them and that they wished themselves free from that burden. It is a reminder of the description of the Exodus when the Torah mentioned how difficult it was to extract one nation from amidst another nation, i.e. the Jews and the Egyptians had been so intermingled culturally (Deut. 4,34). The Israelites had practiced idolatry no less than their masters the Egyptians.

one volume [Heb. תֹּכן,] a word denoting number, like (Exod. 5:18): “and a quota (וְתֹכֶן) of bricks you must deliver.” One measure is equivalent to one tenth of a “homer” of dry measure, which equals thirty “se’ah,” and which is a tenth of a “homer” of liquid measure. “Ephah” and “bath” are words for [units of] measurement.

The counted. [מְתֻכָּן is] an expression of a number, as in, “and the number [=וְתוֹכֵן] of bricks you shall give.”¹¹Shemos 5:18.

measured Amolad in O.F., an expression of measure and number. Comp. (Ex. 5:18) “And the number (וְתֹכֶן) of bricks you shall give.”