Cytowanie Komentarza do Królów I 2:20

ושאלה אשה משכנתה, “each woman will ask her neighbor, etc.” There can be no question of G’d permitting the Israelites to engage in deception by giving the impression that what they asked for would only be borrowed whereas they did not intend to return it. The word ושאלה means “she will request (as a gift).” We find the word שאל used as the request for gifts in connection with Gideon (Judges 8,24) אשאלה מכם שאלה, “I have a request to make from you; each one of you give me the earring he has received as booty.” Clearly, Gideon did not mean to “borrow” thousands of earrings. Another occasion when the word שאל is used as a request for outright possession is Kings I 2,20 שאלה אחת קטנה אני שואלת ממך, Bat Sheva speaking to her son King Solomon: “I have a small request to make from you” [that Adoniah be permitted to marry Avishag the concubine of David] Clearly the word שאלה did not refer to something or somebody which would merely be borrowed. In other words, the word שאל as applicable to the request of a gift is not unique, and this is what G’d had in mind when he told Moses what the Israelites would do prior to the Exodus.
As to the peculiar wording “a woman will request from her neighbor” instead of “a man will request from an Egyptian,” the Torah merely wanted to indicate that if even the Egyptian women would give gifts to their Jewish neighbors how much more so would the men give gifts to the male Israelites. We find a parallel for this in Isaiah 33,23 פסחים בזזו בז, “the lame shall seize booty.” If even the lame seized booty, how much more booty must have been seized by the able-bodied! (compare commentary by Rabbeinu Chananel).

ושאלה אשה משכנתה, there can be no question that G’d would condone deceiving people into thinking that one borrows from them while not intending to return the “borrowed” objects. The meaning of the word ושאלה is not “she shall borrow,” but “she shall request as a gift.” We find the root שאל used in that sense in Judges 8,24 when Gideon asks the people who wanted to appoint him as king for something else instead. I quote: אשאלה מכם שאלה ותנו לי איש נזם שללו, “I request from you only one thing, that each one of you give me one nose-ring of the loot you captured, etc.” We also find the word שאל used as a request for a gift when Bat Shva relates this request to her son King Solomon in the name of Adoniah, Solomon’s half brother in Kings I 2,20-21. She said:שאלה אחת קטנה אנכי שואלת מאתך, יותן את אבישג השונמית וגו', “I have a small request from you; Avishag the Shunamite be given as a wife etc.” [clearly this woman was not going to be “on loan” to Adoniah. Ed.] The reason the Torah phrased it as ושאלה אשה משכנתה, when it could have written in general terms ושאל איש מאת מצרי, “let everyone request from an Egyptian, etc.,” was simply that if even the women would give gifts to the departing Israelites there was no need to mention that the men would do likewise. This sort of reasoning is found in Isaiah 33,23 where the lame are mentioned as helping themselves to loot. Need the prophet add that the healthy people did the same?