Comentário sobre Êxodo 12:23

ופסח signifies AND HE WILL SPARE; and one can also explain it to mean, “and He will leap over them” (cf. Rashi on v. 13 and on Isaiah 30:5).

AND HE WILL NOT SUFFER THE DESTROYER TO COME IN UNTO YOUR HOUSES. This means the angel that brings destruction in the world at the time of a plague, similar to that which it says, And He said to the angel that destroyed the people: It is enough; now stay thy hand.²⁶⁵II Samuel 24:16. It is not, however, a reference to the One Who brought the destruction in Egypt, since it was the Holy One, blessed be He, Who smote them.

לנגוף, to afflict them with the afflictions G’d will visit on the Egyptian people other than deadly plagues. Whenever the expression נגף is used it refers to afflictions that do not result in death. A well known example of this is found in Exodus 21,22 ונגפו אשה הרה ולא יהיה אסון, “and he pushes a pregnant woman without causing any death, etc.”

ולא יתן המשחית לבא, “and will not suffer the destroyer to come;” Rabbi Moshe finds this phrase difficult, as in the Haggadah shel Pessach, the author quoting verse 12 in our chapter, we are told expressly that G–d Himself carried out the plague of killing the firstborn, so that the angel of death was not involved in any way on that night. We must therefore understand the verses to mean that what is meant is that the angel of death by himself was not authorised to perform his duties on that night, only in conjunction with the Lord Himself. The Lord never acts alone, but is always accompanied by an angel or angels.

ולא יתן המשחית, “and He will not allow the Destroyer to, etc.; ”when our sages in the haggadah said that the line: ועברתי בארץ מצרים, means that G-d personally will carry out the killing of the firstborn, not any category of angel, (compare verse 12) they meant that He would not delegate an angel to perform this task but would perform it Himself, personally.

ולא יתן המשחית AND HE WILL NOT GIVE THE DESTROYER He will not give him power to come in. The phrase is similar to (Genesis 31:9) “And God did not suffer him (נתנו — give him the power) to do me evil”.

המשחית, the Egyptian people by one of G’d’s other attributes expressing His anger.