Comentário sobre Êxodo 11:3

AND THE ETERNAL GAVE THE PEOPLE FAVOR IN THE SIGHT OF THE EGYPTIANS. The purport thereof is that the Egyptians did not hate them because of the plagues. Instead, they conceived affection for them, and the Israelites found favor in their eyes, the Egyptians acknowledging, “we are the wicked ones. There is violence in our hands, and you merit that G-d be gracious to you.”

גם האיש משה גדול, in his honour the Egyptians gave the Israelites generously.

ויתן ה' את חן העם בעיני מצרים, “G’d granted the people favour in the eyes of the Egyptians.” In spite of the fact that the Egyptians experienced all these plagues orchestrated by the messenger of this Jewish G’d, they no longer related to the Israelites with hostility; on the contrary, they had belatedly realized that not the Israelites but they themselves had been the sinners all along by using brute force in their relations with them. It was therefore no more than fair that G’d recompensed them by endowing them. We must not translate the words ויתן ה' את חן העם בעיני במצרים, as a reference to the “borrowing” the Israelites were about to do, as, at the time when the Israelites had not yet received these items the expression ויתן would be premature when all they had as yet was a promise by G’d. Here G’d could only have said “I will give the people favour, etc.” In chapter 12,36 G’d is reported (in the past tense) of having given the people favour in the eyes of the Egyptians as the reason why they handed over all these valuables.