Комментарий к Шмот 5:2

מי ה' אשר אשמע בקולו לשלח את ישראל?, They are my slaves in my country to perform slave labour there. What possible interest could this Hashem have in demanding that they serve Him instead?

'לא ידעתי את ה; I have never heard of any Being which created something tangible out of an absolute nothing.

אשר אשמע בקולו, "that I should listen to His voice." Pharaoh challenged Moses regarding his G'd's great power. Surely the Jewish G'd was not so powerful that He could demand such obedience in a matter of such overriding importance! He added gratuitously: "to dismiss the Jewish people," meaning that however great His power it would surely not suffice to liberate the Jewish people. Pharaoh did not mean to concede that he did know of the Jewish G'd after all, but that the latter was not great enough to make such a demand; rather he said: 1) "I do not know of Him;" 2) even if I would be told that He does indeed exist this would not mean that He could demand the freeing of the Jewish people." The word גם refers to a hypothetical situation.

מי ה' אשר אשמע בקולו, “Who is this Hashem that I should obey His instructions?” Tanchuma Vaeyra 5 comments on this that when Pharaoh heard Moses mention the name of G’d, he took out a register of all known deities and did not find the name Hashem listed there. What the Midrash means is that Pharaoh was intelligent and knowledgeable enough to be familiar with the extent to which earth was populated and civilizations had been established. He knew that the earth had been divided into 7 climatic zones and that each zone had been assigned a deity (zodiac constellation) to supervise its fate. He was also familiar with the 70 nations and what deity was responsible for their respective fates. Seeing that he could not find the name of Hashem listed anywhere in his list, he challenged Moses by saying: “who is this Hashem?” He was unaware that the Hashem Moses had spoken of was the supreme G’d who presided over all forces in the universe and without whose approval no other power could wield any influence in the universe.
Our sages in the above Midrash illustrated this by a parable. A priest had a servant who was mentally defective. Once when the priest had left the country this servant went in search of him. When he came to a cemetery he started shouting at the people assembled there: ”have you seen my master?” The people answered him: ‘is not your master a certain priest, etc.?’ The servant confirmed that this was so. Thereupon the people said to him: ”you idiot why do you look for a priest in a cemetery, a place which is out of bounds to priests?” Similarly, what business does a king have in a slaughterhouse? Moses and Aaron replied to Pharaoh that the reason he had never heard of the supreme G’d was that he had not looked for Him in the right place. Earth, which is a vast cemetery for mankind was most certainly not the place where he could expect to find the supreme G’d. The gods Pharaoh had spoken of were all dead themselves whereas the supreme G’d personified life, growth, development, etc. In answer to Pharaoh’s question what this G’d did and what He had accomplished, Moses and Aaron listed the fact that He had created the universe, the plants, the animals, man, etc., that He made mountains, covered the earth with an atmosphere, that He appoints kings, etc. After hearing this Pharaoh became angry exclaiming: “I have created myself and I am lord of the universe! The river Nile is my river. Who is this G’d that I should take orders from Him?” Thereupon G’d said: “you wicked person!” I am going to bring a plague upon you from this very river which you claim to own and to have created. This is why the first plague was the turning of the waters of the river Nile into blood.
Another explanation of the words: “who is this G’d that I should pay heed to His command?” Pharaoh did not deny G’d’s existence but he felt slighted that G’d did not communicate with him directly as he had done to the Pharaoh who had kidnapped Sarah, and to Avimelech who had wanted to marry Sarah against her will. Seeing that this G’d had revealed Himself to these two kings they had reason to obey His instructions. Seeing that this G’d had not revealed Himself to him, he saw no reason to accept what Moses said as instructions emanating from that G’d. He was angry that G’d had not given him an opportunity to defend his conduct as He had done for Avimelech. [This assumes that the Pharaoh in Genesis 13,17 was the same one as here some 400 years later. Ed.]

V. 2. Die Pharaonen, wie wir sie bis jetzt kennen gelernt, waren und sprachen so politisch gewandt und fein, wie nur irgend ein Dynast unserer Zeit. "Ihr kommt im Namen eures Gottes, dem ich gehorchen müsste, das frei zu geben, was mir gehört: einen solchen Gott kenne ich nicht. Und sprecht ihr im Namen eures Volkes, etwa im Namen einer von diesem Gotte euch erteilten künftigen hohen Bestimmung: so reicht mir auch das nicht hin, um auch nur auf kurze Zeit auf das zu verzichten, was mein ist."

וגם את ישראל לא אשלח, even if it could be proved that this Being you speak about does in fact exist, I will not release the Israelites on account of that new found wisdom.