Chapter 78 continues its review of Hashem's lovingkindness toward Israel and their rebellions against Him. In the section before us, we examine the conclusion of the plagues in Egypt - the Plague of the Firstborn - and from there to Hashem's guiding of Israel through the wilderness, the splitting of the Yam Suf, the entry into the Land, and its division. We will follow the verses in their order, accompanied by the commentaries of Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Radak, Metzudat David, and especially the Malbim.
יְשַׁלַּח־בָּם חֲרוֹן אַפּוֹ עֶבְרָה וָזַעַם וְצָרָה מִשְׁלַחַת מַלְאֲכֵי רָעִים׃ - He unleashed upon them His burning anger, fury, indignation, and distress: a dispatching of harmful messengers.
Ibn Ezra explains that the verse alludes to the terror that gripped the Egyptians during the Plague of Hail, which was discussed earlier: "He killed their vines with hail." Regarding this plague, the Torah states, "I will send all My plagues to your heart," which is why it is referred to here as "His burning anger." Indeed, we see how deeply it shook Pharaoh - for it was only during this plague that Pharaoh declared, "Hashem is the righteous One, and I and my people are the wicked ones," something he said during no other plague.
Radak, on the other hand, addresses the difficulty that David does not enumerate all ten plagues here, explaining that this verse serves as a general category for all the plagues not mentioned individually, since all the plagues together are fittingly termed "His burning anger." "A dispatching of harmful messengers" - the plagues are the emissaries of the Holy One, blessed be He, to carry out His will, and are therefore called "messengers." According to Radak, the term mishlahat indicates things that come sequentially one after another, as in the phrase, "Behold, I will send upon you... a dispatch of wolves" - coming one after the other.
יְפַלֵּס נָתִיב לְאַפּוֹ לֹא־חָשַׂךְ מִמָּוֶת נַפְשָׁם וְחַיָּתָם לַדֶּבֶר הִסְגִּיר׃ - He cleared a path for His anger; He did not withhold their soul from death, and surrendered their life to the pestilence.
Rashi explains: Even though the plagues were dispatched with wrath, they performed only their precise mission. "Wrath" denotes fury, and it is typical of a human being acting out of rage to lash out recklessly, without measuring the exact dose or paying heed, causing damage far beyond what is warranted. With the Holy One, blessed be He, this is not so: He levels a path for His anger, directing it with absolute precision along the right course and in the exact measure. Those they were commanded to kill, they killed, and no more; they walked strictly within their prescribed paths.
Radak interprets differently: "He cleared a path for His anger" - Hashem straightened the path for His anger so that it would proceed without hindrance. This does not refer to restricting the anger, but rather to removing obstacles: as it were, the destroying angel needed to reach a specific place and encountered a blockage or a barrier, so Hashem cleared a path for it to arrive without any delays. Rashi adds further: He showed the destroyer the way to enter the houses of the Egyptians and not the houses of Israel - both that it should proceed without delay, and that it should arrive directly at the correct address.
"He did not withhold their soul from death" - Radak explains: Needless to say, He did not withhold from death those whose time had already come to die, but He even delivered to death before their time those whose appointed time had not yet arrived. According to this, the verse serves as an introduction to the Plague of the Firstborn mentioned in the next verse: He struck down the firstborn before their time. And "their life" - according to Radak, is synonymous with "their soul."
And why is it important to emphasize that even those whose time had come to die passed away? With this, a well-known difficulty already discussed in the Pesach Haggadah is resolved: Why were the people of Israel commanded to shut themselves inside their homes, as it says, "and He will not allow the destroyer to enter your homes to strike," when we say, "I, and not an angel; I, and not a seraph; I, and not an emissary" - everything was done by the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself, so what was the fear? One of the answers, attributed to the Vilna Gaon, is that there is a regular statistic of mortality in Egypt every night - every night they attend to the burial of a certain number of deceased. On that night of the Plague of the Firstborn, those who were scheduled to die according to the natural order died as well, and in addition to them died the firstborn who were not supposed to die. "The destroyer" is the one who comes every night to perform his task and take those who are registered; and the concern was that once permission was granted to the destroyer, he might strike even those who did not deserve it. But the Plague of the Firstborn itself was carried out by the Holy One, blessed be He, in all His glory. These words align beautifully with the Radak here: He did not withhold from death those whose time had arrived, and He also handed over the firstborn prematurely - delightful.
The Radak brings another explanation as well: "Chayatam" in the sense of their livestock and cattle. According to this, the parallelism is resolved differently: "He did not withhold their soul from death" refers to the human beings He put to death, and "and their beasts He delivered over to the pestilence" refers to the animals.
The Malbim continues here with the principle he mentioned earlier: the plagues came in a fixed order - two plagues with a warning, which came to teach "that there is none like Me in all the earth," and a third plague without a warning, in a state of hiddenness of the Divine countenance, as a punishment for not heeding. According to this, one observes that the Plague of the Firstborn seems superfluous: the plague of darkness and the like were the plagues meant to teach the dominion of the Holy One, blessed be He, whereas the Plague of the Firstborn came solely to punish. Furthermore, during the plague of pestilence - which was an epidemic - it would have been possible to eliminate everyone deserving of death, so from the standpoint of necessity, everyone could have been finished off during the pestilence. Why, then, was the Plague of the Firstborn needed?
Here comes the Malbim's wonderful explanation. He explains in several places that there is a difference between a derech (way) and a nativ (path): a derech is the broad, main thoroughfare, whereas a nativ is a singular, narrow path, the way of individuals. Likewise, the term yefalles ("He leveled a path") always indicates a winding, indirect path, as in "and all your paths He shall level," and "Level the path of your foot." The anger of Hashem - which is the pestilence - was inherently destined to destroy all of Egypt. Hashem leveled a special, narrow path for it so that it would not overpower and eliminate everything, but rather strike only the livestock and not the people - so that there would be no redundancy in the signs and wonders, and to leave room for the Plague of the Firstborn.
And according to this, notice how beautiful it is: "He did not withhold their soul from death" is not stated as a description of what occurred, but as a description of what would have occurred. That is: had His anger gone out along the broad thoroughfare rather than along the narrow path, He would not have withheld their soul from death, and everyone would have died. But Hashem did not desire to put everyone to death just yet, for He wanted them to remain for the Plague of the Firstborn, and afterward for those who would pursue Israel into the Red Sea. Therefore, He cleared a narrow path for His anger, and only "their beasts" - their livestock - did He deliver over to the pestilence, without killing the people. Through this, room was left for the next plague, which would strike the people themselves.
וַיַּךְ כָּל בְּכוֹר בְּמִצְרָיִם רֵאשִׁית אוֹנִים בְּאָהֳלֵי־חָם׃ - "And He struck down every firstborn in Egypt, the first fruits of their vigor in the tents of Ham."
The Malbim analyzes the two expressions closely. "Every firstborn" refers to the chief of the household, for in those days anyone who was the eldest in the house was considered a firstborn and esteemed. "The first fruits of vigor," however, is the literal firstborn, the first to be born, as in the phrase "my strength and the first fruits of my vigor." And there is a distinction between them: the chief of the household died only within the land of Egypt - whether he was native-born to Egypt or born in another land and merely residing in Egypt; whoever was present in Egypt, the head of his house died. By contrast, "the first fruits of vigor," the actual firstborn, died only among native Egyptians, and not among visitors from another land residing there temporarily. But a genuine Egyptian who was in another land also died, and this is what is meant by "the first fruits of vigor in the tents of Ham" - even someone located throughout the tents of Ham and not in Egypt itself. "Ham" encompasses the ancestral root from which Egypt sprang, as it is written, "And the sons of Ham: Cush, and Mizraim, and Put, and Canaan" - so that an Egyptian firstborn living in Cush, Put, or Canaan died as well. Thus: in Egypt, both true Egyptian firstborn and the heads of households from other nations died; while outside Egypt, the true firstborn of the Egyptians living in other lands died. This aligns with the statement of Chazal that Egyptian firstborn living elsewhere were killed, as were firstborn of other nations living in Egypt - except that according to the Malbim, the "firstborn of other nations living in Egypt" refers to the head of the household and not an actual firstborn.
Ibn Ezra likewise raises the question of why "Egypt" is mentioned once and "the tents of Ham" another time. He explains that Ham, their forebear, is mentioned by way of reproach and disgrace to them - Ham is the cursed one, of whom it was said, "A servant of servants shall he be to his brothers," and he is therefore mentioned by way of degradation. And "the first fruits of vigor" refers to the first of the children, in whom the father's vigor and strength are evident.
וַיַּסַּע כַּצֹּאן עַמּוֹ וַיְנַהֲגֵם כַּעֵדֶר בַּמִּדְבָּר׃ - "And He led His people forth like sheep, and guided them like a flock in the wilderness."
He journeyed them forth from Egypt, and they followed after Him like sheep after a shepherd. Radak emphasizes: slowly, like a shepherd of sheep, without rushing them. And as Chazal say, He could have brought them quickly to the Land of Israel, but then the people would have complained, "How we were exhausted on the way!" - that they were hurried and rushed; therefore, He led them slowly. "And guided them in the wilderness like a flock" - in the wilderness they resembled a flock, for a flock finds its pasture there, and so too did they find their sustenance there: they had the manna and the water of the well, and He led them like one leading a flock in the desert.
וַיַּנְחֵם לָבֶטַח וְלֹא פָחָדוּ וְאֶת־אוֹיְבֵיהֶם כִּסָּה הַיָּם׃ - And He led them securely, and they did not fear, and the sea covered their enemies.
The Malbim distinguishes between these two expressions: *Linhog* (to guide or drive) is said of one who is led without understanding - he does not grasp things on his own and requires guidance, which is why it says, "and guided them in the wilderness like a flock," for a flock lacks understanding and requires the shepherd to drive it. *Lehanchot* (to lead), on the other hand, is said of an intelligent being. At first, they were like a flock in the desert, terrified of wild beasts; but after seeing the power of Hashem - that when enemies rise against them, the Holy One, Blessed be He, cuts them down - they could now be led as intelligent beings, securely and without any fear. This is the meaning of "And He led them securely, and they did not fear," because "the sea covered their enemies."
Radak resolves a difficulty: Surely it is said at the Red Sea, "and they were very afraid, and they cried out to Hashem" - so how can it say here, "and they did not fear"? Rather, that fear lasted only for a single moment, for Moshe immediately assured them that all their enemies would die - "Hashem will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace," do not be alarmed by the pursuing Egyptians - and indeed they saw with their own eyes that the sea covered their enemies, and they immediately calmed down. From then on, throughout the entire wilderness, they had no fear; their only fear arose when speaking of entering the Land of Israel, at which point they panicked about what would happen when they entered. Radak offers another explanation to resolve the repetition: "He led them securely" - on dry land; "and they did not fear... and the sea covered their enemies" - in the sea.
וַיְבִיאֵם אֶל־גְּבוּל קָדְשׁוֹ הַר־זֶה קָנְתָה יְמִינוֹ׃ - And He brought them to His holy border, this mountain which His right hand acquired.
"His holy border" - this is the Land of Israel, as Radak explains. "This mountain" - this is the Temple Mount, the renowned mountain seen by Avraham Avinu, the site of the Beis HaMikdash, as it is written, "You will bring them and plant them on the mountain of Your inheritance." And why does it say "this mountain" and not simply "the mountain His right hand acquired"? Radak explains: the verse speaks from a vantage point when the site had already become known through Gad the Prophet, who revealed where the Mikdash was to stand, and therefore one could point to it with a finger: "this mountain" - this is the mountain that His right hand acquired. Earlier, however, it is written that David went to deliberate with Shmuel HaRamati over where the Beis HaMikdash should be built, since the location of the Mikdash is not explicitly stated in the Torah.
We have already cited the commentators' explanation as to why the site of the Mikdash was not written explicitly in the Torah: because had it been written, the nations would have rushed to seize the place. The proof is that once the site became known, as soon as we were exiled, the nations rushed and seized it, and the Muslims took control of it. Therefore, the Holy One, Blessed be He, did not reveal the location in advance, but rather said, "the place that Hashem will choose" - you will receive notification later. Otherwise, upon our arrival there, it would have been exceedingly difficult to fight the enemies who had seized the site, making claims about Al-Aqsa and launching intifadas.
Yerushalayim is not mentioned by name in the Torah, because at that time the concept of Yerushalayim did not yet exist; there was still no mention of any specific place in the Land of Israel, only of the matter of the Beis HaMikdash. Only after King David arrives and purchases the threshing floor of Aravnah the Jebusite does the city become Yerushalayim. Yet the place itself is indeed mentioned: Avraham Avinu called it "Yireh," as it is said, "on the mount where Hashem is seen [Yera'eh]," while Shem the son of Noach called it "Shalem." The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: If I call it "Yireh," Shem will have a grievance; if I call it "Shalem," Avraham will have a grievance. I shall call it "Yerushalem" - Yireh and Shalem - indicating that one can attain in it both awe (yirah) and perfection (sheleimut).
We learned regarding this in Zera Shimshon: Shem the son of Noach attained only material perfection in this place, which is why he called it "Shalem"; whereas Avraham attained spiritual perfection there as well, which is why he called it "Yireh" - that in this place one can attain awe. And so it truly was: people would come to dance at Simchas Beis HaSho'evah and would attain Ruach HaKodesh. Therefore, the Holy One, Blessed be He, said: I will call it Yerushalem - the place where one can attain both awe and material perfection.
"Which His right hand acquired" - just as it is said, "The Sanctuary of Hashem, which Your hands established," for everything is by His hand and His right hand. Malbim adds that this verse comes to show that Hashem fulfilled His promises: He said He would bring them - and behold, He brought them to the Land of Israel, and there He chose Mount Moriah for the Beis HaMikdash, as it is said, "You will bring them and plant them on the mountain of Your inheritance."
וַיְגָרֶשׁ מִפְּנֵיהֶם גּוֹיִם וַיַּפִּילֵם בְּחֶבֶל נַחֲלָה וַיַּשְׁכֵּן בְּאָהֳלֵיהֶם שִׁבְטֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ - He drove out nations before them, and apportioned them an inheritance by line, and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
"He drove out nations before them" - these are the seven nations, as Rashi explains. "And apportioned them an inheritance by line" - Radak explains that this refers to Israel: He cast their lot into a measured inheritance, meaning He gave them their inheritance, as in the expression "over all his brothers he fell [nafal]," meaning he received his portion. "And settled in their tents" - He settled the tribes of Israel in the tents of the nations. Others explain that "and He made them fall" refers to the nations: that Hashem caused them to fall by the sword in their land before Israel.
Metzudas David explains why it is called a "chevel nachalah" (measuring line of inheritance): lots were drawn to give each tribe its portion by measuring with a cord, as land is traditionally measured with a measuring line - therefore, an inheritance measured by a cord is called a "chevel nachalah."
Malbim resolves the apparent repetition in the verse: "He drove out nations before them" - these are the seven years of conquest; "and apportioned them an inheritance by line" - these are the seven years of division, for there were another seven years in which they divided the land; "and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents" - after everything was completed, He settled Israel in their tents.
In these verses we see the precision of the Holy One, Blessed is He's guidance: with Him there is no uncontrolled anger, but rather "He leveled a path for His anger" - with precise dosage, a precise address, and precise boundaries, to the point that the pestilence was directed into a narrow path to strike only the animals so that room would remain for the Plague of the Firstborn and the Splitting of the Sea. In the Plague of the Firstborn itself, punishment was exacted both from the actual firstborn and the prominent members of the household, inside Egypt and outside it. From there Hashem led them like sheep, gently and without haste, and once they saw their enemies covered by the sea, they became men of understanding who were guided safely without fear. Finally, He brought them to His holy border, to the mountain He chose, drove out the seven nations before them, divided an inheritance for them by line, and settled the tribes of Israel in the tents of the nations - the complete fulfillment of all His promises.