Torah The Double-Edged Sword Against Pharaoh's Double-Talk

(Proverbs 2:12): "To save you from the evil way" - if you have occupied yourself with the words of Torah, they are able to save you from the evil way. Why? Because they are like a double-edged sword, as it is said (Psalms 149:6): "and a double-edged sword in their hand." Rabbi Yehudah and Rabbi Nehemiah: Rabbi Yehudah says: "double-edged" (pifiyot) like a sword that consumes from its two sides; and Rabbi Nehemiah says: "double-edged" (pifiyot) means that they [the laws] are written on this side and on that side. And so it is with the Torah: laws before it and laws after it. Before it - from where? As it is said (Exodus 15:25): "There he set for him a statute and a judgment, and there he tested him." After it - from where? As it is written (Exodus 21:1): "And these are the judgments that you shall set before them." "From a man who speaks perversities" - this is the wicked Pharaoh. At the time when Moses would come in to him, he would speak with him in words of perversity. How so? When the decree [plague] would come upon him, he would say to Moses, "Go, remove the decree from upon me, and I will send out Israel." And Moses would seek mercy until he removed the decree; and once Pharaoh saw that it had ceased, he would reverse his ways and say (Exodus 5:2): "I do not know the LORD, and I also will not send out Israel." Therefore it is said "from a man who speaks perversities."