Iron Sharpens Iron as Moses and Pharaoh Clash

(Proverbs 27:17): "Iron sharpens iron" - this is Moses and Pharaoh the wicked, who struck against one another with words. Another interpretation: this is the staff of Aaron and the magicians of Egypt, who struck against one another with sorceries. Rabbi Zeira said: At the time Moses entered before Pharaoh, he [Pharaoh] said to him, 'Who sent you?' He said to him, 'The God of the Hebrews.' He said to him, 'And what did He say?' He said to him, 'Send out My people that they may serve Me.' He said to him, 'Is there then a god in the world whom I do not know? (Exodus 5:2): "I do not know the LORD!"' And he said to him, 'By your life, every deity that I know, each and every one has sent me a letter, but the god you mention has never in his days sent me a letter. Wait for me a little until I bring my register in which all the letters of kings are recorded.' Immediately he sent and brought his archive, and seventy scribes who knew the seventy languages, and they began reading the letters before him. Since they did not find the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, he said before him, 'Did I not say to you so - I do not know the LORD!' Immediately he sent and brought the sages of Egypt. He said to them, 'Have you ever in your days heard the name of the god of these people?' They said to him, 'So we have heard, that he is a son of sages and a son of the kings of old,' as it is said (Isaiah 19:11): "Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the wise counselors of Pharaoh, a brutish counsel; how can you say to Pharaoh, 'I am a son of sages, a son of the kings of old?'" The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them, 'Fools of the world, you have called yourselves sages and Me the son of sages? By your lives, I will destroy your wisdom from the world,' as it is said (Isaiah 29:14): "And the wisdom of its sages shall perish, and the understanding of its discerning ones shall be hidden." When Moses saw that he [Pharaoh] was reviling himself with words, he returned before the Almighty and said before Him, 'Master of the worlds, did I not say so before You at the outset (Exodus 4:13): "Send, I pray, by the hand of him whom You will send?" For he sits and reviles with words and says to me, "I do not know the LORD!"' He said to him, 'By your life, he has said "I do not know the LORD," but in the end he will know; and he says "and also I will not send Israel," but in the end he will send against his will.' A parable to a king who said to his servant, 'Go out and bring me a fish from the market.' He went and brought him a spoiled fish. He said to him, 'By decree, either eat the fish, or take a hundred lashes, or pay a hundred maneh.' He said to him, 'I will eat the fish.' He had not managed to eat it before he said, 'I will take the hundred lashes.' He was lashed up to sixty or up to seventy, and had not managed to finish the lashing before he said, 'I will pay a hundred maneh.' He is thus found eating the spoiled fish, taking the blows, and paying a hundred maneh. So it was done to the Egyptians: they were stricken, and they sent them out, and they gave their wealth. What caused this for them? Because they hardened themselves before the Omnipresent; therefore the Omnipresent hardened Himself all the more against them through Moses. Therefore it is said, "Iron sharpens iron."