“He said: Who appointed you a ruler and judge over us? Do you propose to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? Moses was frightened and said: Indeed, the matter is known” (Exodus 2:14). “Who appointed you a ruler [and judge [ish sar veshofet] over us?]” – Rabbi Yehuda says: Moses was twenty years old at that time.
They said to him: ‘You are not yet eligible to be a ruler and a judge over us, because [only] one who is forty years old has understanding’ (Avot 5:25). Rabbi Neḥemya says that he was forty years old. They said to him: ‘Certainly you are a man [ish], but you are not eligible to be a ruler and a judge [sar veshofet] over us.’ The Rabbis say that they said to him: ‘Aren’t you the son of Yokheved?
How do they call you son of Batya? You seek to be a ruler and a judge over us? We will inform about you, what you did to the Egyptian.’ “Do you propose [omer] to kill me?”
Do you seek to kill me is not stated, but rather do you omer [literally, say]. From here you learn that he had invoked the ineffable name against the Egyptian, and killed him. When he heard this,65When Moses heard the response of the Hebrew man he had rebuked. he feared slander and he said: “Indeed, the matter is known.” Rabbi Yehuda bar Rabbi Shalom [said] in the name of Rabbi Ḥanina the Great, and our Rabbis said in the name of Rabbi Alexandri: Moshe was pondering in his heart and saying: What sin did Israel commit that caused them, more than all the nations, to be enslaved?
When he heard his response, he said: ‘There is slander in their midst, how can they be deserving of redemption?’ Therefore he said: “Indeed the matter is known” – now I know the reason for their enslavement.