“Pharaoh heard this matter and he sought to kill Moses. Moses fled from before Pharaoh, and he settled in the land of Midyan, and sat alongside the well” (Exodus 2:15). “Pharaoh heard” – because Datan and Aviram arose and informed on him. “He sought to kill Moses.”
Pharaoh sent and they brought an incomparable sword and he struck his neck ten times, but Moses’s neck became like an ivory tower and it did not harm him, as it is stated: “Your neck is like an ivory tower” (Song of Songs 7:5). “Moses fled from before Pharaoh.” Rabbi Yannai says: Is it possible for flesh and blood to flee from the monarchy? Rather, at the moment that they apprehended Moses and sentenced him to beheading, an angel descended from the heavens and appeared to them in the image of Moses.
They seized the angel and Moses fled. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: All the legal advisers who were sitting before Pharaoh became [impaired]; some mute, some deaf, and some blind. He [Pharaoh] was saying to the mutes: ‘Where is Moses?’ but they did not talk; to the deaf, but they did not hear; to the blind, but they did not see. That is what the Holy One blessed be He said to Moses: “Who gives a mouth to man?” (Exodus 4:11).
Who gave a mouth to Pharaoh, who said with his mouth: ‘Bring Moses to the platform to execute him’? “Or who makes one mute,” (ibid.) – who rendered the deputies mute, deaf, and blind so they did not bring you? And who made you clever so you would flee? “Is it not I, the Lord?” (ibid.). I was with you there, and I stand with you today.