“They said to them: May the Lord look upon you, and judge; as you have made our scent abhorrent in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to place a sword in their hand to kill us” (Exodus 5:21). “May the Lord look upon you, and judge” – if you have truly come in the name of the Holy One blessed be He, may He judge between us and Pharaoh. But if you came at your own initiative, may the Lord judge between us and you.
“As you have made our scent abhorrent” – Rabbi Yoḥanan said: From the beatings that they would beat them, their scent was abhorrent. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: Those whom they would place in the building would die, and their scent was abhorrent.37When the Israelites did not fill their quotas of bricks, the Egyptians would take Israelite children and insert them into the buildings instead of bricks (see Shemot Rabba 2:5).
Rabbi Ḥiyya said: This is analogous to a carcass that was placed in a corner and was covered with dirt, and its scent was not sensed. When someone came and uncovered it, its scent was sensed. So, they said to Moses: ‘Moses, there was a sense [lit. scent] among the Egyptians that we are destined to be delivered, and you came and exacerbated it.’ “To place a sword in their hand to kill us” – Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi son of Rabbi Shalom said: They said to Moses: ‘To what are we comparable?
To a lamb that a wolf came to take it; the shepherd ran after it to rescue it from the mouth of the wolf. Between the shepherd and the wolf, the lamb is torn to pieces.’ So said Israel: ‘Moses, between you and Pharaoh we will die.’