“The Lord said to Moses in Midyan: Go, return to Egypt; as all the men who sought your life are dead” (Exodus 4:19). “The Lord said to Moses in Midyan: Go, return to Egypt.” Rabbi Yoḥanan said: The Torah teaches you proper behavior. One who takes an oath to another should annul it only in his presence, so that he will not suspect him that he took a false oath, as you find that Moses took an oath to Yitro and went to Midyan and annulled his oath in his presence, as it is stated: “The Lord said to Moses in Midyan.”
The Holy One blessed be He said to him: ‘In Midyan you took the oath; go and annul your oath in Midyan.’4The midrash is interpreting the verse differently than it is generally translated, as follows: God said to Moses (at the burning bush): Go to Midyan and return to Egypt (Etz Yosef). “As all the men…are dead” – did they die? But were they not Datan and Aviram, and they were with Koraḥ in his dispute?5See Numbers 16:1.
Since Datan and Aviram were still active in the incident with Koraḥ, clearly they had not died during the events the midrash is describing. Rather, what is “are dead”? They became impoverished. Four are considered as though they are dead: A blind person, a leper, an impoverished person, and one without children Avoda Zara 5a>.