Report That the People Had Fled Reaches Pharaoh

Another interpretation: "And they did so." They said, willing or unwilling, we have no choice but to fulfill the words of the son of Amram. "And it was told to the king of Egypt" (Exodus 14:5). His escorts told him. And some say he had relay-runners. And some say Amalek told him. "that the people had fled." But were they fleeing? Has it not already been said (Numbers 33:3), "on the morrow of the Passover the children of Israel went out with a high hand"? Then what does Scripture teach by saying "that the people had fled"? Rather, because they struck the escorts, these went and told Pharaoh. They said: they struck some of us, they wounded some of us, they killed some of us, and no one protested against their hand. They have neither ruler nor official, as in the matter that is said, "The locust has no king." "And the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned" (Exodus 14:5). In the past (Exodus 10:7), "the servants of Pharaoh said to him," and so forth; but now "the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned." They said: had we been struck and let them go, that would have been enough; instead, we were struck and we let them go. Or had we been struck and let them go, and they not taken our money, that would have been enough; instead, we were struck, and we let them go, and they took our money. A parable: to what is the matter like? To one who said to his servant, "Bring me a fish from the market," and so on (as in the Mekhilta).