The fifth and deepest verb of redemption arrives in the next verse. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves it with covenantal precision: I will bring you nigh before Me to be a people, and I will be a God unto you, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God who hath led you forth from the hard service of the Mizraee.
This is the fifth expression of redemption — the one that comes after physical liberation. To be brought nigh before Me to be a people. Slavery ended at the Red Sea. Peoplehood began at Sinai. The two are not the same event.
Why Freedom Is Not the Goal
The sages of the Targumic tradition note something crucial here. The Exodus is not an end in itself. The Holy One is not content to simply release the slaves from their chains and leave them to figure out what comes next. The verse continues: I will be a God unto you.
This is a two-sided covenant. Israel becomes a people; God becomes their God. The Aramaic leam — to be a people — is the first use of the collective noun in this sense. At the burning bush they were slaves; now they are about to become a nation.
The phrase you shall know is also key. Redemption is incomplete until the redeemed understand who redeemed them. This is why the Seder is built around narration (Haggadah) and why the first of the Ten Commandments begins: I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
The takeaway: freedom without belonging is not the Jewish goal. The Holy One does not liberate Israel to leave them alone; He liberates them to bring them close. Every Jewish liturgy since the Exodus has remembered this distinction. The chains are broken so that a people can be formed, and the people is formed so that a relationship can begin.