Before the final plague falls, the Lord gives Israel an instruction that would change the entire theology of the Exodus.
"Speak now in the hearing of the people, That every man shall demand from his Mizraite friend, and every woman of her Mizraite friend, vessels of silver and vessels of gold" (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 11:2).
The Aramaic paraphrase, preserved in the Targum attributed to Yonatan ben Uzziel, uses a word the translators often soften: yi'sh'al, from the root sha'al — to ask, to request, to demand. Centuries of commentators debated what this means. The sages insisted it was a legitimate claim. Israel had served Egypt for generations without wages. The silver and gold were not gifts. They were back-pay.
Notice the Targum's detail: gavra m'chaverei — each man from his friend. After nearly a year of plagues, some Egyptians had become sympathetic. Some had even joined the God-fearing who stored their cattle before the hail. The text calls them friends. There were relationships now — across the line that once divided master and slave.
And when Israel asked, Egypt gave. The Torah will tell us shortly that the Egyptians handed over their treasures freely. The Maggid teaches: the Holy One does not let oppressors keep the wealth they built from oppression. The silver and gold that had been melted down from decades of forced labor now flowed back, in a single night, to the hands that had earned it.
Liberation with empty pockets is not full liberation. The Lord ensured that His people walked out rich.