The Egyptian army was not unified in its cruelty. According to the Mekhilta, the Egyptians at the Red Sea divided into three factions, each with a different plan for what to do with the fleeing Israelites.
The first faction said: "Let us take their money and not kill them." These were the pragmatists — interested in plunder, not bloodshed. They wanted to strip Israel of the gold and silver they had taken from Egypt and let them go. The Song at the Sea addresses this faction with <strong>Pharaoh's</strong> boast: "I shall divide spoil" — the promise of loot, parceled out among the soldiers.
The second faction said: "Let us kill them and not take their money." These were the ideologues, driven by hatred rather than greed. For them, the Israelites' escape was an intolerable insult that could only be answered with blood. The Song addresses them with: "I shall fill my soul with them" — a bloodlust that money could not satisfy.
The third faction — the most dangerous — said: "Let us kill them and take their money." They wanted everything: the violence and the plunder, the blood and the gold.
This taxonomy of evil from the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael (Tractate Shirah 7:6) is remarkably precise. The rabbis understood that persecution is never monolithic. Some oppressors want wealth. Some want death. Some want both. And the Song at the Sea, they argue, addresses each faction individually — because <strong>God's</strong> judgment is never generic. It meets each sinner at the exact point of their sin.