When Pharaoh refuses, Moses and Aaron press the request with a telling clarification. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves their plea: The Name of the God of the Jehudaee is invoked by (or upon) us. We will go, then, to proceed three days into the desert, and offer the sacrifices of a festival before the Lord God, that death and slaughter befall us not.
Notice the Targum's framing. The Name is not just mentioned by Israel — it is invoked by or upon them. They bear it. Like a seal, like a brand, like a covenantal tattoo. The Jehudaee are defined by the Name they carry.
The Real Fear Is Divine, Not Royal
And then the motivation: that death and slaughter befall us not. This is startling. Moses and Aaron are not warning Pharaoh that God will punish him if he refuses. They are saying that the slaves themselves will suffer death and slaughter if they fail to offer the festival.
The sages of the Targumic tradition read this as a pedagogical framing. Pharaoh cares about economic loss — bricks, quotas, productivity. So Moses speaks Pharaoh's language: if you don't let us go, we'll die, and you'll lose your workforce. The threat is wrapped in a concern for Pharaoh's own interests.
But there is a deeper layer. The Aramaic word for slaughter — katla — foreshadows what will actually befall Egypt: the slaughter of the firstborn, the drowning of the chariots. Moses warns Pharaoh about death coming to Israel; Pharaoh does not realize that refusing the festival will bring death to Egypt instead.
The takeaway: prophecy speaks in double registers. What Pharaoh hears as economic risk, the Targum's reader hears as divine foreshadowing. The slaves who carry the Name of the God of the Jehudaee will one day see that Name carve a path through the sea.