When the foremen finally confront Moses and Aaron, their rage is spectacular. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the accusation: Our affliction is manifest before the Lord, but our punishment is from you who have made our smell offensive before Pharoh and his servants; for you have occasioned a sword to be put into their hand to kill us.
Notice the theological sophistication of the protest. The foremen do not accuse God. Our affliction is manifest before the Lord — the Holy One sees. But they do accuse Moses and Aaron: our punishment is from you. The two leaders have made things worse.
The Smell That Turns Stomachs
The Aramaic phrase made our smell offensive — an idiom meaning ruined our reputation — captures the political disaster. Before Moses and Aaron showed up, the Hebrews were merely slaves. Now they are slaves who have irritated the king. They have become, in Pharaoh's eyes, rebels. And rebels can be slaughtered with legal cover.
The image of a sword to be put into their hand is chillingly concrete. The foremen are not being paranoid. They know that Egyptian law permits a king to execute disobedient slaves. Moses and Aaron's protest may have accomplished nothing beyond making such executions justifiable.
The sages of the Targumic tradition do not soften the critique. The foremen are, in an important sense, right. The first demand did make things worse. The redemption will take time. Impatient protest sometimes hardens the oppressor before it softens him.
The takeaway: the Jewish imagination is honest about the costs of leadership. Moses does not receive universal gratitude on arrival. His first intervention increases the slaves' suffering. The foremen's anger is not a failure of faith but a legitimate reckoning. Redemption is not cheap, and the Torah refuses to pretend otherwise.