No Stealing, Unless from Egyptians

Loosely taken from the Soncino Pentateuch by Dr. JH Hertz :
" and ye shall spoil (strip) the Egyptians" or: "veNitzaltem et Mitzrayim" in Hebrew. The word translated as spoil/plunder/strip has in its Hebrew root the letters Nun/tzadi/Lamed. Words with this root occur 212 times in scripture. In 210 instances its meaning is admitted by all to be: to snatch(from danger), to rescue (from a wild beast), to recover (property). Its direct object is never the person or thing *from whom* the saving or the rescuing or the snatching has taken place, but always the person or thing rescued. The usual translation is unwarranted for two reasons. It takes the persons from whom things are snatched as the direct object and it necessitates an entire reversal of the meaning of NaTzaL from "save" to "strip." In accordance with the other 210 instances where NTzL means "save" etc. the meaning of 3:22 MAY be something akin to "and ye shall SAVE the Egyptians," namely: clear the name and vindicate the humanity of the Egyptians. Don't associate bitter memories of the Egyptians as eternal oppressors, etc. Part on 'good' terms so that you can observe the commandment in Deut. 23:8 "thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian."
*end Hertz*
But assumming it meant strip/empty out, it could be justified as JUST WAGES for 200 (or 400 years, depending on your count) that the Israelites provided as FREE slave labor.

Brian writes: "It would not have been entirely free, they were fed and housed of course, but apparently life wasn't that bad under the Egyptians as many Israelites wanted to go back there."Imagine saying that to an African-American about his ancestors' experience in the US over the centuries; Massa beat/whipped/raped me, but I had housing and food... to address the point though, while a minority longed to return to Egypt, the overwhelming theme of this story is the hard labor/ oppressive life / removal of dignity, etc. the people's cry and Gd hearing this cry...this theme and awareness is echoed throughout the rest of the pentateuch as well as other books (i.e. Psalms/Isaiah)and was the formative experience for the nation (see the many occurrences of "Remember you were a slave in Egypt", such as when exhorting the people to not oppress the orphan, widow, et al)Your point about the "general public" is well taken. I have no idea about that.Re Pharoh being surprised they left, remember that Moses never says to "let my people go," but rather "let my people go that they may serve me (i.e. Gd). The idea was for the Israelites to worship in the desert for 3 days and then return. This of course opens the can of worms of why didn't Moses 'level' with Pharoh, especially since the burning bush episode is clear that the exodus is 'permanent.'Presumably, the Gold and Silver was used to build the portable tabernacle (I don't thing silver is used there though). As far as there being a lack of archeological evidence for this, the "argument from silence" doesn't necessarily mean the events did not take place. Time may tell...To get back to the original issue of plundering/stripping/stealing. If it truly meant that in the sense of an egregious wrong, why would the Israelites document this shameful behavior for eternal posterity?Thanks for your comments.

Brian writes "Of course, the Israelites were never in Egypt and the Exodus certainly never happened..." - With all due respect, I wish I was as certain of that as you are...please let me know how you know this for a fact. You probably will invoke the lack of archeological evidence and/or the lack of Egyptian writings of what would have been a great event (albeit a negative and humiliating one for the Egyptian side - that in itself may hint as to why there is no Egyptian description for posterity about the Exodus, i.e. why *should* they have recorded this defeat by a group of slaves and their invisible Gd). An approach that should be considered is that of Israelite national memory. The Bible speaks of approx 600,000 military-age men taking part in the exodus; this extrapolates to 2 million people. Let's assume the Bible is a forgery (all or in part)that was written at the latest by 300BC (the Septuagint "fixes" Exodus) by some commitee. The commitee will go out on a limb by writing about this mass exodus that has "always" been a part of the national history of the Jews and then say to them, in effect, "this is what happened to us and it's always been part of our national memory/identity". More than one person would surely stand up and say, "hey, how come I've never heard about this ancient history that we Jews are supposed to have had?? *MY* grandfather never told me about this identity-forming event..." In addition, if this story had been contrived, why would the Jews willingly bring upon themselves the very difficult obligations involved in observing the Passover festival. Ask any jew (especially the wife!) today what is involved in this (triple-cleaning of the house, kashering the stove, passover-only dishes, passover-only food, no bread/beer/pasta etc.)and you will appreciate that *something* happened in the past to cause this people (even non-religious Jews) to commemorate each spring without fail. Jews have been called many things, but gullible or unquestioning or stupid has not been among them - see the talmudic dialectics for example). Jews rarely agree on much - the old joke about how America with 280 million people does just fine with 2 major political parties while little Israel with approx 5 million Jews needs some 30 political parties holds a kernel of truth... happy new year to all.

Brian's points are well taken, but due to the late hour before 12/31 I have only a moment to briefly address his last point. I had written:
"In addition, if this story had been contrived, why would the Jews willingly bring upon themselves the very difficult obligations involved in observing the Passover festival. Ask any jew (especially the wife!) today what is involved in this (triple-cleaning of the house, kashering the stove, passover-only dishes, passover-only food, no bread/beer/pasta etc.)and you will appreciate that *something* happened in the past to cause this people (even non-religious Jews) to commemorate each spring without fail. Jews have been called many things, but gullible or unquestioning or stupid has not been among them - see the talmudic dialectics for example)."To which Brian responded:"Many cultures have obligations like this, it doesn’t mean that the celebrated event is true. Does the celebration of Xmas mean that there was a virgin birth in which God’s son was born, does the Easter celebration mean that Jesus really did rise from the dead, do people worshipping Jesus as the Messiah promised in the Tanakh mean that he is the Messiah? I think not. Cultures have festivals, it doesn’t follow that observing these festivals mean that the event actually happened.Perhaps something happened, but it certainly didn’t happen the way the Hebrew Bible claims it did."As someone who has in his close family both devout Jews as well as evangelical Southern Baptists, and has seen both ends of the spectrum up close, I am probably better qualified than most to make the following observation about religious observance (without making any judgment about which is "better"): When a religious Christian sincerely accepts Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior, while he may have struggled with inner passions or behaviors, he is also
accepting Paul's antinomism (i.e. faith vs. works). Celebrating Christmas, Easter, etc may require church attendance and a reaffirmation of belief (maybe even charity/good works if the aninomism is not accepted), but he can still eat at any restaurant he wishes, and not be involved in the *physical* effort I described regarding preparing the Jewish house for passover. While respecting the Christian's belief and commitment, one also has to recognize the difficulty involved in keeping the "Law" for the observant Jew. Yes, cultures have festivals, however, the difficulty in observance is not at all equal (I'm tempted to digress into the other limits Jews observe such as dietary constraints, two weeks of sexual abstinence each month, etc. to illustrate that *something* had an impact that would make this "stiffnecked" people keep this restrictive lifestyle. Perhaps another board - thxs)