Or HaChaim on Exodus 14:5/אור החיים על שמות י״ד:ה׳

1 ויגד למלך…כי ברח העם, ויהפך לבב פרעה, "when the king was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh had a change of heart, etc." Why does the Torah speak about the Israelites "fleeing" instead of their "going?" If the words ויהפך לבב פרעה mean that Pharaoh now developed remorse about what he had done this would be very peculiar seeing that he had never "done" what he did voluntarily! He had dismissed the Israelites only as the result of having suffered extremely serious plagues, so much so that Egypt was in danger of total collapse. How could the Torah then ascribe Pharaoh's dismissal of the Israelites to something "he had done?" One can only change one's mind if one's mind had operated with balanced judgment, not if one acted under duress! Furthermore, what does the expression "what is this we have done" mean in this context? The people had no more acted voluntarily than had their king!

2Perhaps we have to fall back on the Zohar's premise that every time the Torah speaks about העם what is meant is the new multitude of converts commonly known as ערב רב. Accordingly, the report Pharaoh received about "the people" having fled referred to the new converts whom Pharaoh sent along with the Israelites in order for them to bring about the Israelites' return to Egypt. These people had now decided to throw in their lot with the Israelites permanently. Inasmuch as they had been Egyptian subjects, their defection could properly be described as the flight of Pharaoh's people.

3ויהפך לבב פרעה, Pharaoh had a change of heart, etc. This means that Pharaoh was sorry now that he had sent these new converts along with the Israelites. He did not regret letting the Israelites go. When the Egyptians exclaimed: "what did we do?" this refers to the Egyptians' surprise at their own stupidity in having sent these converts along with the Israelites. They explained their stupidity as being the result of allowing the Israelites to depart as free men. (According to Yalkut Shimoni 208 Pharaoh had even executed a deed granting the Israelites the status as free men.) The words shilachnu me-ovdenu then are a reference to this document granting the Israelites their freedom. Even though it was conceivable that the Israelites would decide to return, they would do so as free and equal citizens, not as slaves. The Egyptian people's upset was very real for in the absence of the Israelites to perform slave labour all the work the Israelites had performed up to this point would now become something they had to do for themselves as well as for the government. The people who joined Pharaoh in the pursuit were concerned mostly with bringing back the new converts described as העם. G'd did not need to influence Pharaoh to make a decision concerning this pursuit at all. However, G'd influenced Pharaoh to also pursue the Israelites themselves by allowing him to think that the latter had become entangled in the land.

4Pharaoh was also motivated by another consideration which I have already discussed in 10,7, namely that his whole obstinacy was based on the miscalculation that G'd was not all-powerful and that is why He resorted to deceptive tactics. Pharaoh and his servants had reasoned that if G'd were all powerful He would do things outright instead of achieving His aims by devious means. On the day G'd killed the firstborn the Egyptians finally admitted to themselves that G'd could indeed do whatever He wanted including destruction of the universe itself if He so desired. In view of this, the Egyptians concluded that the request of G'd transmitted through Moses to let the Israelites travel three days into the desert could be taken at face value and was not a scheme to leave and then not to return. They discounted Pharaoh's repeated concern that the fact that the Israelites were not prepared to leave anyone or anything behind was proof of their intent not to return, and they credited this to the Israelites' declared intent to celebrate a holiday, something that is best done in the midst of one's family and possessions. It was considerations such as these that prompted the Egyptians to "lend" the Israelites their valuables. They did not suspect G'd of having influenced their decision to lend these valuables to the Israelites as they reasoned that if G'd had wanted to He could have forced them to hand over all of their possessions to the departing Jews. Their reasoning was reinforced by the knowledge that the Israelites had become thoroughly familiar with all their valuables during the plague of darkness without exploiting their opportunity to steal these goods at a time when they could have done without fear of being discovered.

5When the informer told Pharaoh that "the people" had fled, he meant that the Jews had decided not to return at the end of three days as had been the commonly held belief at the time of their departure. Pharaoh and the Egyptians were now convinced that the Israelites under Moses' leadership had made this decision on their own, as their G'd would never have become a party to deception. Such considerations then all contributed to Pharaoh, his servants, and his people undergoing a change of heart in their attitude towards the Israelites. They never regretted having let them go at that time, as they had only let them go for a holiday. They regretted their stupidity in giving the people a letter releasing them from bondage. This had been an unpardonable stupidity because even their G'd had never demanded this. They reasoned that what they should have done in the first place was to send a military escort with the Israelites to assure their return at the end of the three days.

6Another way of looking at what happened is this: When the news reached Pharaoh that the Israelites had "fled," Pharaoh reconsidered his premise that the Israelite G'd was all-knowing and all-powerful. This G'd apparently had been forced to use deception because He was not omnipotent. This is why He kept His intention that the Israelites should depart permanently a secret up until now.

7The Torah advisedly speaks of the לבב, "a dual heart" of Pharaoh undergoing a change. Pharaoh's considerations were due to conflicting feelings (i.e. "two hearts"). Originally, He had thought that G'd was unable to orchestrate the Israelites' exodus otherwise He would not have had to almost beg him to let the Israelites go. As a result, he, Pharaoh had refused to let them go. Next, Pharaoh had convinced himself that G'd's love for the Jewish people might only be temporary. In the meantime Pharaoh had come to realise that his estimate of G'd liking the Jewish people only temporarily had also been wrong and as a result of both these considerations of telling him to let the Israelites go, he had done so in the firm belief that there was nothing he could do to stop this process. Now, in retrospect, he realised that he had been wrong after all, that G'd had lacked the power to orchestrate the Exodus without help from Pharaoh himself. This is why he decided to mount the pursuit.