שמות, פרק ט׳, פסוק ז׳

As the devastating plague of pestilence comes to an end, the Egyptian ruler sets out to investigate the aftermath. He wishes to verify whether God truly spared the livestock of the Israelites, just as Moses had warned [חזקוני]. To gather intelligence on the situation, he dispatches his servants to the field [קאסוטו]. The resulting discovery should have offered undeniable proof of divine intervention rather than a natural outbreak, as only God could control life and death with such absolute precision [ספורנו, רלב״ג, שטיינזלץ]. The investigators report back that not a single animal belonging to the Israelites perished, a fact that highlights the sheer magnitude of the miracle [אבן עזרא, קאסוטו]. This divine protection was so meticulous that even the weakest, most emaciated animals on the brink of natural death were kept alive, ensuring the Egyptians could not falsely attribute any Israelite loss to the plague [שפתי כהן].

However, the aftermath may have been more complex than it first appeared, creating a deceptive situation that ultimately misled Pharaoh. One perspective notes that a significant amount of Egyptian livestock actually survived because the animals had been rented out to the Israelites for their wool and milk. This temporary association with the Israelites shielded them from the plague, leaving a substantial number of animals alive in Egypt [העמק דבר]. Another tradition suggests that exactly one animal did die, but it belonged to a man with an Egyptian father and an Israelite mother. According to the law, the man was considered Egyptian, sealing his animal's fate. Yet, Pharaoh mistakenly identified the man as an Israelite, leading him to the false conclusion that Moses's warning had not been entirely accurate [מלבי״ם].

Despite the overwhelming evidence of a miracle, Pharaoh's stubbornness only deepens. Noticeably, he does not summon Moses and Aaron to plead for relief as he had during previous plagues. The very nature of pestilence made such a request futile; the affected animals were already dead, and the survivors needed no cure [בכור שור, חזקוני]. Furthermore, the devastation was entirely financial. Because the plague struck property rather than inflicting physical pain on Pharaoh or his people, he felt no urgent need to surrender [אבן עזרא, ביאור יש״ר, שפתי כהן]. He may have simply dismissed the event as mere sorcery [שטיינזלץ], or even calculated a plan to confiscate the surviving Israelite herds to compensate his own citizens [תולדות יצחק].

Untouched physically by the disaster, Pharaoh's apathy sets in naturally, without him needing to actively force himself into a state of stubbornness [שפתי כהן, ביאור יש״ר]. At the same time, this obstinacy is no longer solely a product of his own free will. It is now driven by divine intervention, forcing his stubbornness in order to multiply the miracles and display God's absolute power [רלב״ג, הדר זקנים]. The episode concludes with a striking irony: Pharaoh acts swiftly to send out investigators to assess the damage, yet he stubbornly refuses to send out the Israelites [קאסוטו]. Even if the devastating plague prompted a slight easing of their daily labor, he completely rejects the idea of granting them true freedom [העמק דבר].