תהלים, פרק ע״ח, פסוק נ״א

The final plague, the death of the firstborn, struck at the very heart of the Egyptian nation's future and power. The primary approach among commentators is that the initial victims were the oldest sons, who represent the primary strength and vitality of their fathers [מצודת ציון, אבן עזרא, מצודת דוד, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Because of this deep connection between a firstborn and a father's vigor, the dual description of the plague's targets can be understood simply as a poetic repetition, emphasizing the exact same devastating loss [מאירי].

However, other scholars find a fundamental distinction between the types of victims. One perspective suggests that the plague targeted two distinct categories: those born first to a mother and those born first to a father. Because ancient Egypt was steeped in a culture of severe promiscuity, a single household could easily contain ten sons born to the same woman. The oldest would be the mother's firstborn, while the remaining nine might have been fathered by nine different single men who had no prior children. In such a scenario, every single one of those sons was considered a firstborn to his respective father, and the plague claimed all of them without exception [אלשיך].

A different approach divides the victims by gender and nationality. In this view, the plague first targeted all male firstborns residing in the land, regardless of whether they were native Egyptians or foreigners living among them. A secondary aspect of the plague specifically targeted female firstborns. Among the females, however, only those of Egyptian descent perished, a detail that aligns with the spiritual guardian of Egypt, which is traditionally represented as female [חומת אנך].

The specific mention of the tents of Ham points directly to Egypt itself, as the nation's founder was the son of the biblical figure Ham [רד״ק, ביאור שטיינזלץ, מצודת דוד]. Naming Ham in the context of this plague is highly intentional, serving to highlight the deeply ingrained flaws and moral disgrace of the Egyptian people [אבן עזרא]. By linking them to their ancestor, it emphasizes that the Egyptians simply continued Ham's legacy of immorality and sin. This inherited culture of depravity is exactly what led to the widespread phenomenon of multiple firstborns from different fathers living under a single roof [אלשיך].