Question:
In Ex. 12:35, it is stated that the children of Israel “borrowed” various things from the Egyptians. As they never gave them back, was this right?
Answer:
Read as in the Revised Version: They “asked” or demanded. They had been serving long years, centuries in fact, in Egypt. They had enriched Egypt by their labor; they asked what belonged to them. So the Hebrew word shâ’al or shâ’êl is rendered elsewhere: “ask,” “demand,” “request,” “require,” and several other terms. See 2 Sam. 11:7, “David demanded.” Also, Dan. 2:27, “The secret which the King hath demanded.”
