The stillness in Egypt had to be unbearably deafening. The entire land was filled with new graves. Every household had lost at least one family member, some lost more. All first born sons had died, so in addition to the weight of grief of a son, some also lost husbands, some lost grandsons. Only the barren were spared the grief of a lost son, and barrenness in itself is an ongoing grief. Then, there were the empty slave quarters of Goshen.
Over a half million men were now gone, with their wives and children. The only reminder of the vast community of the children of Israel were the blood stained doorposts. The blood stained doorposts on every abode! But there were many reminders of the G-d of Israel. The fields lay stripped of any harvest, the few surviving livestock had no vegetation in which to graze. The people themselves had the scars of the horrendous boils endured just weeks earlier, and the stench of death must have still hung overbearingly heavy in the air. All reminders of what Egypt had once been and would be no more.
Some Egyptians had left with the children of Israel. Did these survivors that remained in Egypt wonder the fate of those who left or wish they had joined them? As they stood in the midst of the devastation, did they remember the magician's words regarding the third plague as "the finger of G-d?" Did they remember some of the Egyptians taking heed of the horrors by the plague of hail? Did they look for blood on any doorposts of the Egyptian community, or had those Egyptians spent their last days in Egypt in Goshen with the children of Israel? Did they revisit events and rethink what they would have done differently? These survivors in Egypt were human, with emotions. They had to wonder how they would ever move on. The profound grief must have been consuming, making even their breathing labored. I cannot begin to imagine the utter helplessness and hopelessness they must have felt.
As these women and children must have looked around them, at the death and destruction, they still didn't realize the rest of Egypt's men, the army, would be gone forever, as well. The army would not return and Egypt would not recover. Egypt would never again be the power it had once been. How many generations would it take to soften the reminders of what they were viewing that day? How long would those doorways bear the bloody yet simple reminder of Israel's freedom?
For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am YHWH. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to YHWH throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. Torah of Holy Scripture Exodus 12:12-14
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