(2) וישאלו איש מאת רעהו ואשה מאת רעותה כלי כסף וגו', the meaning of שאלה here is not the same as when women “borrow” kitchen utensils and the like, it being understood that these will be returned to the lender. God, i.e. Moses, commanded the people to ask for these trinkets, garments, etc., as outright gifts. G’d would see to it that the Israelites asking for this would be considered by the Egyptians as deserving of this so that they would gladly part with the items in question. This did not involve any misrepresentation on the part of God, the Egyptians being perfectly aware that nothing they would give their Israelite neighbours could even remotely compensate them for the wages these people had never received during all these years. In that connection, consider that a Jewish servant (for whose services his master paid six years’ wages in advance to the servant’s creditor) at the end of his 6 years of service must be given an ex gratia payment by his master so that he can establish himself economically. (Deuteronomy 15,13-14). How much more so would the Israelites be entitled at this time to a small installment of all the money owed them for 210 (or 86) years of slave labour!
(יד) לא תעשק שכיר. והלא כבר כתוב, אלא לעבור על האביון בשני לאוין לא תעשוק שכר שכיר שהוא עני ואביון, ועל העשיר כבר הזהר (ויקרא יט, יג) לא תעשק את רעך:
(14) לא תעשק שכיר THOU SHALT NOT WRONG ANY HIRED SERVANT — But has not this already been stated in Leviticus 19:13? But it is repeated here to make one transgress in respect of the hired, servant who is poor (i.e., if he wrongs such a person) two negative commands, for the meaning of the text here is: thou shalt not suppress the wages of an hired servant who is poor and needy. (The meaning is not: thou shalt not wrong a hired servant, the poor and the needy). As to the well-to-do hired servant one has already been prohibited to wrong him (Leviticus 19:13): “thou shalt not wrong thy neighbour” (Bava Metzia 61a).
When two of the students of this sage by the name of Tzadok and Beyssus heard their mentor say “do not be like the servants who serve their master because of the reward they expect to receive as compensation, but serve the master for altruistic considerations,” they began to question the entire foundations of Judaism, the concept of reward and punishment.