Matthew Poole and continuators on Exodus 12:36

36 And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians , so that they lent unto them such things as they required : and they spoiled the Egyptians .

(i. e.) Inclined their hearts to do it willingly, and not onely out of fear.

Heb. and they lent them, to wit, the jewels or vessels mentioned ver. 35.

To wit, of their ornaments, Quest. Was not this unjustly done of the Israelites to borrow these jewels which they never paid again? Ans. No, 1. because they did nothing in this matter but by Gods appointment, chap. 11. 1, 2. so that if there be any injustice▪ it must be in God, in whom there neither can be in any thing, nor is in this thing, the least blot or shadow of iniustice, as well because he hath an unquestionable right in and power to dispose of all persons and things, as being the maker and giver and lord of all; as because there was great and evident reason both why the Israelites should be recompenced for all their hard labours and sufferings, and why the Egyptians should be spoiled, for their Idolatry, luxury, and cruelty to the Israelites, and the great benefits which they had received from Ioseph and from the service of the Israelites. 2. because the supreme Lord of all forbad them to restore what they borrowed, and gave them the entire right and sole propriety therein. 3. because though there was a form and appearance of borrowing and lending, yet indeed the Israelites did not so much borrow as desire, as the Hebrew word rendred borrow, ver. 35. signifies, and the Egyptians did not reckon these things as lent, and to be restored, but as given and never to be expected again; even as Pharaoh and his people rightly judged, that if the Israelites were once permitted to go out of the land with their whole families and estates, they would never return again, chap. 14. 5. And in truth the Egyptians did and might esteem it a good bargain to give these things to redeem their lives, and to ingage the Israelites to a speedy departure, knowing that otherwise both their persons and all their estates were in extreme hazard. 4. because, if these jewels were properly borrowed, yet the Egyptians by their causeless and hostile pursuit after the Israelites with intent to destroy them did fully discharge them from all obligations to restitution, and give them a right not onely to keep these goods, but to take any other which they could from the Egyptians, according to the known and approved laws of War.

Marginal references: Gen. 15. 14. chap. 3. 22. Psal. 105. 37.