What Does Exodus 12:33 Mean?

The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, "We shall all be dead." Verse 33 fulfills the second part of Moses' prediction in Exodus 11:8: Pharaoh's servants would bow before Moses and beg Israel to leave.

The urgency of the Egyptian people in driving Israel out is motivated by survival terror: "we shall all be dead." Having seen the midnight death, every household has lost its firstborn, the Egyptian population is convinced that any further delay will produce further deaths. The remaining plague threat (or what they perceive as the ongoing threat from Israel's God) is enough to make Egypt's population the agent of Israel's departure.

The "urging" of the Egyptians is not gentle encouragement but active pressure: they are pushing Israel out of their country. The liberation takes the form of an expulsion from the Egyptian side, exactly as YHWH predicted: "he will drive you away completely" (Exodus 11:1) and "all these your servants shall come... and beg you to leave" (Exodus 11:8). YHWH's description of Israel's departure as something Pharaoh will urgently drive is fulfilled by both Pharaoh's midnight summons (verse 31) and the broader Egyptian population's urgent pushing (verse 33).

The "we shall all be dead" is Egypt's theological conclusion from the Passover night: if Israel stays longer, more Egyptians will die. The conclusion is practically motivated (survival) rather than theologically substantial (Egypt is not confessing YHWH's sovereignty), but it produces the outcome YHWH planned: Israel leaves with Egyptian urgency speeding their departure. The failed Passover lesson for Egypt is that Egypt has learned to fear Israel's God enough to expel Israel but not enough to submit to YHWH's authority in any lasting way.