‘a-n-h, appearing as it does in its pi’el form, is the classic Hebrew term for “enslavement” or “oppression.” It is, in fact, the precise term the Torah used earlier to describe the Egyptian subjugation of Israel.[40] The use of the term again, now, is wryly ironic. The biblical text has the flavor of something like this: Pharaoh, you have brutally subjugated My people, stripping them of their dignity—and now you will pay for that by subjugating yourself to Me, and being stripped of your own dignity.
