the Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael taught that God preserved him as the only firstborn of Egypt to survive the plague. The Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael asked how the captives had sinned that God struck their firstborn, as reports. The Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael explained that God struck them so that they should not say that their god brought this punishment on the Egyptians but not on them. Alternatively, the Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael told that God struck them because the captives used to rejoice over every decree that Pharaoh decreed against the Israelites. And the Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael taught that the Egyptian servants did so, as well, thus explaining why God said in that God would strike the firstborn of the maidservant who was behind the mill. Reading the report of that "there was not a house where there was not one dead," Rabbi Nathan asked whether there were no houses without firstborn. The Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael explained that when an Egyptian firstborn would die, the parents would set up a statue of the firstborn in the house. The Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael further taught that on the night of the plague of the firstborn, God crushed, ground, and scattered those statues as well, and the parents grieved anew as though they had just buried their firstborn. The Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael interpreted the words "and he called for Moses and Aaron" in to teach that Pharaoh went around the land of Egypt asking everyone where Moses and Aaron lived. The Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael explained that the Egyptians said, "We are all dead men," in because in many families, many sons died. The Egyptian men had thought that a man who had four or five sons would have lost only the eldest, in accord with the warning of Moses in that "the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die." But they did not know, told the Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael, that all their sons were the firstborn sons of different bachelors with whom their wives had committed adultery. God exposed the women's adultery, and all of the sons died. The Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael taught that if God makes public evil, which is of lesser importance, how much more will God reward good, which is of greater importance. Rabbi Ammi read the words of , "And they let them have what they asked," to teach that