What does "va'Yar Elokim Es Bnei Yisrael" mean?
Ramban #1 (citing the Ibn Ezra): Hashem saw what the Egyptians were doing to Yisrael in public, and He knew what they were doing to them in secret.
Seforno: It means that He took their cries to heart, and no longer hid His eyes from them. 1
Targum Onkelos: He saw their enslavement (and took action). Refer to 2:25:2:4.
Targum Yonasan: He saw how they suffered from the slavery.
Seforno: As the Torah writes later in 3:7.
What is meant by the words, "And Hashem knew"?
Rashi and Ramban #2: It means that He took their cries to heart, and no longer hid His eyes from them. 1
Ramban #1 (citing the Ibn Ezra): Refer to 2:25:1:1.
Seforno: He knew the plagues of their heart, and that their prayers and their cries to Him were uttered with a full heart.
Targum Onkelos: He said verbally that He would redeem them.
Targum Yonasan: It refers to the Teshuvah that they had all done, that although one man did not know about the Teshuvah of the other - but Hashem knew.
Ramban: As He had until now. The Torah is referring to the covenant that He made with the Avos, to Yisrael's cries that Hashem heard, and their pain that He saw (later, in Shemos 3:7), which is why He redeemed them, because, even though the four hundred years had come to an end, they were not worthy of redemption, as the Pasuk writes in Yechezkel 20:8. Refer also to 2:23:4:1.
These verses (2:24-25) contain four expressions for Hashem's response to our outcries; a. "He heard;" b. "He remembered;" c. "He saw;" d. "He knew." According to Maharal, what does each term mean?
Maharal #1 (Gevuros Hashem Ch. 21, p. 93): a. To hear implies removing any intervening barriers, to allow the outcry to ascend; b. To remember - i.e. not to ignore, but not yet to fully acknowledge; c. To see - i.e. to reveal, albeit superficially; d. To know - i.e. inner comprehension of both revealed and hidden aspects.
Maharal #2 (ibid.): The Bnei Yisrael would now be redeemed, for four reasons; a. Hashem accepted their prayers; b. He remembered the deeds of their forefathers, out of Midas ha'Chesed; c. He saw what Pharaoh had done to them, that they deserved to be redeemed (even) through Midas ha'Din. d. They should be redeemed out of Midas ha'Rachamim. 1
