And when he was among those who respond to his supplication and honor his call, he caused his saying: ﴿So travel﴾ to mean: We said to him: Travel during the night - this is according to the reading of the people of Madinah and Ibn Kathir with the connection of the hamzah, and according to the reading of others with the cutting, the meaning is: Perform the travel, which is the journey during the night. ﴿With My servants﴾ those who are worthy of being added to My presence, your people whom We sent you to bring happiness to them by rescuing them from those who oppress them and freeing them for My worship, not for the worship of others.

And when glorified and exalted is He had previously commanded the Children of Israel to be prepared on the night in which He commanded the travel, so that none of them would have any hindrance at all, as has been previously explained in Al-A'raf regarding the Torah, He clarified His emphasis on that by His saying: ﴿At night﴾, thus it became an emphasis without the wording. And He commanded him to travel at night; because He inflicted upon the Egyptians the death of the firstborn at night. Pharaoh commanded Musa, blessings and peace be upon him, to leave with his people out of fear that the Egyptians would die.

And when Allah, the Exalted, knew that if they delayed until dawn and death would be lifted from them, they would be prevented from leaving. And if they delayed until the end of the night, they would be caught before reaching the sea and they would be killed. He justified this matter by saying, emphasizing it, because the state of the Egyptians when they commanded them to leave was like the state of one who does not believe him. He returned in his saying: ﴿Indeed, you are being pursued﴾, meaning: you are being sought after with the utmost desire and effort from your enemy. So do not let what they are in at the time of your command to leave deceive you from the fear of your staying among them and their asking you to leave them because of the occurrence of the widespread death among them. For indeed, the hearts are in the hand of Allah, and He hardens the heart of Pharaoh after seeing these signs when death is lifted from them and they finish burying their dead, and he seeks you for what I had planned in the past regarding your governance by drowning them all, so that My glory may appear through that and I may repel from you the terror of their confrontation; for indeed, I know that you have no strength or power against them, so I did not burden you with directly dealing with any of their affairs.