My colleague Toby Sumpter suggests that the plunder Israel takes from Egypt is a “bride price” as well as the proper gift for a manumitted slave.

The “bride price” idea works.  Pharaoh has, like the Pharaoh of Abram’s day, claimed a bride for himself, Yahweh’s bride.  He has tried to seize her, and now he is sending her out, under duress, to her true husband, Yahweh.  To compensate for his attempt to seize her, she takes gold and silver and material along with her.  Israel the bride goes out to cut a marriage covenant at Sinai, with the materials she’ll need to build a honeymoon home.