The absence of a distinct legal imperative to rescue captives is offset by the high profile afforded this subject in the biblical narrative. In all of these cases, the mode of response is uncompromising, even in the absence of an explicit divine commandment. Rabbi Bahya, like other commentators, is perplexed by the verse's reference to the Exodus. If any feat were to be highlighted in this indentifying statement, surely the creation of the universe is the most obvious choice. Rabbi Bahya ultimately concludes that the verse describes God as the redeemer of captives as an exhortation to become like Him.
Jewish sources posit that there is more than one type of captive.
Jewish mystical tradition elaborates the redemption of captives as a paradigm of the dynamics of the entire system of commandments. Thus the fulfillment of all of the commandments is an act of redeeming captives that releases the spritual potential latent in all corporeal reality. In rabbinic sources the term is always given in the plural, suggesting that there's no such thing as a single captive, for the Jewish nation is understood as an organic spiritual whole that acts as a vehicle for the revelation of divinity. This wholeness is viewed as a prerequisite for the revelation at Mt. Sinai, the messianic era and the ultimate fulfillment of Jewish destiny. If any part of the whole is in captivity, the entire collective is, on some level, in captivity as well.