Kommentar zu Dewarim 7:16

לא תחוס עיניך עליהם ולא תעבוד את אלוהיהם. By not ignoring idolatry in your country by people remaining there you will ensure that no Israelites will worship such deities. If you will turn a blind eye to their practices they will undoubtedly lead you into sin.

ואכלת את כל העמים, "You shall consume all these nations, etc." This is a positive commandment. Moses continues that this commandment applies to the nations whom G'd delivers into our hands (the seven Canaanite tribes). There is a clear implication that if the Israelites were to be tardy in carrying out this commandment this would be tantamount to despising a divine gift.

ואכלת את כל העמים, “you will consume all the nations.” When you will utterly destroy them the result will be as if you had eaten them as one eats bread. This is in line with what Calev had said when he came back from the spying mission 38 years earlier when he told his compatriots that the Canaanites “are our bread” (Numbers 14,9).

V. 16. ואכלת כל העמים. Vergl. Wajikra 26, 28; Jirmija 10, 25; 30, 16; 50, 17 u.f. wo אכל als Vernichtung einer Bevölkerung, insbesondere durch das Kriegsschwert, vorkommt. Ist ja auch אכל geradezu Prädikat von חרב, wie Dewarim Kap. 32. 42 u.f. Ohnehin hängt ja auch der Begriff Krieg, לחם, mit dem Begriffe Speise eng zusammen, und אכל wäre in diesem Zusammenhange vielleicht nicht sowohl ein objektiver Vernichtungskrieg, sondern die Vernichtung der Bevölkerung zum Selbsterhaltungszweck. —

כי מוקש הוא לך, although you relate to them by protecting their freedom of worship, they will turn out to be a stumbling block for you by seducing you to join them in their religious rites.

אשר ה’ אלו-היך נותן לך, “which the Lord your G’d is about to give to you.” Our sages in Baba Kama 113 state that this was true only at the time when the Canaanites were being delivered into the hands of the Israelites during the years of conquest. Nowadays, stealing from or robbing Gentiles is certainly prohibited. In fact, the Talmud there describes stealing from Gentiles as a greater sin than stealing from Israelites as it involves the desecration of the name of the Lord. The Jewish people are to be models of morality. If we steal we drag G’d’s Torah into disrepute. (See also the author's comment on Lev. 25,50).

לא תחוס עינך, "do not display pity, etc." This is what Solomon taught us in Proverbs 12,10: "showing compassion to the wicked is cruelty." Contrary to the common belief that the display of pity is a virtue, the Torah teaches that this is not only not necessarily so, but it can even be a negative virtue. Perhaps the Torah had to warn us about this seeing that G'd blesses Israel with an abundance of children. We have also been taught in Sanhedrin 36 that fathers are apt to show more pity than men who have no children and that as a result men who have no children cannot be appointed to the Supreme Court as they lack a measure of that virtue. To make certain that pity would not be shown to the people whom G'd wants to destroy the Torah had to legislate this in our verse.

לא תחוס עינך עליהם. Die wiederholten Warnungen, an der kanaanitischen Bevölkerung keine Schonung zu üben, dürften konstatieren, wie sehr ein solches schonungsloses Vorgehen sonst weder der Sinnesart noch der Bestimmung des jüdischen Volkes gemäß ist, das vielmehr zur Schonung alles Lebendigen geneigt ist und geneigt bleiben soll, und in diesem schonungslosen Vorgehen gegen die kanaanitische Bevölkerung nur eine von Gott ausdrücklich gebotene und von den Verhältnissen geheischte Ausnahme zu erblicken hat. —

Our verse continues: "and so that you will not serve their deities" (if you allow these people to survive in your country) to warn you that as a result of your misplaced pity you will "shoot yourself in the leg," as their idols will be a snare unto you, eventually leading to your destruction instead of their death. Your pity will be counter-productive.

כי מוקש הוא לך kann sich nicht auf ׳ולא תעבר וגו beziehen. Der Abfall zum Götzentum ist ja an sich die höchste, am meisten zu fürchtende Verderbnis. Vielmehr erscheint ולא תעבד als Paranthese und ׳כי מוקש וגו bezieht sich auf ׳לא תחוס וגו: übe an ihnen keine Schonung, damit du nicht ihren Göttern dienst; denn es, die Schonung, die du üben würdest, würde dir zur Falle, die Schonung brächte dich zum Abfall (vergl. Schmot 23, 33 u. 34, 12). Der positivste Ausdruck הוא לך, nicht יהיה לך, dürfte eben, wie es sich ja auch in Wahrheit ergab, diese Schonung als dasjenige Moment bezeichnen, an welchem sicher Israels Glück scheitern werde.