Commentary for Exodus 4:19

FOR ALL THE MEN ARE DEAD — Who were these men? Dathan and Abiram: Really they were still alive, but they had come down in the world, having lost their property, and a poverty-stricken man may well be regarded as dead (Nedarim 64b).

AND THE ETERNAL SAID UNTO MOSES IN MIDIAN: GO, RETURN UNTO EGYPT, etc. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra said, “There is no strict chronological order in the narrative of the Torah,²⁸⁹In Verse 18 it says that Moses bid farewell to Jethro because he was ready to return to Egypt. Why then was it necessary now that G-d command him to return there? For this reason, Ibn Ezra renders Verse 19 as meaning: “now the Eternal had said.” and the explanation thereof is, ‘now the Eternal had said.’ There are many similar cases.”
But Ibn Ezra’s interpretation here is not correct. The first Divine communication, [i.e., that Moses return to Egypt], was not in Midian but at Mount Sinai.²⁹⁰Above, 3:10. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh. In Midian He spoke to him only at this time, [as mentioned in the present verse]. However, when Moses accepted the mission by word of G-d to go to Egypt and he returned to Midian to obtain permission from his father-in-law, it was his intention to go alone and disguised. It is for this reason that Moses said to Jethro, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren that are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive.²⁹¹Verse 18. That is to say, “I will see my brethren whether they be yet alive and I will return,” for it was to be in the nature of a visit by one who is anxious to see his brethren. But then the Eternal said to him in Midian, Go, return unto Egypt, that is to say, “Arise, go out of this land and return to the land of Egypt and have no fear there, for all those who sought to harm you have died, and stay there with the people until you will bring them forth from there.” Therefore Moses took his wife and children since it was the right way to bring them with him, insamuch as the children of Israel would have greater reliance on him because of it. [They would say]: “A free man in Midian who lives peacefully in his home with his children and with his wife, a son-in-law of the priest of the land, would not have brought them to be with slaves and make their lives bitter with hard service if his heart were not steadfast. He is trusting that they will soon go out from Egypt and that he will go up with them to the land of Canaan, and that it will then not be necessary for him to return to Midian to take his wife and his children from there.”

ויאמר ה' אל משה במדין, where he had settled at the time he had fled on account of Pharaoh as we know from 2,15. Now, while Moses was back in Midian, (in the civilised regions) G’d told Moses to return to Egypt as all the people whom had had reason to be afraid of had already died.. (compare 2,23)

כי מתו כל האנשים , both the king and his servants who tried to kill you. We explained this already in connection with 2,23 when Pharaoh’s death was reported.

אל משה במדין, to Moses in Midian. The reason that the Torah stresses that this communication from G'd to Moses took place in Midian is to praise Moses who was not afraid of his adversaries in Egypt at the time he argued against acceptance of the mission. All that concerned him was his own inadequacy for the gigantic task G'd wanted to charge him with. The Torah had to mention where the conversation took place as otherwise we would have assumed that the argument which swayed Moses was G'd's assurance that all the people who had tried to kill him had already died. Moses had already asked Yitro to release him from his oath before G'd mentioned that his pursuers were dead.

ויאמר ה' אל משה במדין, “the Lord said to Moses in Midian, etc.” Ibn Ezra reminds us that the Torah is not bound to narrate events in the order in which they occurred, and that what G’d is now reported as having told Moses, He had told him already on a previous occasion. Nachmanides disagrees with Ibn Ezra, saying that G’d’s first communication to Moses did not take place in Midian but at Mount Sinai (Mt. Chorev). According to him, G’d spoke with Moses only on this occasion while Moses was in Midian. It is possible that once Moses had reluctantly agreed to assume the mission G’d wanted him to perform, he returned once more to Midian to obtain his father-in-law’s permission to return to Egypt. It was his intention to do so incognito. This is when G’d told him that there was no reason for this, as all the people who had sought his death had long since died. This message came to him while he was still in Midian. G’d made it clear to him that he should remain in Egypt until the redemption, the Exodus. This is why Moses took his family with him at that stage. It appeared to be a logical move as it would show the Israelites that he was convinced that the redemption was near, otherwise he would have left his family behind in Midian where they were safe and comfortable.

But had become paupers. Although it is stated (Nedarim 64b): “Four [kinds of people] are considered as if dead: a poor man, a blind man, a metzora and someone without children,” [nevertheless, for the following reasons Rashi knew that] here, “died” certainly means poverty. We cannot say they became blind, for regarding Korach’s rebellion it is written (Bamidbar 16:14): “If you put those people’s [Dasan and Aviram’s] eyes out.” [This implies they could indeed see.] And we cannot say they were afflicted with tzoraas, for it says (Devarim 11:6) that they were “in the midst of the camp,” [and a metzora must dwell outside of the camp]. And we cannot say [they were afflicted with tzoraas or blindness at the time] but were healed when the Torah was given, because all the people’s blemishes returned after the sin of the Golden Calf (Bamidbar Rabbah 7:4). And we cannot say they were considered as if dead because they had no children. For why would Hashem tell Moshe to return to Egypt because of this? Would their lack of children cause the authorities not to accept their slander against Moshe. Rather, it surely must be that Dasan and Aviram [were considered as if dead] because they became paupers, and for that reason Pharaoh would not heed their words. (Ran in Nedarim 7a)

V. 19. Mosche hatte zuerst allein gehen wollen, weil er wohl sich, aber nicht Frau und Kinder seinen Feinden preisgeben wollte, um so weniger, als keine Familie mehr ausgesetzt ist, als die, deren Vertreter im Dienste des öffentlichen Lebens steht und die Seinigen daher am wenigsten selbst vertreten kann. Gott gebot ihm aber, er solle völlig nach Mizrajim zurückkehren, somit seinen Wohnort in Midjan aufgeben, er habe von seinen Feinden nichts mehr zu fürchten.

כי מתו כל האנשים, “for all the men have died, etc.’” the sages are interested in knowing who precisely these men were and they came to the conclusion that they were Datan and Aviram [who had snitched to Pharaoh that Moses had killed an Egyptian. Ed.] The problem with that interpretation is that these two men are still reported as alive during the revolt of Korach. (Numbers 16,1) The answer given by our sages who were well aware of the fact that Datan and Aviram were still alive at the time when G–d spoke to Moses at the burning bush, was that whereas at the time when Moses had killed the Egyptian these men were very wealthy and therefore very influential, by now they had become impoverished and frustrated old men completely devoid of any influence, i.e. not much better than the dead. Our author, after quoting the Talmud tractate Nedarim, folio 64 that not only the poor but also the blind, the ones stricken with tzoraat, and the ones not blessed with having children, are considered as if dead already, proceeds to prove that Datan and Aviram were neither blind, nor afflicted with tzoraat, nor childless. The expression becoming impoverished, in Hebrew: ירדו מנכסיהם, almost has the same numerical value as the word מתים, “the dead.” (difference of 1)

ויאמר ה׳ אל משה במדין, “G-d spoke to Moses while he was still in Midian; after G-d had first spoken to Moses in the desert, He now spoke to him again in Midian.

כי מתו כל האנשים, “for all the people have died, etc.” according to Rashi the words כל האנשים refer to Datan and Aviram, the two men who had told Pharaoh about his slaying the Egyptian. How could G’d describe them as “having died,” when during the uprising of Korach a couple of years later, they were very much alive and ringleaders in that rebellion? The answer is that whereas at the time the incident with the Egyptian occurred these two men were among the wealthiest Jews in Egypt, so that what they said carried weight, in the meantime both had become paupers so that their influence was nil, no more than that of dead people. Sometimes people afflicted with the dreaded disease tzoraat are described as “dead,” as they are isolated beyond contact with society, but this was not the case with Datan and Aviram, whose posture in Numbers 16 shows them a) to have resided within the camp, and b) to have had good eyesight. C) They could not even have been described as “dead” because they had no children, as the Torah describes their challenging Moses brazenly together with their wives and children (Numbers 16,27). However, it is difficult to understand why both of these men should have wanted Moses dead, seeing he had saved the life of one of them by his interference in their quarrel? Besides, granted that both men had become paupers, how did this prevent them from being a threat to Moses’ life? They could still act as informers to Pharaoh? According to the plain meaning of the text, G’d informed Moses that the one who had ever been a real threat to him, i.e. Pharaoh, had died physically.

כי מתו כל האנשים וגו׳׳, “that all the men (who sought his death) had died in the meantime; Rashi identifies these two men as Datan and Aviram of the tribe of Reuven. [This is problematic as these same people conspired against him with Korach about 2 years after the Exodus. (Compare Numbers 16,1) Ed.] Rashi knew this of course; what he meant was that in the meantime these two men had become blind, and according to the Talmud in Nedarim 64, blind people are considered as if dead already. They had the effrontery to accuse Moses of trying to scratch out the eyes of the seeing. Compare Numbers 16,14. There are 3 other categories that the Talmud in Nedarim quoted are considered as dead, the ones smitten with the skin disease tzoraat, the childless, as well as the poor. Seeing that Datan and Aviram are reported as having children, and seeing that they had not been ostracised outside the camp, they had to be either blind or poor, or both. According to the plain meaning of the text, G-d had referred to the Egyptians who sought Moses’ death, the ones biologically related to the Egyptian whom Moses had slain.