Hebrew Bible Study
Hebrew Bible Study

Musar for II Samuel 14:19

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ הֲיַ֥ד יוֹאָ֛ב אִתָּ֖ךְ בְּכָל־זֹ֑את וַתַּ֣עַן הָאִשָּׁ֣ה וַתֹּ֡אמֶר חֵֽי־נַפְשְׁךָ֩ אֲדֹנִ֨י הַמֶּ֜לֶךְ אִם־אִ֣שׁ ׀ לְהֵמִ֣ין וּלְהַשְׂמִ֗יל מִכֹּ֤ל אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּר֙ אֲדֹנִ֣י הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ כִּֽי־עַבְדְּךָ֤ יוֹאָב֙ ה֣וּא צִוָּ֔נִי וְה֗וּא שָׂ֚ם בְּפִ֣י שִׁפְחָֽתְךָ֔ אֵ֥ת כָּל־הַדְּבָרִ֖ים הָאֵֽלֶּה׃

And the king said: ‘Is the hand of Joab with thee in all this?’ And the woman answered and said: ‘As thy soul liveth, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from aught that my lord the king hath spoken; for thy servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of thy handmaid;

Shenei Luchot HaBerit

Here we have Abraham prophesying that both he and Lot would sit next to G–d, but he did not know who would sit on which side of G–d until the time came. This is the deeper meaning of Abraham saying to Lot that one of them would find himself on the Left whereas the other would find himself on the Right. This also explains why the word ve-eyminah is not punctuated with the vowel patach under the letter aleph as we would have expected, seeing that is the vowel used under the word ve-assme-ilah. Although Rashi says that we have a similar construction in Samuel II 14, 19, the fact is that when the vowel tzeyre is used it indicates an immediate activity.
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