Commentaire sur L’Exode 23:31

ושתי is of the root שית or שות. The ת is dageshed, because it comes in place of two ת’s (ושת-תי) — one is necessary because no grammatical form of שות can be without the ת of the root, and the other is a servile letter (part of the suffix).

כי אתן בידכם את יושבי הארץ וגרשתמו, the matter is delivered into your hands, i.e. you have to carry it out. You must not display undue tardiness, laziness. We read in Joshua 18,3 that Joshua was complaining to his people about their being deliberately slow in carrying out the task of disposing of all the Canaanites. (“how long are you going to be dragging your feet to take possession of the land which the G’d of your fathers has given to you?” Joshua speaking to the people at a time when 7 tribes had not yet received portions of the land.).

ושתי, as if the Torah had written ושתתי (from the root שים, “to set, place.”) Similar constructions are found from the root כרת as וכרתי ברית, “I established a covenant” (Psalms 89,4) where the word כרתי is used instead of כרתתי.

מים סוף ועד ים פלשתים, “from the Sea of Reeds as far as the Sea of the Philistines.” The Sea of Reeds is in the South and the Sea of the Philistines is in the West (Mediterranean). We know this also from Joshua 1,4: “as far as the great Sea where the sun sets will be your borders.” The sea described as the “great Sea” is not the ocean (Atlantic or Indian ocean) as the ocean surrounds all land masses. The words וממדבר refer to the eastern side whereas the words עד הנהר refer to the river Euphrates in the north.

And you will drive them away. ותגרשם . In other words, [Rashi is explaining that] this is in future tense, and that [the suffix] is plural.

ושתי את גבולך מים סוף ועד ים פלשתים, “I will set your boundaries from the Sea of Reeds until the Sea of thePhilistines.” The “Sea of Reeds” is the eastern boundary and the “Sea of the Philistines, is the western boundary. This has also been expressed differently in Isaiah 9,11: as ארם מקדם ופלשתים מאחור “Aram in the front and the Philistines in the rear.”

עד הנהר UNTO THE RIVER — the Euphrates.

מים סוף, which is located at the beginning of the eastern boundaries of the land of Israel as we can prove from Deuteronomy 1,1.

וממדבר, “and from the desert;” this refers to the desert in the south which the Israelites were crossing for 40 years.

וגרשתמו means AND THOU SHALT DRIVE THEM OUT.

ועד ים פלשתים, which is situated on the western side as we know from Isaiah 9,11 ופלשתים מאחור “and the Philistines from behind.”

ועד הנהר, and as far north as the river Euphrates. Some commentators say that what is written from verse 10 in our verse i.e. שש שנים תזרע until verse 31 כי יהיה לך למוקש, “for it will become a snare for you,” has been added after Moses had returned from the Mountain the third time when G-d had forgiven the Jewish people for the sin of the golden calf, whereas what has been written in Parshat Ki Tissa: “here My angel will walk ahead of you,” all the way until verse 26,in chapter 34: “do not boil a kid in its mother’s milk had been written at the end of Moses’ stay on Mount Sinai during the first 40 days, whereas what has been written here is because Moses wished to conclude the subject with the legislation of the sh’mittah year and the pilgrimage festivals, followed by the injunction not to boil a kid in its mother’s milk, followed by the passage about the angel and the arrival in the Holy land. This is parallel to what he had done at the end of the first 40 days. From here on the paragraphs follow a haphazard pattern.

וממדבר, seeing that the Israelites were marching from the south.

עד הנהר, the river Euphrates in the north. Compare Jeremiah 1,14 מצפון תפתח הרעה, “disaster will break loose from the north.” Babylon is to the north of the land of Israel.