Commentaire sur Les Nombres 14:12

ואורישנו is an expression for “driving out” (here, driving out from the world, destroying). — And if you ask what I will do regarding the oath I have sworn to the Patriarchs (viz., to give the Land to their children; cf. Exodus 6:3—4), then I reply:

אכנו בדבר, as we read in Deuteronomy 2,15 “and also the Lord’s hand came upon them until He had rooted them out from the camp to the last man.” (the generation of the people who had accepted the majority report of the spies)

As Targum Onkelos renders it meaning annihilation. Meaning “eradication from the world.” It is not an expression denoting inheritance (ירושה). Rashi also explains like this further on (v. 24).

V. 12. ואורשנו: will es aus dem Hiersein vertreiben.

אכנו בדבר ואורישנו, “I will strike them with a pestilence and destroy them. G-d intended to do this so that no enemy will be able to boast that he has defeated G-d’s people.”

ואעשה אתך לגוי גדול I WILL MAKE OF THEE A GREAT NATION — [whereby My oath will be fulfilled] since you are one of their descendants (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Sh'lach 13).

ואורישנו, I will see to it that they have to leave what should have been their inheritance to others. This was similar to what Rashi (based on the Talmud Baba Batra) explained about the dead inheriting the living at the time when the land of Israel was parceled out to the various tribes. By means of the stratagem G’d fulfilled what He had promised in Exodus 6,8: “I will give to you the land as an ‘inheritance.’

Perhaps you will ask, “What will I do…” For if not so, what would its relevance be here. Was Hashem making an arrangement with him that He would make Moshe into a greater nation if he allowed Him to kill them? There are those who ask: Concerning the golden calf in Parshas Ki Sisa (Shemos 32:10) where it is also written “I shall make you into a greater nation,” Rashi explains “if a chair with three legs [cannot stand before you at a time of anger]…” (v. 13). The answer is that here Rashi is answering the question: Why did the Torah write “stronger than they”? It must have been in order to remove the argument that “a chair with three legs” meaning that your descendants will be like a chair with four legs. Since you are descended from the patriarchs it will have three legs, and your merit will provide the fourth leg. Alternatively ממנו (than he/they) refers back to Avraham who is the beginning of the lineage, and therefore your descendants will have four legs. However above the Torah does not write “than they,” which implies that the lineage would begin anew with Moshe — meaning that they would be called the children of Moshe rather than the children of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. In response to this Moshe said “can a chair with three legs…” If one investigates thoroughly he will see that this explanation answers many questions. (Divrei Dovid) I say that this question is not based on any logic. For in Parshas Ki Sisa only the merit of the patriarchs is mentioned, as Rashi there writes “if they are not saved in [the patriarchs’] merit, why do You say “I will make you [into a great nation] … can a chair…” However here it does not refer to merit, rather it refers to the oath given to the patriarchs, as Rashi explains. Thus if you ask: “What will I do about the oath given to the patriarchs,” one can easily answer that “I shall make you into a greater nation for you are descended from them” and thereby the oath would be fulfilled. Consequently it appears clear to me that there is no need to ask “can a chair…”