Commentaire de citation sur Le Deutéronome 2:2

לאמר SAYING — This implies “Go and speak to them words that will bring them to a subdued frame of mind):‘It is for your sake that He communicates with me’!” And indeed we find this was so; for all the thirty — eight years during which Israel in the wilderness were placed, as it were, under excommunication — from the time of the incident of the spies and onwards — there was no intimate conversation of God with Moses, for it is said, (Deuteronomy 2:16, 17) “So it came to pass, when were consumed all the men of war (i. e. the men who had waged war immediately after the return of the spies; cf. Numbers 14:40—45. It was they and their generation who wandered in the wilderness as though excommunicated) … that the Lord spake unto me, saying, …” — only then was a divine communication again made to me (Sifra). Another explanation of לאמר is that it means “to speak to God”: it implies, “Go and tell them My commands and bring Me back word whether they will accept them, as it is said, (Exodus 19:8) “And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord (Sifra, Vayikra Dibbura d'Nedavah, Chapter 2 13).

AND HE SHONE FORTH FROM SEIR UNTO THEM. For after they journeyed from Sinai the cloud abode in the wilderness of Paran,¹⁹Numbers 10:12. and from there Moses sent the spies, as it is said, And Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran.²⁰Ibid., 13:3. As a result of the spies’ report, the people were banished,²¹Yerushalmi Taanith III, 4. The term “banished” suggests a form of censure and excommunication, when the Divine utterance was not communicated to Moses. and there was no Divine communication to Moses until they came to Seir,²²Deuteronomy 2:1-2. at the border of the children of Esau, at the end of the forty years, as it is said there, For the Eternal thy G-d hath blessed thee in all the work of thy hand; He hath known thy walking through this great wilderness; these forty years the Eternal thy G-d hath been with thee.²³Ibid., Verse 7. Now, at the time, when they arrived at Seir, the Eternal was again to them an everlasting light and the days of their mourning were ended,²⁴Isaiah 60:20. and He commanded them to be heedful of Ammon and Moab [not to take their lands]. At that time He said that they should begin to possess their land²⁵Above, 2:31. the land of Sihon and Og, the two great Amorite kings.