Commentaire de citation sur Les Juges 4:5

ותמת דבורה, Deborah, Rivkah’s nursemaid died (near there) the reason why we are told about this at this point may be on account of the prophetess Deborah sitting and holding court near this tree, by the grave of Deborah (Judges, 4.5.)

“God heard Manoah’s plea” [13:9]. The Holy One heard the voice of Manoah and the Holy One sent the angel to the woman. The woman was sitting in the field and her husband was not there. Here one asks a question. Why did the angel appear in the field? Or, why does the verse need to say, there in the field? The explanation is that one should not suspect that the angel is an evil person and how relevant is it that a man should come alone and appear to a woman for sexual purposes? That is why the angel appeared in the field, where there is no forest, in the expectation that she should not be suspected [of misbehavior] with the angel. That is why the verse says, “she was sitting in the field and Manoah her husband was not with her” [13:9]. That is why he appeared in the field because her husband was not with her and she had no guardian with her. That is why the angel appeared in the field. One must give a similar explanation concerning Deborah. She was sitting under a tree and was judging Israel and not in a house,⁴Judges, 4:5. in the expectation that a strange man should not come alone to her without a guardian. However, she can sit under a tree in the field where all the people go without problem. From here we learn that every woman should be warned that she should not be without a guardian, not to be suspected. People should not say that she was alone with a man, even though she was a completely righteous woman.

לא נעלה, “we will not go up [to face Moses]. This does not mean that Moses stood on an elevated platform, but is a standard expression when people are asked to appear before a judge or judges. Our author quotes Deuteronomy 25,7, as well as Judges 4,5, and Ruth 4,1, as proof of his interpretation. In each instance the verb עלה is used for people appearing at a court.

ויבאו מרתה AND THEY CAME TO MARAH — The word מרתה is the same as למרה: a ה at the end of a word (as a suffix) replaces a ל at its beginning (as a prefix). The ת takes the place of the ה which is rooted in (an integral part of) the word מרה; when it is joined with another letter, viz., when it is attached to the ה which is added to the word in place of the ל, the ה of the primary form (the ordinary form of the noun from which longer forms are made by the addition of suffixes) is changed into a ת. Thus, also, every ה which is a root-letter (a letter in the primary form of the noun) is changed into a ת when it is joined to another letter. E. g., we have (Isaiah 27:4) “Fury (חמה) is not in Me”, but (Esther 1:12) “And his fury (חמתו) burned within him”; you see that the ה of the ground-form is changed into a ת because it is to be joined to the ו which has been added. Similar are: (Leviticus 25:44) “Manservant and handmaid (אמה)”, but (Genesis 30:3) “Behold, my handmaid (אמתי) Bilhah”; (Genesis 2:7) “a creature of life (חיה)”, but (Job 33:20) “His life (חיתו) maketh him to abhor bread”; (Judges 4:5) “Between Ramah (רמה) [and Beth-el]”, but (I Samuel 7:17) “And his return was to Ramah (הרמתה)” the latter example being exactly parallel to that in this verse (מרתה - מרה‎).