פירוש על דברים 1:44

כאשר תעשינה הדברים [AND THEY PURSUED YOU] AS BEES DO — Just as a bee when it stings a person it dies immediately, similarly they (the Amorites): when they attacked you they died immediately (Numbers Rabbah 17:3).

When it stings a person, it dies immediately, etc. I.e., the bee dies immediately. The word תעשינה is related to the word עשייה (do). We should not say that the verse means: A great number of Emorites will chase you, in the same manner that a great number of bees chase after a person. If so, the verse only should have said, “And chased you like bees.” Now that it is written, “As the bees do,” then it is comparing them only to the way that bees act, etc.

V. 44. ויכתו (siehe zu Bamidbar 14, 45).

וירדפו אתכם כאשר תעשינה הדבורים, “they chased you like so many bees;” they inflicted wounds upon your bodies in many places, just as bees sting in many places, which were not fatal however; we encounter something similar in Numbers 14,45: ויכום ויכתום, “they smote them and beat them down.” G–d did not allow the Amalekites to kill these Israelites and to boast that they inflicted a defeat on the G–d of the Israelites by displaying the corpses of the slain Israelites. This would have been a slap in the face to G–d, rather than to the sinful Israelites. When the Torah describes Israelites falling victim to their enemies in these paragraphs we must not confuse this with reports of ordinary battles. It appears that what Moses refers to in our verse is what reported in Numbers 21,4: וישב ממנו שבי, “the Canaanites took some of them captive.” When in verse 3 of that chapter, the Israelites were praying to G–d on this account, He responded, and they concluded this military encounter with the Canaanites successfully.

כאשר תעשינה הדבורים, “as bees do;” Rashi comments just as a bee sting results in that bee dying immediately after it has stung a human being, in other words, the effort expended in stinging weakens the bee so that it dies from exhaustion, so the Emorites who defeat you, though being successful, will not live to enjoy their victory, but die soon after. Nonetheless they did inflict a defeat on your soldiers so that these fled as they struck you and injured you; but, they did not succeed in killing a single one of you.

ויכתו אתכם, as far as Chormah. An alternate interpretation; when a single bee leaves its formation, all the other bees immediately follow suit. Example: וירד העמלקי והכנעני, (verse 45) As soon as Amalekite descended all the Canaanites followed suit.

ויכתו אתכם, they struck you, and they injured you, but they did not kill a single one of you. G-d did not allow this to happen in order that His great Name would not be belittled. You will note that the Torah did not list numbers of Israelites killed as it had elsewhere in other wars.