פירוש על במדבר 21:28

כי אש יצאה מחשבון FOR A FIRE WILL GO FORTH FROM HESHBON after Sihon captures it,

ער מואב, the capital of the land of Moav was called Or.

כי אש יצאה מחשבון, ”for a fire has come forth from Cheshbon.” This is an allusion to Moabites who had dwelled in Chesbon and commenced a revolution against the local king.

After Sichon conquered it. But not beforehand, for if so, it should have said “A fire came to Cheshbon.”

V. 28. כי אש יצאה וגו׳, denn eben das Kriegesfeuer, dem das ganze frühere von Moab vom Jabbok bis zum Arnon beherrschte Gebiet zur Beute fiel, hatte seinen Herd in dem zur Sichonsburg umwandelten moabitischen Cheschbon. בעלי במות ארנון ist entweder Attribut von מואב als bisherigem Herrn der Arnonhöhen oder von אש und להבה, dem nunmehrigen Beherrscher.

'כי אש יצאה וגו, The entire line is a quotation of how the people speaking in parables flattered the powerful King of Cheshbon. The Torah describes all this in order to show the reader what a tremendous victory Moses had scored when he totally vanquished this empire, annihilating him and his people totally. Yiftach, in the Book of Judges 11,24, refers sarcastically to the claims of the king of Moav in his time, claiming that that the Israelites have to give him back the land that a former king had lost to Sichon.

כי אש יצאה מחשבון, “for a fire has gone out from Cheshbon. The inhabitants of Cheshbon rebelled against your king of Moav.

אכלה ער מואב IT WILL CONSUME AR OF MOAB — The name of that province was called Ar in the Hebrew language and Lechayath (see the Targum Onkelos) in the Aramaic language.

אכלה ער מואב, “it consumed Ar of Moav.” Ar is the name of a place in Moab, just as (Ruth 1,1) מבית לחם יהודה is the name of a place within Judah.

Ar, belonging to Moav. Rashi says this so that you should not think that ער ["Ar"] was in the sense of עיר ["city"]. This would be similar to דם ["blood"] the plural form of which is דמים; so too, the plural form of ער would be ערים ["cities"]. Thus ער would be the general title for all of Moav’s cities. However this would not be possible because Moav still had many cities which they ruled over. Furthermore it cannot refer to one of their cities because if so, Scripture should have mentioned which city, as is its usual practice, given that it does not come to conceal but rather to explain. Rashi brings a proof from the [Onkelos’s] translation which is לחיית [the proper noun "Lechayas"] rather than קרתא ["city"]. Re’m writes: It appears to me that this was Rashi’s intention: The proper name of a city is not normally used in the construct form [semichus, as here where two nouns are juxtaposed indicating possession], and given that Ar is the proper name of a country, it should not have been used in the construct form. Because of this question one might have felt forced to explain that ער is in the sense of עיר ["city"]. However, [Rashi indicates that] one should not explain so, given that it is preferable to explain that it was an individual city which was placed in the construct form, although this is not typical. [This is preferable] rather than explaining that it is in the sense of “city,” due to the difficulties that this would entail.

להבה מקרית סימון, “a flame from the city of Sichon;” i.e. the city that has now become Sichon’s. עיר סימון, “Sichon’s capital!”

ער מואב means AR OF MOAB.

בעלי במות ארנון, “the lords of the high places of Arnon.” Our author, quoting Samuel II 6,2, understands the word בעלי here as referring to a plain or plateau. In other words, the lands described here were all relatively high, though level.