Tafsiran Kejadian 14:13: Rashi, Chizkuni, Da'at Zekenim & Sforno

ויבא הפליט AND THERE CAME THE ONE WHO ESCAPED — According to the real meaning this was Og who had escaped from the battle with the Rephaim (see Genesis 5:5) and it is to this that the text refers (Deuteronomy 3:11) “For only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim”, and this is what is meant by נשאר “left”, for Amraphel and his allies did not kill him when they smote the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim. So is the statement in the Tanchuma 4:6:25 (Chukat). But according to the Midrash Genesis Rabbah (Genesis Rabbah 42:8) it refers to Og in allusion to him as the only one of the generation of the Flood who escaped that catastrophe, and this is what is meant (Deuteronomy 3:11) “of the remnant of the Rephaim”, for it is said. (Genesis 6:4) “The Nephilim (= Rephaim cf. Genesis Rabbah 26) were in the earth etc.” His intention in telling Abraham that his nephew was captured was that Abraham should wage war against the kings and that he should be killed so that he, himself, might marry Sarah.

ויבא הפליט, “the one who had escapedKedorleomer’s army arrived;” according to Rashi’scommentary this was the man who later on became Og, King of Bashan who had made a name for himself by having survived the deluge, hence the prefix ה before the word: פליט, escapee. He lived so long that eventually Moses killed him (Numbers 21,35) He was not interested in saving Avram, but intended to marry Sarah after Avram would have been killed in war. G-d retaliated by paying him back in kind. He granted him long life for warning Avram on the one hand, but He foiled his design, Avram becoming victorious, and Sarah predeceasing Avram. He was chagrined to live long enough to see millions of Avram’s descendants, before himself being killed by one of them. [None of these midrashim account for the Torah’s failure to report his having survived the deluge. Ed.] Granted, if this was a fact, Moses had reason to fear him and that is why G-d told him not to be afraid of him. (Numbers 21,34). The Talmud Zevachim, 113, raises the question of how Og managed to escape the deluge and suggests that though the waters were boiling hot, in the immediate vicinity of the ark they were cool miraculously so,so as not to destroy the ark and its inhabitants. Og took advantage of this and survived. [This means that he went without food and water for 365 days. Ed.] The expression: הפליט occurs also in Ezekiel 33,21, where it refers to someone who had escaped and survived the battle of Jerusalem who reported the fall of the city and the Temple to the prophet. The verse which omits identifying who this escapee was is not so unusual that we need to look for far fetched explanations. Our author cites similar “abbreviated” constructions in Genesis 48,1; Genesis 48,2; he claims that there are numerous others.

ויבא הפליט, “the one who had escaped (from the armies that captured Sodom and its satellites) came,” (and reported on the battle to Avraham) It was the angel Michael who told Avraham. If so, why is he referred to as if a human being who had escaped from Sodom? [According to a comment in a book by Rabbi Reuven Margolies, called Malachey elyon, in which the names and functions of all the angels about whom we have some information are listed (131), Michael is an alternate name for Mattatron, often cited in kabalistic literature, as G–d’s “general manager” in matters relating to earth,” with especial concern for the Jewish people and their well wishers. Ed.] As to the reason why he is called by the strange name פליט, “refugee, escapee,” according to a tradition, when G–d dispatched Samael and his forces to earth from heaven, Samael being another name for the perennial Satan, the latter tried to force Michael to go down to earth with him, and G–d at the last moment took hold of his wing in order to keep him in the celestial spheres. Ever since then, the angel Michael has acquired the nickname פליט, “escapee.” Concerning this escapee, the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 33,21, says: בא אלי הפליט מירושלים לאמור הכתה העיר, “the angel Michael came to me to inform me that Jerusalem had been conquered by the Babylonians.” The prophet then is assigned a task by G–d.