Tafsiran yang Mengutip untuk Hakim-hakim 1:17

AND THE CANAANITE, THE KING OF ARAD, HEARD. We find [mentioned] amongst the conquests of Joshua: the king of Arad, one.²¹⁷Joshua 12:14. Ramban is to ask: since the verse in Joshua clearly indicates that Arad was in Canaan proper, to the west of the river Jordan: so how — as indicated in this section — could its king fight against Israel whilst they were still on the eastern bank of the Jordan: Moreover, in the section dealing with the [stages of the Israelites’] journeyings [in the wilderness], it is written, And the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who dwelt in the south in the land of Canaan,²¹⁸Further, 33:40. and Scripture does not refer to [that land which is] on the eastern side of the Jordan as “the land of Canaan” without qualification, just as He said, the land of Canaan according to the borders thereof.²¹⁹Ibid., 34:2. Verses 10-12 ibid., define the eastern boundary of Canaan as the Jordan: hence we see that the word “Canaan” does not include land east of the Jordan. So the question reappears: how come that the king of Arad, a land west of the Jordan, came to fight the children of Israel who were now encamped east of the Jordan? Furthermore, [if Arad was to the east of the river Jordan], Moses should have given the land of the king of Arad to one of the tribes of Israel [as their inheritance, in the same way that he divided up the other lands which he conquered]; but Scripture always tells²²⁰Ibid., Verses 13-15; Joshua 12:6, etc. that it was the land of Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings, which Moses gave to the two tribes [Reuben and Gad] and to the half-tribe [of Menasheh], whereas the nine tribes and the [other] half-tribe [of Menasheh] received their inheritance after they crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan. Perhaps we may explain [that the reason for this is] that Israel utterly destroyed their land, and did not settle therein at all. But that is not [the] correct [explanation of the word v’hacharamti in Verse 2]. Similarly Rashi explains [that the expression: And Israel vowed a vow unto the Eternal, and said, If Thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand,] then ‘v’hacharamti’ their cities²²¹Further, verse 2. means that Israel would dedicate the spoils [of those cities] to the Most High [and not that they would destroy the cities themselves].²²²Hence the question would be: If Arad was on the eastern side of the Jordan, why did Moses not give it to any of the tribes?
The correct interpretation appears to me to be that this king of Arad dwelt in the south²¹⁸Further, 33:40. on the western side of the Jordan, in the land of Canaan near the Jordan, bordering onto the land of the children of Judah, near Hebron which is in the south;²²³Above, 13:22: And they went up into the south, and came unto Hebron. and he heard from afar of the coming of the children of Israel,²¹⁸Further, 33:40. so he [the king] came by the way of Atharim²²⁴Here in Verse 1. to the plains of Moab to fight there against Israel. This is the meaning of the word ‘vayishma’ (and he heard) [i.e., he heard from a distance]. Therefore Scripture relates that he dwelt in the south in the land of Canaan,²¹⁸Further, 33:40. [to point out] that he came from another land, to the place where Israel was [encamped]. Then Israel vowed a vow unto the Eternal²²¹Further, verse 2. that if He would deliver him [the king of Arad] into their hand, they would dedicate all that they had to G-d. And Scripture [further] relates²²⁵Further, Verse 3. that G-d heard their prayer, and the vow that they had vowed unto G-d, they fulfilled,²²⁶See Isaiah 19:21: and they shall vow a vow unto the Eternal, and shall perform it. for they killed them now in the days of Moses, as He had commanded, None devoted, that may be devoted of men, shall be ransomed; he shall surely be put to death,²²⁷Leviticus 27:29. See Ramban ibid. and they gave all their spoils into the treasury of the House of the Eternal.²²⁸Joshua 6:24. Scripture continued by relating here²²⁵Further, Verse 3. that Israel also laid their cities waste when they came into the land of Canaan, after the death of Joshua, in order to fulfill the vow which they had made, and they called the name of the cities Hormah [Utter Destruction].²²⁹Ramban is thus saying that the account in Verse 3 of the destruction of the cities refers to an event which took place after Joshua’s death, and which is recorded in detail in the Book of Judges, as will be explained further on. Thus we must say that this future event was told by G-d to Moses, who wrote it down — like the rest of the Torah — at the command and dictation of G-d. Compare Ramban’s remarks in his introduction to the Commentary on the Torah, (Vol. I p. 9): “However, it is true and clear that the entire Torah — from the beginning of Genesis to in the sight of all Israel [the last words in Deuteronomy] — reached the ear of Moses from the mouth of the Holy One, blessed be He”. Since there is no difference in time for G-d, it is written in the past tense, for past, present, and future are all the same to Him. See also Ramban Vol. II, p. 192, for the reason why the tenses are often used interchangeably in prophetic statements. It is with reference to this that it is stated in the Book of Judges, And the children of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up out of the city of palm-trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which is in the south of Arad,²³⁰Judges 1:16. and it is [further] written, And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they smote the Canaanites that inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. And he called the name of the city Hormah.²³¹Ibid., Verse 17. It was then that this vow [recorded here] was fulfilled, but Scripture, however, completed the account of the matter here, just as it did in the section speaking of the descending of the manna, [where it states]: and Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept. And the children of Israel did eat the manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat the manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan,²³²Exodus 16:34-35. [an event which occurred] after the death of Moses, until the morrow after the Passover.²³³Joshua 5:11. Similarly, These are the names of the men that shall take possession of the Land for you etc.²³⁴Further, 34:17. constitutes a prophecy that these men will [still] live and function [at that time]; for it is impossible [to say] that G-d would specify for them men about whom there was a doubt [as to whether they would still be living; for if so], He should rather have commanded Joshua [about them] at the time of the division of the Land. [But since the command was already given to Moses, we see that the Torah speaks of future events, and that this constitutes a Divine promise that these specified men would live until the time of the division of the Land.]
It is also correct to say that already now in the days of Moses the Israelites destroyed this king [of Arad] and his people with the edge of the sword,²³⁵Exodus 17:13. and called the place of the battle Hormah, and after they crossed the Jordan, Joshua also killed the [then] king of Arad²¹⁷Joshua 12:14. Ramban is to ask: since the verse in Joshua clearly indicates that Arad was in Canaan proper, to the west of the river Jordan: so how — as indicated in this section — could its king fight against Israel whilst they were still on the eastern bank of the Jordan: who ruled after [the one in the days of Moses], together with the [other] Canaanite kings who ruled at that time. When the children of Judah came into their cities, they destroyed them as well, and called the name of the cities Hormah,²³¹Ibid., Verse 17. because [by destroying them] they fulfilled the vow which their fathers had made, and I will utterly destroy their cities.²²¹Further, verse 2. Therefore He stated here, and he called the name of ‘the place’ Hormah,²²⁵Further, Verse 3. but there [in the Book of Judges] it is written, and he called the name of ‘the city’ Hormah,²³¹Ibid., Verse 17. meaning the name of every city which belonged to the king of Arad, as they fulfilled their vow, and their spoils were dedicated to the Sanctuary. Thus [according to this interpretation] everything mentioned here happened at the same time [in the days of Moses], except that He mentioned, and their cities,²²⁵Further, Verse 3. [the destruction of which] occurred at a later time, when they came into their cities. It is for this reason that it says [here], and I will utterly destroy their cities,²²¹Further, verse 2. and does not say “[I will destroy] them and their cities,” because the verse [only] mentions their vow concerning the future, but they themselves [the people] died in the battle [at the time of Moses] and were destroyed there. And the language of the verse fits in well with this explanation of ours, for it should have said: “and He delivered up the Canaanites ‘into their hand,’ and ‘they’ utterly destroyed them and their cities, and ‘they’ called the name of the place Hormah.” But Scripture omitted the pronouns²³⁶Thus it does not say that He gave the Canaanites “into their hand” [which would refer exclusively to the hand of the Israelites of the days of Moses]. Nor does it say vayacharimu (and “they” destroyed), but instead says: ‘vayachareim’ [literally: “and ‘he’ destroyed” — i.e., the one who destroyed them — now, or later on in the days of Joshua]. Similarly it does not say vayikr’u (“and ‘they’ called”), the name of the place Hormah [in the days of Moses] but ‘vayikra’ [“and ‘he’ called” — the one who called — now or later on]. in order to indicate that He delivered the Canaanites into the hand of whoever of the Israelites He delivered them, some of them now and some of them at a later time, for G-d hearkened to their prayer, and they fulfilled their vow.

וישמע הכנעני מלך ערד, “When the Canaanite King who dwelled in Arad heard, etc.” According to Rashi the “Canaanite” mentioned here was in fact the Amalekite, as we know from the description of the spies who reported that the Amalekite dwelled in the south of the Land of Canaan. (13,29) However, they had misrepresented themselves to look like Canaanites, and this is why the Torah here describes them as they appeared to the Israelites at that time. Nachmanides writes that Arad was one of the (legitimate) Canaanite kings (Joshua 12,14) Furthermore, in Numbers 33,40 this king is described specifically as dwelling in the south, in the Land of Canaan. It is not customary for the Torah to refer to the “Land of Canaan” without further detail (such as which tribe) except to the areas east of the river Jordan, as in chapter 34,2 later on. If this land had indeed been east of the Jordan, Moses should have included it in the allotment to the tribes of Reuven, Gad and half of Menashe. The nine and a half tribes all received their share of the land on the west bank of the river Jordan. Nachmanides therefore explains our verse as referring to a different king by the name of Arad, one whose territory was on the west bank of the Jordan, and this is why the Torah had to add that it was far to the south, not the lands conquered from Sichon and Og. [The whole problem is that if Arad had dwelled on the west bank, how could he have attacked Israel who had not set foot in that region as yet. Ed.] He assumes that this king dwelled between the river Jordan and the mountains of Yehudah, south of Hebron. He invaded the Israelites coming from another country. When this king heard that the Israelites had already reached the plains of Moav close to the river Jordan, the Torah reports that G’d accepted the Israelites’ prayer and delivered the Canaanites into their hands, and they made good on their vow and killed them now while Moses was still alive, who had decreed that none of the loot from that campaign was to be used personally, and it was all donated to the Temple treasury. The Torah added that even the cities belonging to that Canaanite king were placed in ban by the Israelites when they conquered them later in the days after Joshua’s death, and that they named that area Chormah. All of this has been recorded in Judges 1,16 where also the conquest of a town by the name of Tzefat is mentioned. At that time the tribes of Yehudah and Shimon co-operated in that campaign. In that chapter we are told that the sons of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, ascended from the city of palm trees, (the former Jericho) to the desert of Yehudah in the south of Arad etc. It is not surprising that these names surface already in our Parshah, as it is not unusual for the Torah to refer to place names that were known to the reader of the Torah in later years although at the time the Torah was first written, and no one had a chance to read it yet, these places had not been known by these names. An example is that in Parshat Beshalach Moses and Aaron were commanded to preserve a bottle of the manna and they are reported as depositing it near the Holy Ark as a memento for future generations, although in fact this bottle was filled with manna 40 years later, shortly before the Israelites crossed the Jordan and the manna would stop falling from heaven. It is also completely in order to interpret that Israel at that time placed in ban this King of the Canaanites, i.e. defeated him and his people by the sword and commemorated the event by naming the site Chormah, although Joshua defeated that king after having crossed the Jordan at the same period as he defeated the 30 other kings of the Canaanites. To add detail, we are told in the Book of Judges that the tribe of Yehudah and Shimon had performed this feat, not Joshua personally, although he was the commander in chief, and therefore all the conquests during his lifetime are credited to him, also. In fact, this particular battle occurred after Joshua’s death had already been reported in the Book of Joshua. The author of the Book of Joshua even added that there had been military considerations why this part of the Land of Israel had not been conquered earlier. (Judges 1,19) The campaign represented the payment of the vow the Israelites had made to G’d when the events that occurred at the beginning of our chapter took place. By mentioning the name of the site already here, the Torah established the link between these two events in the mind of the reader of the Holy Scriptures.

ויחרם אתהם ואת עריהם. They vowed at that time to make all this loot holy, property of the Temple Treasury, as we know they did from the beginning of the Book of Judges (Judges 1,17) [possibly the author uses the extraneous word הכנעני in that verse as the reason for linking it to the fulfillment of above vow. Clearly, the Safed mentioned there has nothing to do with the Safed in the north of the Land of Israel we are familiar with. Ed.]