וַיְדַבֵּ֨ר אֶל־הָעֵדָ֜ה לֵאמֹ֗ר ס֣וּרוּ נָ֡א מֵעַל֩ אָהֳלֵ֨י הָאֲנָשִׁ֤ים הָֽרְשָׁעִים֙ הָאֵ֔לֶּה וְאַֽל־תִּגְּע֖וּ בְּכָל־אֲשֶׁ֣ר לָהֶ֑ם פֶּן־תִּסָּפ֖וּ בְּכָל־חַטֹּאתָֽם׃
Lalu ia berbicara kepada jemaah: “Menjauhlah dari kemah-kemah orang-orang fasik ini, dan janganlah kamu menyentuh apa pun milik mereka, supaya kamu tidak ikut binasa karena segala dosa mereka.”
Jerusalem Talmud Nedarim
HALAKHAH: “In addition, Rebbi Eliezer said, one finds an opening in changed circumstances,” etc. Rebbi Simon in the name of Rebbi Joshua ben Levi42In the Babli, 64b, Rav Ḥisda: Rebbi Eliezer learned from Moses, to whom the Holy One, praise to Him, provided an opening by changed circumstances. The Holy One, praise to Him, said to him: If you had known that “all the men who want to kill you have died,” would you have vowed43The background is in Tanḥuma Šemot 12,Tanḥuma Buber Šemot 11, on Ex. 2:21, quoted in the Babli 65a: “Moses swore that he would dwell with the man” deriving וַיּוֹאֵל from אלה “to swear”, not from יאל “to agree, to decide”. (The problem naturally is that the form וַיּוֹאֵל is qal if derived from יאל but hiph‘il if derived from אלה and would have to be translated “he (Reuel) made Moses swear to dwell with the man,” which should require a nota accusativi before “Moses”.} Since Moses swore in Midyan that he would stay there when he thought that he never could return to Egypt, he had to return there to have his vow dissolved.? But did they really die? Were they not Dathan and Abiram44The identification of “the evil one” in Ex. 2:13 is in the Babli, 64b, and Tanḥuma Šemot 10; identifying all anonymous evildoers in Ex. and Num. with Dathan and Abiram who were called “evil ones” by Moses (Num.16:26).? Only, they became poor45Therefore, nobody in government would listen to their calumnies. In the Babli, this is attributed to R. Simeon ben Laqish..