Commento su Deuteronomio 4:25

ונושנתם AND YE SHALL HAVE BEEN LONG [IN THE LAND] — He gave them a vague intimation that they would be exiled from it at the end of 852 years, according to the numerical value of the word ונושנתם, but He sent them into exile earlier, at the end of 850 years. He did this two years earlier than the numerical value of ונושנתם, in order that the prophecy should not be fulfilled in them “that ye shall utterly perish” (v. 26). This is the meaning of what is said, (Daniel 9:14) “And the Lord hastened in regard to the evil, and He brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is צדיק” — i.e., He acted charitably (צדקה) with us, in that He brought it (the evil) two years before its assigned time (Sanhedrin 38a; Gittin 88a).

KI’ (WHEN) THOU SHALT BEGET CHILDREN, AND CHILDREN’S CHILDREN, AND YE SHALL HAVE BEEN LONG ESTABLISHED IN THE LAND. The purport of this verse is that it mentions and affirms that “when ye shall beget children and children’s children, and because you will have been long established in the Land and dwelled in security, you may perhaps forget G-d — I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day⁸⁷Verse 26. Ramban’s point is thus that we are not to understand Verses 25 and 26 as expressing two independent thoughts [When thou shalt beget children … I call heaven and earth …], but instead they constitute one statement, as follows: “Should a longer period of security in the Land create a tendency among the people to idolatry, heaven and earth will witness Israel’s loss of the Land.” that ye shall speedily perish, for He will not be long-suffering with you seeing that you worshipped idols.”
Now this section, although constituting a warning, opened [with the word ki — “when” and] not with the expression im — “if” [which would be here more appropriate, since it speaks of a hypothetical condition of future time]. The reason is that he [Moses] was virtually prophesying about their affairs, and therefore he spoke in an equivocal manner — using an expression which in addition to being a warning [to avoid the sin of idolatry] also contains a prediction of things to come [when the warning will not be heeded]. He was thus saying that if they do so the following will happen to them, but he does not decree that they will do it. Therefore our Rabbis have said⁸⁸Gittin 88 a. that in the numerical-value of [the letters in the Hebrew word] v’noshantem (and ye shall have been long established)⁸⁹The numerical-value of the Hebrew letters in the word v’noshantem is equivalent to 852 [vav = 6; nun = 50; vav = 6; shin = 300; nun = 50; tav = 400; mem = 40; — totalling 852]. Thus at the end of 852 years from the time that Israel came into the Land the exile was to occur. G-d, however, brought this about two years earlier in order that the prophecy — they shall “utterly perish” — at the end of that period should not come to pass. By bringing about the exile two years before the terminus of 852 years, G-d voided the prediction of total retribution. — It is of interest to note that in his Sefer Hage’ulah (Book of Redemption) Ramban similarly writes of the future redemption that, after it will have occurred, the allusion to that date will be found in this section of the Torah (Kithvei Haramban, Vol. I, p. 263). he alluded to the time of the exile following the destruction of the First Sanctuary. It was thus a tradition [among the prophets and Sages of the generations] that this section of the Torah contains an allusion to the time of the exile, and, when it actually came to pass, they understood the allusion by contemplating this section [and interpreting the hidden message of the prophecy in light of the historical event].

להכעיסו, to cause the benevolent presence of G’d to remove it self from Israel, in order to clear the way for the people to be just like the gentile nations, free of the yoke of the Torah’s commandments.