Commento su Levitico 26:8

ורדפו מכם [AND FIVE] OF YOU SHALL PURSUE [A HUNDRED] — five of the weakest among you — and not alone of the most robust among you (Sifra, Bechukotai, Chapter 2 4).

AND YOUR ENEMIES SHALL FALL BEFORE YOU BY THE SWORD. He assured them at first that they would chase their enemies and that they would fall by their sword,²⁵See Verse 7. and then He stated again by way of repetition [in the verse before us], and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword, in order to give them fortitude of heart and strength so that five [of them would not be afraid] to pursue a hundred. He [furthermore promised that He] would put faintness into the heart of their enemies, so that a hundred would [in fact] flee before five, and would all fall by the sword of the five, for it would be possible that they [a hundred people] would flee because of the sword and because of their fear, but that they would not be able to kill them by the sword because of their few numbers [therefore He mentioned specifically that they would be able to put them to the sword too]. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra has said that this repetition [in our verse] means that they [the enemies] will fall continually, time after time, without regaining [their strength].

ורדפו מכם חמשה מאה, "And five of you will put one hundred of them to flight, etc." The obvious difficulty in our verse is that the enemies will fall before the pursuing Jewish army. This promise included such assurances as that even ten thousand enemy soldiers would fall before as few as two Jewish soldiers. Why did the Torah now limit the blessing contained in the previous verse?