Citazione Commento su II Samuele 23:24

ואילי צאנך לא אכלתי. I did not eat from a single one of the male sheep. The letter מ in front of the word אילי is missing, just as it is missing in Samuel II 23,24 in the line אלחנן בן דודו בית לחם where we would have expected מבית לחם. Another example of such a missing prefix מ is found In Joshua 10,13 עד יקום גוי אויביו, where we would have expected עד יקום גוי מאויביו, “until a nation arises from its enemies.” There are more such examples throughout Scripture. The reason Yaakov made a point of saying that he had not eaten of any of the male sheep was that it was widely accepted that the shepherds who were far from home would eat the meat of such animals. Yaakov made the point that far from following accepted practice, he had only eaten things that had belonged to him outright. Male sheep are worth less in the marketplace than their female counterparts. Their meat is also less tasty.

Thirty-seven. They are not [all] mentioned here²⁴Rashi seems to hold that only thirty-three of the thirty-seven are accounted for, the three first warriors, Adino, Elozor and Ahamoh. Then the thirty that are enumerated starting from verse 24 but not including Asoel, see the Metsudos Dovid on that verse. and I say Yoav did not have to be mentioned because he was the general [commanding] the army and the rest that are missing it is possible that they are three or four sons of Yeshai.²⁵Having accounted for thirty-three out of thirty-seven, four are missing. Rashi seems to be offering two distinct possible answers, either the four are Yoav and three of Yeshai’s sons or Yoav is not being counted here as part of the group of thirty-seven and the four missing are all sons of Yeshai.