Komentarz do Rodzaju 14:10

בארת בארת חמר FULL OF BITUMEN PITS — There were many pits there from which they took earth as clay for building purposes. The Midrashic explanation is that the clay was closely kneaded together in them (was very sticky) so that it was only because a miracle was performed for the king of Sodom that he escaped from them. For amongst those nations there were some who did not believe that Abraham had been delivered from Ur-Kasdim — from the fiery furnace — but as soon as this one escaped from the slime they corrected their past disbelief regarding what had happened to Abraham (literally, they believed retrospectively in Abraham) (Genesis Rabbah 42:7).

‘BE’EROTH BE’EROTH CHEIMAR’ (FULL OF SLIME PITS). There were many pits there since they removed earth to be used as clay for building purposes. The Midrashic explanation is that the clay was closely kneaded together in them, [that is, it was very sticky], but a miracle happened to the king of Sodom and he escaped from there. This miracle occurred because there were some among the nations who did not believe that Abram had been delivered from the fiery furnace, but as soon as this one escaped from the slime, in retrospect they believed in Abram. Thus the language of Rashi.
There is no doubt that the meaning of be’eroth cheimar is “pits containing mud and slime,” even as it is written, And in the pit there was no water, but mire, and Jeremiah sank in the mire,¹⁶⁷Jeremiah 38:6. and it is further written, He brought me up out of the tumultuous pit, out of the miry clay.¹⁶⁸Psalms 40:3. And it is possible that the king of Sodom went out from there naturally, without a miracle.
And I wonder concerning the above Midrashic explanation, for those nations that did not believe that the Holy One, blessed be He, had performed a miracle for Abraham would not have their faith in the Holy One, blessed be He, augmented by witnessing the miracle which befell the king of Sodom. The king of Sodom was an idol worshipper, and his miracle would either strengthen the hands of the idol worshippers or it would cause them to believe that all miracles are done by witchcraft or are due to some remotely possible chance. His miracle would thus cast doubt into the hearts of those who believed in Abraham’s miracle! Perhaps [the Rabbis who authored this Midrashic explanation] will interpret the verse, And the king of Sodom went out to meet him,¹⁶⁹Verse 17 here. as implying that “he went out” from the pit when Abraham passed by for it was in honor of Abraham that a miracle was done to him so that he could go forth to meet him in order to honor and bless Abraham.
And it is possible that Abraham, upon his return, looked into that pit for he wanted to save the kings and return their wealth to them, and then the miracle happened on his account. Now if a miracle was done to the king of Sodom in honor of Abraham, the nations could now believe all the more that a miracle would be done to Abraham himself in order to rescue him from death.
We must further say that the king of Gomorrah had already died¹⁷⁰Hence he did not come out from the pit. when Abraham passed him by or that he had fallen into another pit, as the word “there”¹⁷¹And they fell ‘there.’ The word “there” does not refer to the pit, in which case it would then imply that all five kings fell into one pit. Rather it refers to ‘the vale’ of Siddim. Thus the king of Gomorrah fell into a different pit, near which Abraham did not pass. refers to “the vale.”

וינוסו מלך סדום, this made it plain that Avram could not rely on them that they would help him.

ועמק השדים בארות בארות חמר, the vowel pattern of the construct mode of the word בארות in our verse is different from the ordinary plural mode of the same word in Genesis 26,18 where it also appears in the construct mode, i.e. בארות המים, “the wells of water.”

ועמק השדים, “and the valley of Siddim, etc.” Some commentators derive the word שדים from סיד, lime, quoting ושדת אותם בשיד, as their proof, where it means to smear the stones with white lime. (Deut. 27,2) Accordingly, the region was full of depressions in which people dug for lime. The lime would be burned afterwards. Rashi quotes a Midrash, according to which, most people had refused to believe that Avraham had miraculously survived having been thrown into Nimrod’s furnace. When they witnessed the King of Sodom miraculously surviving falling into a lime pit, they changed their mind and retroactively gave credence to the miracle which had saved Avraham. Nachmanides is amazed at the very Midrash, as he cannot understand why people who failed to believe that a miracle had happened to Avraham should believe that a miracle had happened for the King of Sodom. Why would the G’d of heaven perform a miracle for an idolater such as the King of Sodom? On the contrary, if the King of Sodom could survive his fall into the lime pit, Avraham’s surviving the furnace was now far more plausible, but not in the framework of a miracle. The people who doubted the miracle of the furnace, ascribing it to magic, would most certainly also describe the King of Sodom’s escape as due to magic. It is more likely that seeing the King of Sodom’s escape made even the people who had believed that Avraham escaped by means of a miracle have second thoughts, and they now believed that Avraham had also benefited by magic. Another possibility could be that these commentators understand he words ויצא מלך סדום לקראתו in verse 17 to mean that the King of Sodom emerged from that lime pit at the time when Avraham passed by, i.e. that a miracle was performed for him at that time which resulted in his being saved so that he was able to honour Avraham and bless him, or that Avraham on his return from the successful battle wanted to restore their property to the five Kings, and when passing that neighbourhood, [seeing that his battle had been fought far to the north of there, Ed.] the miracle of the King of Sodom’s rescue then occurred by means of his intervention. When people observed that Avraham could perform such a miracle, they became convinced that a man such a Avraham had been saved miraculously from Nimrod’s furnace. It is quite possible that the King of Gomorrha had already died, so that we hear no more about him, or that he had fallen into a different pit, one that Avraham did not pass.

There were many pits ... Rashi is answering the question: Why does it say בארות twice? Another question: If the pits had mortar, why is it written, “They fell there”? It should say, “They sank there,” as is in Yirmeyahu 38:6: “And Yirmeyahu sank into the cement.” Another question: Since the pits had mortar, why did they not die when they sank into the mortar, which is cement? Thus Rashi explains that there were many pits, and they did not actually contain mortar but provided earth for making mortar.

ועמק השדים בארות, according to an aggadic commentary quoted by Rash,i the miracle that the king of Sodom escaped from this valley filled with bitumen wells which burns people, convinced the people now that Avram had indeed escaped from Nimrod’s furnace. According to a different interpretation, the word שדים is to be read with the dot on the left side of the letter ש, so that the meaning would be the same as the word שיד in Deuteronomy 27,2 the whitewash with which the stones taken out of the Jordan river were to be smeared as a base for writing on.

הרה נסו means THEY FLED TO A MOUNTAIN. The word הרה is the same as לְהַר. When a word requires a ל as a prefix one may put instead a ה as a suffix. There is a difference between הֶרָה and הָהָרָה, for the ה at the end takes the place of a לְ (with Shewa) prefixed (another version has: for the ה at the end does not take the place of a prefixed ל with Patach which would mean to “the”) so that הֶרָה is equal to לְהַר or to אֶל הַר to “a” mountain, without explaining which mountain — so that the meaning here is that each person fled to the first mountain he came across. When, however, a ה is prefixed to a word having this ה suffix so that it reads e. g., הָהרה or הַמדברה, it is the same as אל הָהר or לְהָהר (to “the” mount) signifying that mount which is well-known and has been definitely mentioned in the passage.

והנשארים הרה נסו, the remaining three kings.

The word חמר is equivalent to what we know as טיט, (11,3) where it means mortar. It is unbaked clay, binding bricks together, loam.

ויפלו שמה, “they fell there.” Some commentators understand the word ויפלו as “they fell (dead)”, similar to וישכבו שמה, “they lay down there,” in the sense of lying down to sleep. (Joshua 2,1) Others understand it in the sense of על פני כל אחיו נפל, “he dwelled in full view of his brothers.” (Genesis 25,18) (compare Onkelos) Others understood the word ויפלו in the sense of “they hid,” i.e. deliberately lowered themselves into these pits.

The Midrashic explanation is ... the King of Sedom escaped ... Rashi is answering the question: Why are the pits called בארות (lit. “wells”), if they would remove all the [earth for the] mortar from the pits? בארות implies they were always full of cement! Thus Rashi brings the Midrashic explanation. (Maharshal)

בארות בארות חמר, “pits full of sticky loam.” The letter ב has a vowel segol under it and the letter א the vowel chatoph segol, (shortened version.)

וינסו מלך סדום ועמורה, the other kings fled toward the mountains, as we are told והנשארים הרה נסו. “those remaining fled towards the mountain.” The letter ה at the end of the word הרה is equivalent to the prefix ל.

ויפלו שמה, They fell into them. They did not “fall” into them, as they were familiar with them, but they used them to hide in while trying to escape the pursuers. The construction is similar to Genesis 25,18 where Yishmael is described as על פני כל אחיו נפל. The loam was not wet, but could be used to help make bricks.