Komentarz do Liczb 23:19

לא איש וגו׳ [GOD IS] NOT A MAN [THAT HE SHOULD LIE] — He has already sworn to them that He will bring them thither and give them as a possession the land of the seven peoples, and you think to slay them in the wilderness?! (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Vayera 13)

לא איש א־ל ויכזב, "G'd is not like man who deceives, etc." Bileam described two attributes of man on two levels comparing them with parallel attributes of G'd. 1) Man makes promises to people concerning certain matters; 2) man tries to avoid becoming dependent on others in his dealings. Concerning the former, Bileam says that the essential difference between G'd and man is that G'd keeps His promises whereas man often deceives, disappoints the people who have been promised by him. Concerning the second attribute, Bileam says that whereas man may change his mind concerning matters he had planned which did not involve undertakings to his fellow man, he nonetheless is apt to have remorse, to change his mind before executing his plan. Not so G'd. When G'd decides on a course of action He will not change His mind even if such a change of mind does not involve a third party. The examples that Bileam had in mind were twofold. 1) G'd had said (to the patriarchs) that He would establish the Kingdom of Israel and deal favourably with that nation. 2) He had planned to give His Torah to His people, the people He considers holy. This latter plan was something G'd had not revealed as a promise to anyone beforehand. Bileam said that G'd does not renege on either of these two plans of His, i.e. the promises made to the patriarchs, nor to His plan to give the holy Torah to the Jewish people and to guide them to perform the commandments. If Bileam would be allowed to curse the Jewish people, G'd would have to renege on both of these two plans of His! How could He allow this to happen? [the important part of this approach is the transitive use of the word ויכזב, and the intransitive use of the word ויתנחם. Ed.]

לא איש א-ל, G’d is not like man that He could renege so quickly on a blessing just bestowed, seeing that these people have not committed any sin since receiving this blessing.

לא איש אל ויכזב, “G’d is not a man that He should deceive.” Bileam meant: “with words.” Seeing G’d had told him not to curse the people, the idea that Balak would instruct Bileam to curse the Jewish people from a certain lookout point and that G’d would agree was quite absurd.

The word denotes a question. As if to say, “Would Hashem say and not do [it], or speak and not fulfill it?

V. 19. לא איש וגו׳, Gott hat mir sofort deinem ersten Ansinnen gegenüber von diesem Volke gesagt, כי ברוך הוא, dass es gesegnet sei. Gott spricht nicht in zweideutiger Orakelrede. Wenn Gott von etwas aussagt: es ist gesegnet, dann ist es gesegnet, dann hat es keine Seite, die dem Unsegen zugänglich wäre. Und wenn Gott einmal gesagt hat לא תאור את העם, so ändert er hintennach nicht seinen Sinn und gibt Erlaubnis zum Gegenteil. ויתנחם (siehe Bereschit zu Kap. 6, 6). ההוא אמר וגו׳. Schon indem er gesprochen ברוך הוא, hat er dem Volke Segen zugesagt, und was er zugesagt, sollte Er nicht vollbringen? ודבר ist Fortsetzung der Frage: und wenn Er etwas ausgesprochen, wenn auch darin keine Zusage an einen andern läge, wenn es auch nur ein absoluter Ausspruch wäre, sollte Er es nicht aufrecht halten? Ein solcher Ausspruch ist sein: לא תאור, mit welchem er mein Fluchen verboten oder verneint hat.

לא איש אל ויכזב, “G-d is not man who is apt to deceive;” Bileam tells Balak that G-d will not revoke a blessing once He had bestowed it, seeing that the blessings Bileam had bestowed on the Jewish people in His name had been bestowed on a people free from sin.

ההוא אמר וגו׳ — Read this in the form of a question: HATH HE SAID, [AND SHALL HE NOT DO IT]? — The rendering of ויתנחם in the Targum, ותיבין ומחמלכין, means, “[and not as the doings of mortals who decide to do things] and again reconsider” — to withdraw from them.

ויכזב, how could G’d he renege without cause?

They retract then reconsider whether to change their minds. Meaning that the Targum translates ויתנחם ["He should change His mind"] as תייבין ומתמלכין, which according to Rashi’s explanation means, “Who retract and then reconsider whether to change their minds.” However, according to Targum’s translation this does not denote a question; [rather] it is a statement that people are accustomed to do so, but not Hashem.

Why are the two words ויכזב and ויתנחם both preceded by the conjunctive letter ו? Bileam means that G'd is unlike איש and unlike אדם. It is inconceivable to suspect G'd of acting in a fashion which is despicable even if a mere human being acts in such a fashion. When man deceives or reneges this is considered a serious flaw in his character. How could Balak expect G'd to become guilty of such a character flaw by asking him to curse these people? He would have to descend to the level of human beings to even become capable of acting in such a fashion! The reason Bileam once uses the word איש and once the word אדם, is because when one makes promises to others one is perceived as important, i.e. איש; whereas when one merely plans something which does not involve making undertakings to outsiders, the term אדם is more appropriate.

ובן אדם ויתנחם, “nor is He a human being liable to repent what He had said.” There are three different kinds of “repents.” 1) One does not keep one’s word.” 2) One cannot keep it for reasons beyond one’s control. 3) One fails to keep a promise because the intended recipient had committed a sin against the party who made the promise. Concerning the latter two, Bileam says: “nor a human being who repents.”

ויתנחם, how could He change His mind?

ההוא אמר ולא יעשה, "when He said something, is He not going to do it?" According to the plain meaning of the verse the subject is man. It is, however, possible to understand the verse with the subject being G'd. The meaning would be that in contrast to man, G'd merely has to utter a word and such instructions are turned into deeds all by themselves; man, on the other hand, needs to implement instructions physically in order to accomplish plans he has articulated. When we treat G'd as the subject in our verse the word ההוא refers to the G'd who was mentioned earlier in our verse. Just as G'd created the universe by merely giving verbal directives such as "let there be light," so Bileam refers to G'd's ability to say something which will automatically be done. According to Avot 5,1 the whole universe was created by 10 verbal directives from G'd. ודבר, ולא יקימנו, "and once He has spoken, (given a directive) the resultant action will surely endure." In this part of the verse Bileam differentiates between two different kinds of utterances by G'd each of which is automatically translated into a deed. If the utterance of G'd is אמירה, the action resulting from it may not endure; if it was דבור, however, it will most certainly endure, i.e. יקימנה. Compare Job 26,11 "the pillars of the heavens are trembling, astounded at His blast." [When G'd created the universe in 10 directives the Torah employed the word אמירה, i.e. ויאמר to describe these directives. This is why they were not yet of an enduring nature. Ed.] Chagigah 12 explains that the "blast" mentioned in the verse we quoted from Job means that G'd "blasted" the heavens in order to make them durable. When Bileam uses the term דבר here he refers to G'd making sure that what He brings about by such an utterance will endure on its own.

?ולא יעשה and not do what He had said?