Comentários de Citação sobre Juízes 3:8

on shushan eduth, a michtam of David, to teach (Addendum: Michtam is an expression of (Song 5: 11), “as finest gold (כתם פז),” a coveted thing. Our Sages, however, expounded this as referring to David, who behaved as a humble (מך) and innocent man, even when he occupied the throne. Another Aggadah explains that his wound (מכתו) was perfect (תמה), i.e., he was born circumcised (Sotah 10b). Michtam of David concerning the testimony of the Sanhedrin, who were compared to a rose (שושן), as it is stated (Song 7:3): “Your navel is like a round basin, etc., fenced in with roses,” when he required that they teach him what to do. When he fought with Aram Naharaim and sent Joab against them, they said to Joab, “Aren’t you of the sons of Jacob? Where is the oath that he swore to Laban, ‘this pile is a witness’” (Gen. 31:52)? And he did not know what to answer. He came to David and said to David, “This is what the Arameans said to me.” They went and asked the Sanhedrin, [who] replied to them, “Did they not transgress the oath first, as it is stated (Num. 23:7): ‘From Aram has Balak king of Moab brought me’? Moreover, Cushan-Rishathaim was an Aramean.”

three hundred and ninety days We learned in Seder Olam (ch. 26): This teaches us that Israel sinned for three hundred and ninety years from the time they entered the Land until the ten tribes were exiled therefrom. You find [the events of] two hundred and forty-three of them delineated: From the time Jeroboam assumed the throne until Hoshea son of Elah was exiled and in “the days that the judges judged” are one hundred and eleven years. The rest, however, are not delineated. (These are [the calculations of] the three hundred and ninety years—that I found in a responsum from Rabbi Joseph, the head of the yeshivah—that the ten tribes sinned from the days of Joshua until Sannecherib exiled them from Samaria. Calculate: in the days of the Judges there were 8 years under the rule of Cushan, 18 under the rule of Eglon, 20 under the rule of Sisera, 7 under the rule of Midian, 18 under the rule of the children of Ammon, and 40 under the rule of the Philistines. This totals 111. From Micah until the Ark was captured were 40 years, totaling 151. Calculate for Jeroboam son of Nebat 22, Nadab his son 2, Baasa 24, Elah his son 2, Omri 12, Ahab 22, Ahaziah his son 2, Jehoram his brother 12, Jehu 28, Jehoahaz 17, Jehoash his son 16, Jeroboam his son 41the total is 350 (sic.). And [with] Menachem son of Gadi 10, Pekahiah his son 2, Pekah son of Remaliah 20, and Hoshea son of Elah 9 years, the total is 391, but Hoshea’s last year is not counted because in Hoshea’s ninth year, Samaria was captured and Hoshea was counted as having reigned 8 years, leaving a total of 390. The forty years that the kings of Judah sinned after the exile of Sannecherib until [the prophecy of] this chapter was said to Ezekiel are delineated below, and I did not find it necessary to explain them. This is not found in other editions.)

And Geshur and Aram took Geshur represents the Geshurites and the Maacathites because they were near the Arameans, who dwelt in the east of the land of Israel, and Aram dwelt in the east, as it is written (Isa. 9:11): “Aram from the east and the Philistines from the west.” During the period of the Judges (Jud. 3:8), when Israel sinned, He (God) delivered them into the hands of the enemy, into the hands of Aram, and then (these) went and took them from them, and when David came, he restored them, and because he restored them, Scripture mentioned them here.

Three centuries from the conquest of the land in the days of Yehoshua, until Yiftoch. This teaches us concerning the years of the Judges mentioned until now—whether the years of subjugation by the nations are included in the reckoning of the days of the Judge, or not.³The three hundred year total is only accurate if certain of the years of subjugation are included in the years of the judge, and certain years are not, as Rashi explains below. We learn in Seder Olam:⁴Ch. 12. Yehoshua directed Yisroel for twenty eight years—I am not aware of any Scriptural derivation for this. Asniel for forty years,⁵ the years of subjugation by Cushan Rishasaim are included.⁶Eight years. (3:8). Afterward, Ehud for eighty years,⁷ with the eighteen years of subjugation by Eglon⁸ included. This totals one hundred forty eight years. Devorah for forty years,⁹ with the years of subjugation by Yavin¹⁰Twenty years. (4:3.) included, totaling one hundred eighty eight years. Afterward, seven years of subjugation by Midyon,¹¹ forty years of Gidon,¹² and¹³ three of Avimelech, totaling two hundred thirty eight years. Afterward, twenty three years of Tola¹⁴ and twenty two of Yair,¹⁵ with one year overlapping both, and eighteen years of the Bnei Ammon¹⁶ until Yiftoch's appearance. This totals three hundred.