Comentários de Citação sobre Números 23:22

wild ox Heb. רֵים, like רְאֵם.

when the basest to the sons of men is elevated Heb. כרם זלות לבני אדם [They walk on all sides] because of their envy, for they are jealous of my greatness, that I was taken from behind the sheep to be a king. This is the interpretation of כרם זלות לבני אדם: when a man considered by the sons of men to be base is elevated. This is on the order of the passage elsewhere (below 118:22): “The stone that the builders rejected became a cornerstone.” The Midrash Aggadah interprets it concerning Israel in the future, when they will be elevated. [Unknown Midrashic source] Menachem interprets כרם זלות לבני אדם (pp. 78, 164): like a gluttonous wild ox to devour the sons of men. Accordingly, כרם is rendered: like a רים or ראם, and זלות is like (Deut. 21:20) זולל וסבא, “a glutton and a drunkard.” The following is its interpretation: The wicked walk on all sides around the poor man; the wicked walk to swallow him for naught, as a wild ox to swallow the sons of men.

The ox is supremely powerful, but his horns are unattractive, etc. Rashi is answering the question: Why the verse does not also compare Yoseif to an ox regarding his horns? Why does it compare him regarding his horns to a re’em? This explains why the Rabbis explain, as cited by Rashi in parshas Balak (Bamidbar 23:22), that re’em [there] means loftiness or demons and not an actual re’em, because there it is describing the power and might of the Holy One, and the re’em is extremely weak.

And the Almighty shall be of your adversaries Heb. והיה שד-י בצריך. If this word is holy [i.e., is a reference to the Almighty], I am bewildered at its interpretation, because its meaning is a curse, that He will be counted with his enemies, as in (Jud. 11:35), “and you have become one of those who trouble me (בעכרי),” with those who trouble me. By necessity, we will adjudge it as one of the elliptical verses, [meaning: And the Almighty shall be the Judge over your adversaries. But if we can interpret it as profane, as an expression of a judge and of strength, the following is its interpretation:] And your fortifications (בצריך) shall be strong (שד-י), like “Then you shall make a fortification (בצר) on the earth.” That is, powerful wealth will be fortified, and according to the context, that is indeed its interpretation, as evidenced by the end of the verse, “and you shall have abundant (תועפות) silver,” an expression of strength, like (Num. 23:22), “his is like the power of (כתועפות) a wild ox.”