Comentários de Citação sobre Números 32:7

The overriding subject of these four portions is that Moses engages in an argument with the Jewish people reviewing what had been in the past and what would be in the future. He started speaking of matters which pertained to the creation, concluding with the messianic era. This is the reason Moses commenced his speech to the people with the words: “remember the days of yore,” (verse 7) including the period when G’d assigned pieces of earth to different nations. This is a reference to the Tower of Babel and the confusion of languages which followed (Genesis, chapter 11,1-9). He chose as His own people only the Children of Israel. This is what is meant by the words (verse 9): “for Hashem’s portion is His people.” The reason is that he found them on the way in a wilderness, in desolation. (verse 10). Having found them and adopted them, He lavished loving care upon them as described in verses 10-14.
In spite of all the deeds of loving care G’d lavished on His people, they forgot Him and made Him angry. This is the meaning of verses 15-19. The people proved extremely ungrateful, substituting other deities, and becoming estranged to their G’d and Protector. Moses describes this process as due to the excess economic success granted to this people, as described in verse 14. This led them to reject and abandon service of Hashem. Seeing that the people turn to deities they had never known before they would be punished with exile more than any other nation before them and they would be forced to be slaves to these nations who hate them. The only reason G’d punished them by exile instead of wiping them out is that He, Hashem, does not want the Gentile nations to be able to boast that they had succeeded in destroying G’d’s people, claiming that their deities were superior in power to Hashem. (compare verse 27). All of this befalls the Jewish people because they are devoid of insight. If they would have reflected for a moment that their erstwhile successes when one of them successfully pursued one thousand and two of them put 10,000 to flight, surely they would have realized that this had only been possible because G’d had enabled them to do this, that it was not their own superiority to their adversaries. If, now (in the time Moses describes) they suffer such indignities, this again can only be due to the fact that their one-time protector, Hashem, had “sold them out.” (verse 30).
In spite of all this, a time would come, Moses avers, when Hashem will avenge Himself for all the brutalities the Gentile nations have inflicted upon His people, as — even if He had reason to punish them —they certainly had not been given the green light to do so (compare verse 35). He, Hashem will preside over the judgment of these people.
At that point in time, G’d will remind them of His attribute of Mercy; this is why Moses continues to speak of G’d as describing the Israelites as His people, and His servants. Up until that time they had been the servants of the Gentile nations.
Moses adds that G’d uses this turn of events to convince the people that only He is their true G’d (verse 39) and that there is no G’d except He. This is the conclusion of Moses’ address.
What follows are the words of G’d directly. He, personally, assures the people of the redemption in the future, and He swears an oath to them, i.e. “I raise My hand to the heaven that I will flash My sword, etc., etc.” G’d uses the future tense, as do the prophets, and assures us that eventually all these nations who have looked down upon us will sing the praises of His people (verse 43), and will clamour to be accepted to join our faith. The catalyst will be when they observe that we will be compensated for the erstwhile loss of our land and that we will return in triumph to that land (verse 43).

ואם הניא אביה אתה BUT IF HER FATHER DISALLOWED HER — The Hebrew signifies, “if he withholds her” from the vow, that is to say, that he annuls it for her. I would not know what this expression הניא, “withholding”, implies (i.e., how he withholds her) — but when it states, (v. 9) “But if on the day that he hears, he withholds her and annuls [her vows]”, one must admit that “the withholding” consists in “annulling the vow” (i.e. in exclaiming מופר לך) (Sifrei Bamidbar 153:6). But still the plain meaning is that it is a term for “withholding” and “removing” (and the word והפר only shows how and by what means she is to be withheld from keeping her vow); and similar is (Numbers 32:7): “And wherefore do you remove (תניאון) [the heart of the children of Israel from the idea of passing over the land]”; and so, too, (Psalms 141:5): “Oil so choice, let not my head turn away (יניא), and similar, also, (Numbers 14:34): “And ye shall know My turning aside (תנואתי)” — i.e. ye shall know that ye have turned aside from Me.

באו ורשו את הארץ, "Enter and take possession of the land, etc." Why did the Torah have to repeat the words את הארץ, instead of merely saying אותה, "it?" The reason is that the land which had been mentioned previously was the land which used to belong to Sichon and Og which G'd had allocated to Reuven and Gad. Now that Moses gave instructions to take possession of the land he had to make plain that the land which G'd had sworn to the Patriarchs had not included the lands now inherited by Reuven and Gad. I have already explained this in connection with Numbers 32,7 and have proved the point from the Sifri there.