Комментарий к Бамидбар 14:15

והמתה את העם הזה כאיש אחד IF THOU PUTTEST TO DEATH ALL THIS PEOPLE AS ONE MAN — i.e. suddenly; then, because of this the nations who have heard the fame of Thee [will say as follows]:

והמתה…כאיש אחד, "and You kill them..all at the same time, etc." Moses revealed here that he did not plead for G'd to forgive the Israelites their sin; he only pleaded that the retribution should be such that it did not result in a desecration of G'd's name in the eyes of the nations. This is why he emphasised the words כאיש אחד, "as one man."

Suddenly. (Nachalas Yaakov) There is a difficulty: In Parshas Vayechi it is written “because in their anger they killed a man” (Bereishis 49:6), and Rashi explains “this was Chamor and the people of Shechem who were only considered like one man.” Furthermore: When Rashi writes that as a result “the nations will say” this implies that specifically if they were to die suddenly, the nations would say so. However if they were not to die suddenly then they would not. What is the difference? It appears that one question is answered by the other. In Parshas Vayechi there would be no difference if they were killed suddenly or not, therefore Rashi was forced to say that the people of Shechem were only considered like one man. However here where he wished to conclude that “as a result the nations will say…” this would be understandable if they were to die suddenly in an unnatural manner, then they would know that it was through the hand of Hashem. However, if they were to die one at a time then they could say that they died naturally and thus the nations would not say … You should know that after Moshe’s prayer, Hashem said “I have forgiven them as you said.” Subsequently they died one at a time, and the nations did not say anything.

V. 15. והמתה וגו׳ (siehe V. 13). והמתה, wenn du nun, der Du doch deine Absicht, dieses Volk in das Land zu führen, so offenkundig dargetan, statt dessen כאיש אחד, plötzlich auf einmal, in ungewöhnlicher Weise das Volk sterben lässest. Offenbar entält dieses כאיש אחד schon den Gedanken, dass, wenn die des Landes unwürdig gewordenen Väter in naturgemäßer Weise nach und nach wegstürben und statt ihrer die Söhne erst in das Land kämen, dadurch die Gotteserkennung unter den Völkern nicht leiden würde. Nur das angekündigte plötzliche Gesamtsterben, wobei die Realisierung der Gottesverheißung erst nach Jahrhunderten zu erwarten sein würde, gibt jener Missdeutung Raum.

ואמרו הגוים, "and the Gentile nations will say, etc." Moses did not only refer to the Egyptians but to all the nations who would hear about the fate of the Jewish people. לאמור, to say; this word again means "something elevated," as we explained on 14,7. All the people who had thus far looked upon the G'd of the Hebrews as a supreme deity would now revise their estimate of G'd's capabilities if they heard that this G'd had wiped out His people as one man. Moses added the letter ו at the beginning of the word אמרו in order to indicate that he referred to all the Gentile nations not only to the Egyptians. Another reason for the open-ended word לאמור is that Moses did not know precisely what the Gentiles would say and in what order. When Moses spoke about what the Gentiles would say, i.e. ואמרו, he did not imply that they would be justified in what they would say. He was only concerned that they would say it anyway.