Komentaryo sa Mga Bilang 34:17: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi, Rabbeinu Bahya & Siftei Chakhamim

“These are the names of the men through whom the land shall be apportioned for you” [34:17]. The men will enable you to inherit the land. The Holy One said: you should choose a chieftain from each tribe, who should see how many families there are in his tribe and if the family is large. They should see that it is just to give that tribe more land. However, the chieftain will make it, so should it remain. The verse mentions Eleazar before Joshua, even though Joshua will be in place of Moses, but in any event Joshua must first ask Eleazar what should be done. The verse mentions ten chieftains, even though there were twelve chieftains of tribes. However, the tribes of Reuben and Gad had their share of the land, outside the land of Israel. Therefore, the verse only mentions ten chieftains who should divide the land. One can ask, why does the verse not mention with regard to three tribes that their administrators were chieftains and important people, as he says with regard to the seven tribes, where he calls them chieftains. The verse first mentions, “from the tribe of Judah, Caleb” [34:19]. This means, to the tribe of Judah, the administrator should be the one called Caleb. It does not tell us that he was a chieftain. However, as soon as he comes to the tribe of Dan and the other tribes, it says, “from the tribe of Dan, a chieftain, Buki son of Jogli” [34:21]. This means, for the tribe of Dan, the administrator was a chieftain called, Buki son of Jogli. The verse calls him a chieftain. Also with the other tribes, they are called chieftains. However, the Torah did not write this concerning the tribe of Judah, its administrator is not called important, since the whole world knows that Caleb was pious and important. Therefore, it does not have to say that the administrator of Judah was important. With regard to the tribe of Simeon, it also does not call him a chieftain. The tribe of Simeon was not worthy to have the word, chieftain, written because they engaged in illicit sex with the daughters of Midian, and their evil chieftain was killed. Therefore, the Torah does not write the word, chieftain. Concerning the tribe of Benjamin, it also does not write the word chieftain, because the tribe of Benjamin would commit sins regarding illicit sex with regard to the concubine in Gibeah. Some sages say that chieftain is not written regarding the tribe of Benjamin, because the chieftain was a prophet. Thus, it did not want to call him chieftain. One would have thought that he was like the other chieftains, and the truth was that he was a prophet.¹²Bahya, Numbers, 34:17.

אשר ינחלו לכם [THESE ARE THE … MEN] WHO SHALL TAKE POSSESSION OF THE LAND לכם — i.e., for you. Each prince was the agent of his tribe and divided the inheritance of the tribe amongst the families and again amongst the men, selecting for each a portion fitting for him. What they did was done (was legal) just as if they (the tribes) had appointed them their representatives (Kiddushin 42b). — It would not be right to explain this לכם as all other לכם (“to you”) which occur in the Bible, for if so it should have written יַנְחִילוּ לכם (Hiphil), “they will give the possession to you”. But יִנְחֲלוּ (Kal), implies that they themselves take possession לכם, “for you” and in your place. It is the same as, (Exodus 14:14): “The Lord will fight לכם” — “for you”.

אלה שמות האנשים אשר ינחלו לכם את הארץ, “these are the names of the men who will take possession of the land for you (on your behalf)”. We have translated this in accordance with Rashi, i.e. that each tribal head acted as the trustee of his tribe. He in turn would distribute the parcel according to the number of families and the number of male members in his tribe. He would personally select these parcels and whatever he did was considered as if their legal representative had done it. The reason that the Torah names Eleazar the High Priest first, although he did not share out anything, is that Joshua was subject to his authority as he could not initiate a war without first obtaining Eleazar’s approval. The Torah here mentions ten of the tribes and their respective princes, omitting the tribes of Reuven and Gad as these tribes had already taken possession of their inheritance. It starts the list of the tribal heads with Yehudah as Yehudah‘s lot was determined first.