Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa 2 Mga Hari 10:24

וגם את הגוי אשר יעבודו דן אנכי, “but I will also judge the nation to whom they will be enslaved;” according to Rashi this prophecy includes the four exiles of the Jewish people starting with the destruction of the first Temple. Nachmanides explains the meaning of our verse as being: “just as I judged your descendants by decreeing exile and bondage for them for having sinned, I will also judge the nation which enslaved them for the violence they have done to this people. Personally, I believe that the correct interpretation of the word וגם “and also,” in our verse is: “although I decreed that your descendants would be exiles in a land not their own, I will also judge and punish the nation that has enslaved them and not exonerate them seeing that by what they did they had carried out My decree.” The reason why such treatment is not unfair has already been described in Zecharyah 1,14-16: “Thus said the Lord of Hosts: I am very jealous for Jerusalem-for Zion- and I am very angry with those nations that are at ease; for I was only angry a little, but they overdid the punishment. Assuredly, thus said the Lord, I graciously return to Jerusalem.” What G’d predicted He would do to the destroyers of Jerusalem, He did to Egypt at the end of the exile of the Jewish people in that land. This is precisely what caused Yitro to convert and to say כי בדבר אשר זדו עליהם, “for He fitted the punishment to the crime, punishing them in the manner they had brutalised the Jewish people,” (by drowning them. Exodus 18,11) Maimonides (Hilchot Teshuvah chapter 6) writes that the reason why G’d punished the Egyptians and the nations who had oppressed the Jews throughout the centuries is that not any specific Egyptian or Babylonian or Roman had been instructed by G’d to carry out His decree against the Jews. As a result, not one of them had the right to take it upon himself to be G’d’s ”executioner.” Nachmanides queries Maimonides’ approach writing that if G’d had appointed a particular person or nation to be His “executioner” in this regard, surely if someone had preceded another person, carrying out G’d’s expressed will, not only would he not have been punished for doing so, but he would have been lauded, been given a reward! I therefore conclude that my own reason was the correct one, namely that they used excess zeal in carrying out G’d’s decree, thereby making it their own. This is the reason Nevuchadnezzar was so severely punished although the prophet Jeremiah had foretold that it would be he who would carry out G’d’s decree. Let us not forget that the Israelites came to Egypt at the express invitation of Pharaoh and that the Egyptians by themselves did not have the slightest excuse for making slaves out of them. How could they ever have claimed to have done so at the behest of G’d? If G’d even punished Nevuchadnezzar who did carry out a specific punishment G’d had decreed to be carried out by him, (though he had not been instructed by G’d directly to do so) then the reason for his punishment must lie in the excess cruelty he applied in carrying out G’d’s purpose. The same applies to individuals who, by G’s judgment, are sentenced to be killed by man during the new year. The killer will not be able to claim exoneration arguing that the individual in question was already legally dead as G’d had decreed that he die a violent death during that year. Seeing that G’d had not instructed the killer to be His messenger, His executioner, he will be considered a simple murderer and be dealt with on that basis. The only exception was Yehu who had been instructed by the prophet, in the name of G’d, to kill the family of Achav (Kings II 10,24)