Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Genesis 31:9

ואת בתינו הציל “But our houses God saved הִצִּיל (hitzeel).” Peirush: God took us for a portion, as was stated, “God has taken away וַיַּצֵּ֧ל (vaytzeel) your father’s livestock and given it to me.”²⁷⁰This is a reference to the story of Laban in which Jacob is able to take control of his flocks through genetic/divine manipulation. (Gen. 31:9) So too here, God has lifted us on the wings of eagles and brought us to him. But it does not say God saved us since the Divine Presence (the Shechinah) entered the houses of the Israelites and enlightened it from its Glory within them, The word hitzeel is like the word לְהַצְהִ֣יל Hitzheel, as in the expression, “To make the face shine לְהַצְהִ֣יל from oil.” (Ps. 104:15) ….

wegen des erweichten Fleisches. נצל, vgl. das bibl.-hebr. גזל, Zerflossenes, Erweichtes, Fleisch, das faulig und flüssig war und dann wieder fest geworden ist. Nach Raschi in Nas. 50 a ist נצל von der Wurzel נצל = absondern, Gen. 31, 9 abzuleiten, also ein Saft, der sich aus dem verwesenden Fleisch absondert.

Jacob also wanted to mention separately two kinds of favours that G'd had done for him. The first was the kindness that He displayed for him by providing Jacob with an abundance of material wealth. The second was the fact that G'd had enabled Jacob to hold on to his gains and that G'd did not allow Laban to steal them from him forcibly and thereby displayed His truth. You must appreciate that there are occasions when G'd does show a person kindness whereas that person is subsequently deprived of his gains by outsiders exercising their free will. G'd in turn compensates the person who has suffered such a robbery. In such instances the person in question has experienced partial comfort only. He would have felt much better if he had not been robbed of what G'd had granted him in the first place. He will never forget that he had once become the victim of a robbery. He will imagine that if he had not been robbed he would now be still better off, not realising that G'd had only compensated him for what he had been robbed of. Secondly, the fact that G'd did not interfere with the robber will continue to bother such a person. He would have felt completely at ease had G'd restored to him the very goods the robber had taken. Jacob had experienced this latter kind of personal supervision by G'd as we know from 31,9, where Jacob described how G'd had saved his cattle from Laban and restored them to him. When Jacob spoke about "all of G'd's truth," this is the kind of interference by G'd which he had in mind.

My wool and My flax. which was to cover her nakedness. Every expression of הָצָלָה in Scripture is an expression of separation and setting apart. Proof of this we find in (Gen. 31:9) “And God separated (וַיַצֵּל) your father’s cattle,” (ibid.:16) “For all the wealth that... separated (הִצִיל).”

ונצלתם render it as the Targum does: and ye shall empty out Egypt. Similar are: (Exodus 12:36) “And they emptied out (וינצלו) Egypt”; (Exodus 33:6) “And the children of Israel stripped themselves (ויתנצלו) of their ornaments” The נ in it is a root-letter. Menachem ben Seruk placed it (this word ויתנצלו) in section צ (taking the root as צל not as נצל) together with, (Genesis 31:9) “And God took away (ויצל) your father’s cattle”, and with, (Genesis 31:16) “which God hath taken away (הציל) from our father”, but his view cannot be sustained. For if the נ is not a root-letter, then seeing that it (the word ונצלתם) is vowelled with Chirik, it cannot be used in the sense of “and ye shall do something” (the active voice, which is required here since את מצרים can only be the object of the verb), but in the sense of “and ye shall have something done to you” (the passive — “Niphal”), as (Deuteronomy 28:63) “And ye shall be plucked up (וְנִסַּחְתֶּם) from off your land”; (Leviticus 26:25) “and ye shall be given (וְנִתַּתֶּם) into the hand of the enemy”; (Leviticus 17) “And ye shall be smitten (וְנִגַּפְתָּם) before your enemies”; (Ezekiel 22:21) “And ye shall be melted (וְנִתַּכְתָּם) in the midst thereof”; (Jeremiah 7:10) “And ye say, נִצַּלְנוּ” — which expresses the idea “we have had something done to us” (the Niphal: we have been delivered). Then again, every נ which sometimes appears in a word and sometimes is omitted, as e. g. the נ of נוגף and נושא and נותן and נושך, when the word expresses the sense “and ye shall do something” (the Kal), it is pointed with vocal Sheva (חטף a “snatched” sound), as, for instance, (Genesis 45:19) “and ye shall bear (וּנְשָׂאתָם) your father”; (Numbers 32:29) “And ye shall give (וּנְתַתֶּם) them the land of Gilead”; (Genesis 17:11) “And ye shall circumcise (וּנְמַלְתֶּם) the flesh of your foreskin”. Consequently I am of the opinion that this letter נ which is vowelled with a Chirik is one of the root letters, and the grammatical form of the noun of the same root is נִצּוּל which is of the strong (dageshed) forms, just as דִּבּוּר and כִּפּוּר and לִמּוּד. When, in the case of verbs formed from these roots one expresses the idea of “and ye shall do something” (active voice) the נ has the vowel Chirik (i. e. it is the Piel conjugation), as (Numbers 20:8) “And ye shall speak (וְדִבַּרְתֶּם) unto the rock”; (Ezekiel 45:20) “And ye shall atone (וְכִּפַּרְתֶּם) for the house”; (Deuteronomy 11:19) “And ye shall teach (וְלִמַּדְתָּם) them unto your children”.

ולא יתן המשחית AND HE WILL NOT GIVE THE DESTROYER He will not give him power to come in. The phrase is similar to (Genesis 31:9) “And God did not suffer him (נתנו — give him the power) to do me evil”.

And do not take...from my mouth a word of truth Heb. תצל. Do not separate from my mouth a word of truth, as (Gen. 31:9): “And God separated (ויצל) your father’s property and gave it to me.” I found this.