申命記 19:5 註釋：Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Rashbam & Chizkuni

ונדחה ידו AND HIS HAND MOVED (SLIPPED) when he was about to let the axe fall upon the tree. The Targum rendering is ותתמריג ידה, the meaning being, “his hand moved itself to let the stroke of the axe fall upon the tree”. The words (II Samuel 6:6) כי שמטו הבקר are rendered in Targum Jonathan on by: ארי מרגוהי תוריא “for the oxen moved it (the Ark)”

with his fellowman As in many other instances, the Hebrew word et here has the sense of “with”.

ונשל הברזל, the actual axe is called here ברזל, iron, by the Torah, as distinct from its wooden handle. We find the word ברזל used in the same sense in Kohelet 10,10 ואם קהה הברזל, “if the axe is blunt.” The scenario described by our verse is that the axe while hitting the wood it splits sends a piece of that wood sailing through the air, with fatal consequences for the victim it hits. This is clearly something that was entirely unplanned by the person swinging the axe.

ונשל הברזל מן העץ — Some of our Rabbis say that this means that the iron (axe) flew off from its handle (העץ); but some of them say that it means that the iron made a splinter of wood fall off from the tree which was being chopped, and it sprang off and killed him (according to this explanation the word העץ in both cases refers to the tree) (Makkot 7b).