Deuteronomy 32:30
How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up?
הערת לימוד
Study Note
The rhetorical question 'How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up?' frames military defeat not as evidence of divine impotence but as evidence of divine agency in judgment. The 'Rock' (tsur) is the dominant divine epithet in the Song of Moses (verses 4, 15, 18, 30, 31), deliberately contrasted with 'their rock' of verse 31 — the gods of the nations who are not Rock in the same sense. The verse's logic is counter-intuitive: Israel's defeat proves God's power rather than undermining it, since the only power that could 'sell' God's people to their enemies is God himself. Isaiah 50:1's 'for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves' and Romans 8:32's 'he that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all' inhabit the same category of deliberate divine giving-over.
תרגומים נוספים
How should one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, Except their Rock had sold them, And Jehovah had delivered them up?
How doth one pursue a thousand, And two cause a myriad to flee! If not--that their rock hath sold them, And Jehovah hath shut them up?
How would it be possible for one to overcome a thousand, and two to send ten thousand in flight, if their rock had not let them go, if the Lord had not given them up?
הפניות צולבות
And the men of Israel gathered themselves together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, …
And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the Lord set every man’s sword against his fellow, even throughout all …
Therefore the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushan–rishathaim king …
And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that …
Then said Saul unto the people that were with him, Number now, and see who is gone from us. And …
And there was trembling in the host, in the field, and among all the people: the garrison, and the spoilers, …
For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men, and the Lord delivered a very great …
God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
If he cut off, and shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder him?
For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.