Sotah 35b — the Talmud in English

Who embittered you that you were taken captive

who angered you when you became angry and did not save yourself from captivity,

and who came upon you that you were appeased

and now, who appeased you, so that you were appeased to come on your own

? It is written: "

And He struck among the people

among the men of Beth-shemesh

seventy men and fifty thousand men":

And since the word “men” is repeated, and it also says “and fifty,” it implies that the intention is not fifty thousand and seventy men;

and they disagreed concerning the interpretation of the verse,

Rabbi Abbahu and Rabbi Elazar:

disagreed about the interpretation of the verse:

One

of them

said: There were seventy men, and each and every one was equivalent to fifty thousand.

And one

of them

said: There were fifty thousand, and each and every one was equivalent to seventy members of the Sanhedrin.

We further interpret: It is written in Samuel: “And David went and brought up the Ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the City of David with joy.

And it was, when the bearers of the Ark of the Lord

had taken six steps, that he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal

a fattened ox—

But

in Chronicles

it is written: “And David and the elders of Israel and the captains of thousands who went to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from the house of Obed-edom with joy. And it was when God assisted the Levites who bore the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and they sacrificed

seven bulls and seven rams”!?

Said

he explained,

Rav Pappa bar Shmuel:

At every single step

they would sacrifice

an ox and a fattened animal,

and

at every six steps

they would sacrifice

seven bulls and seven rams.

Rav Hisda said

to Rav Pappa bar Shmuel:

If so—

that at every single step they would sacrifice—

you have filled the entire Land of Israel with high places

altars!?

Rather, Rav Hisda said

to reconcile the verses:

At every six steps

they sacrificed

an ox and a fattened animal,

and

at every six sets of six steps

thirty-six steps, they would sacrifice

seven bulls and seven rams.

We further ask:

It is written

in Chronicles [I 13:9]: “And they came to the threshing floor of

Chidon,

and Uzza stretched out his hand to hold the Ark, for the cattle had shaken it. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzza, and He struck him there because he had stretched out his hand to the Ark, and he died there before God.”

But

in Samuel

it is written: “And they came to the threshing floor of

Nakhon,

and Uzza reached out toward the Ark of God and grasped it, for the cattle had shaken it”!?

Rabbi Yohanan said: At first

when the Ark came there, the Ark became for them like

Chidon,

the killer, for it had killed Uzza.

But in the end,

when the Ark was directed toward the house of Obed-edom, it became

Nakhon,

who had prepared his house, as it is said: “And the Ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household.”

A. Here the Gemara continues to bring the beraita concerning the crossing of the Jordan, which was interrupted above on page a; and this is the wording of the beraita: “While they were still in the Jordan, Joshua said to them: Lift up for yourselves one stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of Israel [so that Joshua would place them beneath the position of the feet of the priests], etc. A sign for the sons that their fathers crossed the Jordan; while they were still in the Jordan, Joshua said to them: Take for yourselves from here, from within the Jordan, from the position of the feet of the priests, prepare twelve stones [other ones], and carry them with you and place them in the lodging-place where you will lodge tonight [one might think, in every lodging-place and every lodging-place; the verse teaches: ‘where you will lodge tonight’]. Rabbi Yosei ben Halafta said, etc.: From here you calculate the weight of a cluster of grapes; and when the last of Israel had come up from the Jordan, the waters returned to their place, as it is stated, etc. It follows that the Ark, its bearers, and the priests were on one side, and Israel on the other side; the Ark carried its bearers and crossed, as it is stated, etc. It follows that you say, etc.”

B. The order of the verses in Joshua:

[4:8]: “So that this may be a sign among you, when your children ask tomorrow, saying, What are these stones to you? And you shall say to them: Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord; when it passed through the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off, and these stones shall be a memorial to the children of Israel forever. And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and they took twelve stones from within the Jordan, as the Lord had spoken to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and they carried them with them to the lodging-place and placed them there. And twelve stones Joshua set up within the Jordan, beneath the position of the feet of the priests who bore the Ark of the Covenant, and they are there to this day. And the priests who bore the Ark stood within the Jordan until the completion of the entire matter that the Lord had commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua, and the people hastened and crossed. And it was, when all the people had finished crossing, that the Ark of the Lord

and the priests passed before the people. And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben crossed.” "

And it was, when the priests who bore the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord came up from within the Jordan, that the soles of the feet of the priests were torn away toward the dry land, and the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and went as yesterday and the day before, over all its banks. And the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped at Gilgal, at the eastern edge of Jericho. And these twelve stones that they had taken from the Jordan Joshua set up at Gilgal."

It follows that you say: There were three kinds of stones:

A.

One that Moses set up on the other side of the Jordan

the eastern side

in the land of Moab.

And from where do we know that he set up stones there and wrote upon them the words of the Torah?

As it is stated

Deuteronomy 1:5: "

On the other side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain

this Torah, saying."

And below

Deuteronomy 27:5

it says: "And you shall build there [on Mount Ebal] an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones; you shall not raise iron upon them.

And you shall write upon the stones

of the altar

all the words of this Torah

very clearly."

And it is derived from one another by a gzera shava: “‘Moses undertook to explain’

“Moses undertook to explain”

clearly”—“

clearly

very clearly.” Just as there, on Mount Ebal, they were commanded to set up stones and write upon them the words of the Torah, so too Moses set up stones in the land of Moab and wrote upon them the words of the Torah.

B.

And one that Joshua set up within the Jordan; as it is stated: "

And twelve stones Joshua set up within the Jordan."

C.

And one that he set up

Joshua—after he had first set them up on Mount Ebal and made an altar there—

at Gilgal, as it is stated: "

And these twelve stones that they had taken

from the Jordan Joshua set up at Gilgal."

Our Rabbis taught:

It is written [Deuteronomy 27:4]: “And it shall be, when you cross the Jordan, that you shall set up these stones, concerning which I command you today, on Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster”; and it is written [there]: “And you shall write upon the stones all the words of this Torah.”

And

how did Israel write the Torah

on the stones that had been plastered with plaster—did they write it before they plastered them, or did they write it after they plastered them?

Rabbi Judah says: On top of

the

stones

themselves

they wrote it, as it is stated: "

And you shall write upon the stones all the words of this Torah,"

and afterward they plastered them with plaster.

Rabbi Shimon said to him: According to your words, how did the nations

of the world

of that time—

learn Torah!?

For this purpose they were commanded to write the Torah in seventy languages, so that each one of the nations of the world would be able to learn the Torah, so that they would not have an opening of the mouth to say: We had no means from which to learn it; and if they plastered them with plaster after the writing, how would they learn it!?

He said to him,

Rabbi Judah to Rabbi Shimon:

The Holy One, blessed be He, gave them extra understanding

among the nations of the world,

and they sent their notaries

scribes

of theirs, and peeled away the plaster

in order to read what was written on the stones,

and copied it

that is, they took it from there by means of copying.

And for this matter the decree of their judgment was sealed

of the nations of the world

for the pit of destruction

Gehinnom,

for they should have learned

after they copied it

but did not learn.

Rabbi Shimon says:

A.

They wrote it upon plaster.

B.

And they wrote for them

Israel, for the nations of the world,

below

the writing: “Only from the cities of these peoples, which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, shall you not leave alive any soul. For you shall utterly destroy them—the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite—as the Lord your God commanded you.

So that they should not teach you to do according to all

their abominations that they have done for their gods, and you would sin against the Lord your God.”

And therefore they wrote this below, in order to teach those people from the seven nations who had left the Land of Israel that we were not commanded to destroy them, for only those within the borders of the Land of Israel were we commanded to destroy, so that they would not teach us their corrupted deeds; but those outside the Land, if you repent, we shall accept you.

Is it so?

You have learned: that if there were

men from the seven nations dwelling outside the Land of Israel

who returned in repentance, they would accept them;

but according to Rabbi Judah, anyone who is from the seven nations is not accepted, and they are killed, and they are included in “you shall not keep alive any soul”.

The Gemara interrupts here in bringing the baraita, and continues to bring it on folio 36a: “Come and see”.

Rava bar Sheila said: What is the reason of Rabbi Shimon,

who holds: They wrote it on top of plaster? Yet from what the Torah said, “And you shall write upon the stones,” it indeed appears according to Rabbi Judah’s precision, that they wrote it upon the stones!?

And we explain the reason as being

because it is written

[Isaiah 33:12]: “

And peoples shall be burnings of lime,”

over matters of

lime

they are burned, for it was exposed before them upon the plaster, and nevertheless they did not learn it.

And Rabbi Judah

interprets the verse, “And peoples shall be burnings of lime” the peoples, as long as they do not convert and the name “peoples” remains upon them, are

like lime: just as lime has no remedy except burning, so too those Canaanites have no remedy except burning

in Gehinnom.

According to whom does this baraita that was taught go

[according to whose view is the following baraita]: “It is written: When you go out [from the Land of Israel to outside the Land of Israel] to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God gives him into your hand, and you take his captives. And you see among his captives a woman of beautiful form, and you desire her and take her for yourself as a wife.”

And what the verse said, “and you take his captives,” is superfluous, and the verse comes

to include Canaanites

[or from the rest of the seven nations]

who are outside the Land of Israel, that if they return in repentance, they accept them,

and he may take from them a woman of beautiful form.