יושב הנגב..דרך האתרים, the “tourists” who were really spies; Moses had instructed the spies in Numbers 13,17 to enter the land of Canaan from the south, and had described the Amalekites as inhabiting that part of the land. (13,29)

האתרים, the letter א at the beginning is similar to the letter א at the beginning of the word אפרוח or in the word אתמול, which is a variant of תמול, meaning “yesterday.” There are many occasions when the letter א serves as the beginning of a word.

והחרמתי, all the portables shall be “holy unto G’d;” Israel vowed not to treat these objects as booty.

הקלקל, extremely lightweight.

ONE WHO SEES IT. Who looks towards heaven above.

בעיי העברים, a description of a very parched land as in Jeremiah 26,18 וירושלים עיים תהיה, Jerusalem will become totally dried out. The word occurs in a similar sense also in Michah 1,6.

על כן יאמר, concerning these journeys which were in fact a reversal of their previous journeys, while they marched around the territory of Edom for many days (compare Deuteronomy 2,1) until they turned again and encountered the well described in 20,11. At that time, as part of the summary of their experiences in which the people thanked the Lord, they mentioned the miracles at the sea of reeds, as well as the miracle experienced at the river Arnon, as well as the song beginning in verse 17 of our chapter. They now acknowledged gratefully the well for the availability of which they had not previously composed a song of thanksgiving. The reason they had neglected to do so at the time was the fact that in order to have the waters of this well Moses and Aaron had been condemned to die before entering the Holy Land. [our author calls the waters emerging from the rock at this juncture a well, as he presumes that it performed henceforth the same function as had the well of Miriam which had ceased to function after her death. Ed.]

את והב, the יהב of the Lord as in Psalms 55,23 השלך על ה' יהבך והוא יכלכלך, “cast your burden on the Lord and He will sustain you.” Or, as in Kohelet 2,22 מה הוה לאדם מכל עמלו, “what does man have as a result of all his toil?” Our author quotes a few more verses in which the letter י in a word has been supplanted by the letter ו. Basically, he views the word והב as meaning the same as the word יהב.

שרים, a reference to Moses and Aaron.

וממדבר מתנה, according to the plain meaning of the text, these are all names of places the Israelites encountered in the course of their journeys and their encampments.

על כן יאמרו המושלים, on account of the war against Sichon and Og they had prophesied in advance,

מושלים, Bileam and his colleagues in their predictions. (compare our author’s comment in Baba Batra 78,2 commencing with the words מאי דכתיב where he states that the plain meaning of the words refers to the previous wars conducted by Sichon when he had been successful and conquered large parts of the land of Moav. These conquests had been prophesied by Bileam, etc.)

ער מואב, the capital of the land of Moav was called Or.

ונירם, they were driven from their places. The word is similar to נחרם, they were banished. The construction is parallel to נטה and ונט. The word is derived from the root ירה, hence וניר, “vanir.” The vocalisation of vanirom means the same as if the Torah had written vanireym. We find a similar construction in Isaiah 56,3 yavdilani, which is the same as yavdileyni. Also in Exodus 14,11 lehotziani is the same as lehotzieyni. If we were to follow Onkelos’ translation, the vocalisation should have been veniram instead of vaniram.