מאדם עד בהמה

מאת: אבנר רמו

The Psalmist wrote: שהכה בכורי מצרים-- מאדם עד-בהמה - “Who smote the first-born of Egypt, both of man and beast” (Ps 135:8; see also: Gen 6:7; 7:23; Ex 9:25; 12:12; Num 3:13; Jer 33:12; 50:2; 51:62).

Yet in the Book of Judges we find the odd verse:
ואיש ישראל שבו אל-בני בנימן ויכום לפי-חרב, מעיר מתם עד-בהמה - “And the men of Israel turned back upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, both the entire city, and the cattle” (Jud 20:48).

In codex Vaticanus this expression appears as: “from the city of Methla and up to animal.” In another Greek translation we find: “from city, one after another up to animal.” However the comparison between these verses suggests that we are told here that the men of Israel smote the children of Benjamin in the city (named Gibeah) מתם עד-בהמה (nethom u’d-behemah) which is a misspelled מאדם עד-בהמה (meadam u’d-behemah) - “from man to beast.” This suggestion assumes that here in addition to the deletion of the letter א (a) an exchange between the dentals ד (d) - ת (th) also occurred.