Tanach Thoughts

Last Shabbat I was skimming Yirmiyahu because I was looking for a particular verse and in that moment wasn't near a concordance (what would we Tanach-loving, Shabbat-observers ever do without a concordance???), and I came across something that frankly shocked me. I had studied Yirmiyahu before and I've written on that in the blog. But I was struck by the following verses ( 48:45-46 ): " בְּצֵל חֶשְׁבּוֹן עָמְדוּ מִכֹּחַ נָסִים כִּי אֵשׁ יָצָא מֵחֶשְׁבּוֹן וְלֶהָבָה מִבֵּין סִיחוֹן וַתֹּאכַל פְּאַת מוֹאָב וְקָדְקֹד בְּנֵי שָׁאוֹן.   אוֹי לְךָ מוֹאָב אָבַד עַם כְּמוֹשׁ כִּי לֻקְּחוּ בָנֶיךָ בַּשֶּׁבִי וּבְנֹתֶיךָ בַּשִּׁבְיָה." "In the shelter of Heshbon fugitives halt exhausted; for fire went forth from Heshbon, flame from the midst of Sihon, consuming the brow of Moab, the pate of the people of Shaon. Woe to you, O Moab! The people of Chemosh are undone, for your sons are carried off into captivity, your daughters into exile." What's surprising about thi...

This week's parsha features Bnei Yisrael passing through Edom and the two Emorite countries - Sichon's country and Og's country ( Bamidbar 21:21-35 ). Og was the last of the Rephaim ( Devarim 3:11 ), a race of giants that were wiped out way back during the War of the Four and Five Kings in Beresheet ( 14:5 ). Some midrashim state that Sichon was also a giant, of the antediluvian kind (for example, Devarim Rabbah 11:10 ). Looking through Tanach it occurred to me that giants might be frightening, but they obviously aren't unbeatable. David and his men defeated a number of giants, and, as mentioned already, the four Mesopotamian kings managed to defeat the Rephaim. And yet, two parshas ago, when the spies told Bnei Yisrael that there were Anakim in the Land of Yisrael ( Bamidbar 13:28 ), Kalev and Yehoshua said nothing about "hey, guys, giants are not unbeatable!" Kalev made a more generalized statement, that "yes we can, because we have Hashem!" ( ibid...