Showing posts with label heresy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heresy. Show all posts

Thursday, September 01, 2011

Ibn Ezra: Sometimes, people just die.

More heresy from Ibn Ezra:

ארס אשה ולא לקחה -- בנשואין
והנה זה הכתוב לאות כי יש מי שמת בבא יומי, רק
המת במלחמה מת בלא יומו , על כן
אמר דוד או במלחמה ירד ונספה

This comment appears on Deuteronomy 20:10, the verse that provides a military exemption to engaged men. In English:

The words ארס אשה ולא לקחה refer to someone who has betrothed, but not yet married a women and the verse comes to tell us that some people die on their appointed day, but one who dies in a battle has not died on his appointed day, and the prooftext is Sam 26:10 which says: And David said: 'As the LORD liveth, nay, but the LORD shall smite him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall go down into battle, and be swept away.' 

So, as per Ibn Ezra it seems clear that not all deaths are divinely ordained. Sometimes, people just die, and not necessarily because "it was their time" .

See also: