הבה נתחכמה לו. הב"ה בגימטריא י"ב נתחכמה לי"ב שבטים. ופרש"י נתחכם למושיען של ישראל וכו' והם טעו כי לא נשבע אלא שלא יביא מים על האומות אבל שלא יבואו האומות במים לא נשבע. ואמרו חז"ל שלשה היו באותה עצה בלעם ואיוב ויתרו בלעם שיעץ נהרג איוב ששתק נדון ביסורים יתרו שברח זכו בניו לישב בלשכת הגזית ובלעם דהוה בעצת דהבה נתחכמה קשה מהא דאמרינן בפ' חלק בר תלתין ותלת שנין הוה בלעם חגירא כד קטל יתיה פנחס ליסטאה משום דכתיב אנשי דמים ומרמה לא יחצו ימיהם ואם היה בעצה זו נמצא היה בן מאה וארבעים כשנפל במלחמת מדין שהרי לכל הפחות היה בן עשרים כשיעץ ותחשוב שמנים של משה ולסוף ארבעים שהלכו במדבר היתה מלחמת מדין כדכתיב אחר תאסף הרי שהיה בן ק"מ שנה. לכך פי' ר' מנחם מדאנ"י שלשה היו באותה עצה דלכה איעצך כדאמרינן אמר ליה לבלק אלהיהם של אלו שונא זמה הוא כדאי' בחלק והקשה הרב משה כי בדברי הימים דמשה תמצא כתיב בפי' העצה דהכא ויען בלעם הקוסם ועל כן הקשה ר' מנחם מהא דאמרינן בזבחים פרק פרת חטאת בשעה שנתן הקב"ה תורה לישראל נתקבצו כל האומות אצל בלעם ואמרו מה קול ההמון ששמענו שמא הקב"ה רוצה להביא מבול כדאיתא התם. ואפי' אם תמצא לו' שלא היה כי אם בן כ' כששואלין ממנו עצה ובסוף ארבעים נהרג אלמא בן ששים היה כשמת. ויש ספרים שכתוב בהן ונקבצו כלן אצל קמואל והני פי' לא נהירא לי דהתם משמע דקמואל אבי ארם היינו בלעם אם כן תפל היה במיתתו. וגם נמצא בב"ר קמואל אבי ארם הוא לבן הארמי הוא כושן רשעתים הוא בלעם ולמה נקרא קמואל שקם על אומתו של אל. וכן נמי אמרינן בחלק הוא בלע' הוא בעור ולמה נקרא בעור שבא על בעירו הוא לבן הוא כושן רשעתים ולמה נקרא שמו כושן רשעתים שעשה שתי רשעיות אחת בימי יעקב ואחת בימי שופטים מכל אלה משמע שהיה תפל והאי דכתיב באיוב כי יתרי פתח ויענני ובמסורת כתיב יתרו ומפרש דה"ק יתרו נמי היה באותו עצה והוא פתח הדבר ואותי תענה וקשיא דהא דאמרינן דיתרו ברח ואיוב לא ברח אלא שתק וי"ל שהיה יתרו גדול הדור באותה שעה והיה בידו למחות ולא לברוח ולכך מאשימו איוב: הבה נתחכמה לו, “let us try to outwit it” (the Jewish nation). The numerical value of the letters in the word הבה , is 12. What the king meant was to outsmart the twelve tribes of the Jewish people. According to Rashi, what the king meant was to outsmart the deity of the Jewish people. How did he think to accomplish this? Seeing that G–d had promised never to bring another deluge, and His method is to match the punishment to the crime, he thought that by drowning Jews in water, G–d would not be able to punish him appropriately. (Talmud, tractate Sotah, folio11). Our sages say that the king had three advisors who helped him figure out how to deal with the ever increasing number of Israelites. They were: Bileam, Job, and Yitro. Bileam was killed for having given the advice the king accepted. Job was subjected to severe afflictions. He had not disagreed, but kept silent on the king’s proposal. Yitro who left that meeting and decided to flee, was rewarded by some of his descendants eventually being able to make their home near the Temple. (Talmud, tractate Sanhedrin, folio 106, quoting Chronicles I 2,55.) According to the Talmud there, Bileam was only thirty three years old when Pinchas killed him during the punitive campaign against Midian reported in Numbers chapter 31. Our author, not surprisingly, questions the statement in the Talmud, seeing that if Bileam had been an advisor to the Pharaoh of whom the Torah speaks here, as that conversation took place before Moses was born and Moses was 119 years old when the campaign against Midian was fought. This is why Rabbi Menachem interprets the statement that when Bileam said to Balak in Numbers 24,14 before taking his leave: לכה איעצך, “I will now give you an advice,” and the Torah does not spell out what the advice was, but writes only what the Israelites will do to the Moabites in the distant future, that what he told him was that seeing the G–d of the Jewish most detests sexual promiscuity, he should arrange for the men of the Israelites to be seduced. (Compare Sanhedrin folio 106) As to the question raised by Rabbi Moshe that this advice of Bileam has been spelled out in the history of Moses’ life and been attributed there to the sorcerer Bileam, (compare a text quoted by Ibn Ezra on Exodus,2,22 and described by him as unreliable. Ed) Rabbi Menachem, quotes the Talmud tractate Zevachim folio 116 that at the time when G–d was ready to give the Torah to the Jewish people, all the gentile nations assembled around Bileam, fearful that another deluge was in the offing. They based themselves on the overwhelming sounds emanating from Mount Sinai at that time, as described in Exodus 19,16. Even if you were to assume that at that time Bileam was no older than twenty years of age, and that he was killed 40 years later during the campaign against Midian, i.e. when he was 60 years old, he clearly had not yet been born when the Pharaoh in our chapter of the Torah consulted how to stop the expansion of the Israelites in Egypt. There are books in which it is claimed that the gentile nations assembled around a person known as Kemuel, whom they asked about the imminence of another deluge. This interpretation is also not plausible, seeing that Kemuel was the founding father of the nation of Aram (Genesis 22, 21, who was a contemporary of Avraham and would have been over 500 years old at his death. Besides, according to B’reshit Rabbah, near the end of paragraph 57, this Kemuel is identified with Lavan, also identical with Kushan Rishatayim, i.e. Bileam. The reason given why he was also known as Kemuel, is that he rebelled against G–d his Creator. This comment is also listed in Sanhedrin folio 105. Why was Bileam’s father called בעור? This was because he had sexual relations with his she-ass, i.e. בעירו. He was also identical with Lavan, who was also known as כושן רשעתים, having been guilty of two sins, one in the days of Yaakov and one in the era of the Judges. From all this it is clear that he was תפל, someone of no value. This is the meaning of Job 30,11 כי יתרי פתח ויענני, “for the Lord has humbled me.” In the version by the Massoretes, the word יתרי is spelled יתרו, a reference to Moses’ father-in-law who had been present when Pharaoh consulted with his advisers how to deal with what he considered the danger of the multiplying Hebrews. Supposedly, he was the first to respond to Pharaoh’s question. This is difficult, as Job never fled, so how can we interpret the beginning of that verse in Job as applying to Yitro? We may have to answer that at that time Yitro was the most respected personage and he could have protested Pharaoh’s murderous intentions, but instead he was content to simply flee Pharaoh’s presence. This is why in the verse quoted Job accuses him of having failed.