The table below presents two contradictory verses. Both verses talk about the mistreatment of Jews in the exile. The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verse says you will sell yourself while the other verse says there will be no buyers. Which is it? Did they sell themselves or note. Rashi simply resolves this using the broad-literal method: The root Mem-Caph-Resh can mean (a) to sell (b) to disguise (c) to fawn appearance. [We know that when the root is conjugated in the interactive (hitpael) mode it means to disguise. Furthermore when the root is conjugated in the interactive mode (hitpael) and uses the preposition Lamed meaning to it means to fawn appearance. So we know that in this verse the proper translation is to fawn appearance.] We further know that the root Mem-Caph-Resh cannot mean sell here since the end of the verse says there are no buyers. [Also, the verse couldn't mean you will desire/attempt to sell yourselves but there are no buyers because the so called jussive/cohortative mode (connoting intent and desire) would require, in Hebrew, a terminal hey, added to the conjugated root.]

Summary	Verse / Source	Text of verse / Source
The Jews sold themselves as slaves	Dt28-68	And the Lord shall bring you into Egypt ... and there you shall be sold to your enemies for male and female slaves,
There were no buyers	Dt28-68	. but no man shall buy you.
Resolution:	Broad-Literal	The root Mem-Caph-Resh can mean (a) to sell (b) to disguise (c) to fawn appearance. [We know that when the root is conjugated in the interactive (hitpael) mode it means to disguise. Furthermore when the root is conjugated in the interactive mode (hitpael) and uses the preposition Lamed meaning to it means to fawn appearance. So we know that in this verse the proper translation is to fawn appearance.] We further know that the root Mem-Caph-Resh cannot mean sell here since the end of the verse says there are no buyers. [Also, the verse couldn't mean you will desire/attempt to sell yourselves but there are no buyers because the so called jussive/cohortative mode (connoting intent and desire) would require, in Hebrew, a terminal hey, added to the conjugated verb.]

So the improper translation of the verse is as follows: And the Lord shall bring you into Egypt again with ships, ... and there you shall be sold to your enemies for male and female slaves, but noone will buy you. The proper translation of the verse is as follows: And the Lord shall bring you into Egypt again with ships, ... and there you shall fawn slave appearance to your enemies but no man will buy you [because they will prefer to kill you.] In providing this translation we have applied rules 2,3,5. and 9 Note the poetic acuity, linguistic freshness, and punchiness of the Rashi translation over the traditional English translations which is both grammatically inaccurate and wordy.

This verse is analyzed in 3,5 and 9.
• In rule 3 we explain that the root Mem-Caph-Resh means to fawn appearance.
• In rule 5 we further support this translation of the root Mem-Caph-Resh by showing that this root couldn't mean to sell or to attempt to sell because it states explicitly no one will by you.
• In rule 9 we explain why no one buys you: because your enemies prefer to kill you.