Noah I: Idiom

לפני י"י - בכל העולם. וכן ונינוה היתה עיר גדולה לאלהים, בכל עולמו של הקב"ה לא היתה עיר גדולה כנינוה:

Here, Rashbam tackles the puzzling phrase לפני ה' used to describe the hunter Nimrod in 10:9. Does this signify something spiritual about hunting? About Nimrod? Rashbam answers like a classic pashtan: 1) He provides an explanation that flattens this tantalizing phrase into a common idiom, which simply means “in the whole world (which is God’s)”. [Similar to the phrase “God’s green earth” to describe the planet in its entirety.] 2) He gives you an example from elsewhere in Tanakh (in this case Yonah 3:3) to show you this is a common phenomenon and not worth getting too excited about.

These sorts of explanations are simultaneously empowering in their simplicity and deflating for their pedestrian outcome.