Commentary for Isaiah 9:18

the smoke has reached Heb. נֶעְתַּם. Jonathan translates: The earth has become scorched. But I find it difficult to explain it in that manner, for it should state נֶעֶתְמָה [since אֶרֶץ is a feminine noun,] and since it is hapax legomenon in Scripture, appearing neither in the sense of the Targum nor any other sense, I explain it according to its context: By the wrath of the Holy One, blessed be He, this smoke reached the earth, and it is an expression that it was ‘decreed’ upon the earth or an expression of ‘reaching’ the earth.

נעתם Is darkened. In Arabic the word signifies dark.¹⁹عَتَمَتٌ is the third part of the night; عَتَمَ it was dark. This verse is closely connected with the preceding, where the smoke is described. R. Moses Hakkohen compares נעתם with יועם is become dim (Lam. 4:1), and explains the ת to be the characteristic of the Hithpael; but this is a blunder.²⁰The ת of the Hithpael is put after the first letter of the root only when the root begins with one of the letters ז ס ש ץ. According to R. Moses נעתם would rather be Nithpael; a form derived from the Hithpael, as the Niphal from the Kal.