Commentary for Isaiah 18:13

Woe to the land shaded by wings Jonathan renders: to which they come in ships from a distant land, and their sails are spread out like an eagle that flies with its wings. I say, however, that because they live in the east, and the land is hot, birds assemble there, and it is shaded by the birds’ wings. Now this prophecy concerns the armies of Gog and Magog, as the matter is stated in Ezekiel (38: 5) “Persia, Cush, and Put with them.”

הדי Oh !¹A. V., Woe. See I. E. on 1:4, and c. i., note 13. It is the sign of the vocative case. Comp. Zac. 2:10.

צלצל Shadowing. Reduplication of צל shadow. A shady land is identical with a wide land.²The idea of connecting shady with wide, is probably suggested by the image of a shady tree, whose branches extend over a large area.

Which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. That is, beyond the rivers of the kingdom of Assyria.³Ethiopia (Kush) is here identified with Assyria. I. E. on Gen. 10:11 seems to deny the connection between Ethiopia and Assyria, and to consider Asshur (═Assyria) as a son of Japheth or Shem, but not as a descendant of Kush (Ethiopia) or Ham. See c. xlii. Note 1.

Go swift messengers to see whether it is true that the Israelites have returned to their place, a nation which is pulled and torn, to a people that is awesome from its inception.

That sendeth, etc. That is accustomed to send messengers over the sea.

from their beginning and onward From the day it was chosen as a people and onward.

Go, ye swift messengers, and bring good tidings to the Israelites, that are fled or are driven into exile, and are now beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.

a nation punished in kind Heb. קַו-קָו [lit. a line for a line, i.e.,] when he is punished for his sin, he is punished in kind and given to be trampled. Alternatively, קַו-קָו is an expression of vomit (קִיא) (Lam. 3:45): “Loathsome and rejected.”

And in vessels of bulrushes. This phrase is added because of the rivers mentioned before,

river [figurative for] kings.

גוי ממשך ומורט A nation dragged and peeled.⁴A. V., Scattered and peeled. The Israelites are meant, that have been dragged from their homes like sheep, until they were flayed from the dragging.

To a terrible people. To the Ethiopians.

מן הוא From thence.⁵A. V., From their beginning. From that people, or from those rivers.⁶ממֶּנּוּ ═ מן הוּא. The pronoun is sometimes written in full, instead of a suffix. That I. E., who is always very particular about the gender and number should have found in the singular הוא a reference to the plural נהרי rivers, is very strange. Instead of נהרי we have perhaps to read עֵבֶר נהרי

גוי קו קו A nation of line by line.⁷A. V., A nation meted out. A nation whose intellect is like that of a child, who is taught gradually, line by line. ומבוסה And therefore it is trodden down.

בזאו They have spoiled. א is to replace the second ז of the root which is omitted; comp. דליו they are thin⁸Root דלל to be poor. דללו ═ דליו as בזזו ═ בואו.
8a I. E. himself is of opinion that בָּזוּ ═ בזאו. See Moznaim, sub voce, המתחלפים, and Zahoth, On the Numerals, sub voce עשרים. (Prov. 26:7). This is the explanation of R. Moses Hakkohen.

Rivers. This is a figure for kings; comp. The water of the river⁹To this phrase Isaiah adds the explanation: The king of Assyria. (8:7)

All inhabitants of the world, etc. You need not send messengers for this, for when a standard of the mountains is raised, you shall see the ingathering of the exiles, and when a shofar is sounded you shall hear.

All ye inhabitants of the world. As if a banner were raised over the whole earth.

You shall hear, so as to know the work of the Lord, which He has done in the camp of Sennacherib.

I will rest from paying Esau his just deserts; I will turn away from all My affairs and I will look down upon My dwelling-place to do good to it.

I will take my rest. This refers to the divine glory¹⁰In order to remove the anthropomorphism, God takes rest, I. E. substitutes for God, or the pronoun referring to Him, the word שכינה (lit. dwelling,) the divine glory revealed in His works. This divine glory, he says, remained in Jerusalem, that is, revealed itself in the deliverance of the holy city from the threatened humiliation by Sennacherib. which remained.

like a clear heat upon herbs It will illuminate it and cause to shine like the clear heat of the sun on herbs. Comp. (II Kings 4:39) “To gather herbs (אוֹרוֹת) .”

ואביטה And I shall see.¹¹What I. E. means to say by this remark can hardly be discovered, unless we suppose that he read מכוני instead of במכוני—the word is quoted by I. E. without ב—and explained by this remark, the exceptional construction of the verb הביט with a noun without the preposition ב; he says that it has the meaning of ראה to see, which governs the accusative.

like a cloud of dew for which the reapers long, to refresh themselves during the heat of the harvest.

מכוני My dwelling-place, Jerusalem.

אויר צח ═ צח Pure air.¹²According to I. E. the words כחם צח אלי אור, must be rendered when the pure air is warm after the rain. A. V., Like a clear heat upon herbs.¹²According to I. E. the words כחם צח אלי אור, must be rendered when the pure air is warm after the rain. A. V., Like a clear heat upon herbs.

עלי אור After rain. Comp. ענן אורו the cloud of his rain¹³A. V., His bright cloud. (Job 37:11). The sun is also called אור, the moon too,—comp. אורים גדולים great luminaries¹⁴Sun and moon. (Ps. 136:7)—because they are the cause of the rain,^14aThe same remark is made by I.E. in Gen. 2:6. but of course only at the will of the Almighty.

For before the ripening of the harvest of Amalek and of Gog, when he has not yet filled his desire and his hope, that he plans to destroy his brothers.

when the blossom is past i.e., when its blossom is past and the grain is close to becoming ripe in its ears and before the buds of his vine become ripening grapes, ripened to the extent of being בֹּסֶר, i.e., when the grapes become as big as a white bean. This is called בֹּסֶר and also גֵּרוּעַ.

גומל Ripening, Comp. ויגמל And it ripened (Num. 17:23). יהיה נצה Will still be in the flower.

and he shall cut off i.e., the cutter shall cut off the tendrils; these are the branches and the boughs.

And He will cut off. The pronoun refers to God.

with pruning hooks sarpes in O.F. [serpes in Modern French].

הזלזלים The sprigs. The branches which are joined to the root; the word is hap. leg.

and the roots These are the roots of the vines, called ceps in O.F.

הנטישות The large branches, that spread (נטש) widely.

he cut [them] off Heb. הֵתַּז. i.e., to say that He shall slay the officers and the rulers of Esau and of Gog and his armies and his allies.

כרת ═ התז He cut. This verb is often met with in Rabbinical Hebrew.¹⁵Comp. Talmud Babli. Gittin 70a, Synhedrin, 52b. The two verbs in the past follow each other without a conjunction, like חמק עבר Hath gone, passed by (Song 5:6). The meaning of the verse is: The Assyrians will perish before the fruit of their devices will be ripe.

They shall be left [i.e.,] their corpses.

They will be left, etc. The host of Assyria, having been destroyed through the angel, will be left, etc.

to the birds of the mountains Heb. לְעֵיט הָרִים, to the birds of the mountains.

לעיט To the fowl (comp. Gen. 15:11); its forms are like those of שֵׁשׁ (Est. 1:6), and שַׁיִשׁ (1 Chron. 29:2), marble.

shall spend the summer upon them All the days of the summer.

וקץ And shall summer. Comp. קיץ summer (Gen. 8:22).

shall spend the winter All the days of the winter. From there they deduced that the judgment of Gog in the future shall be twelve months.

תחרף Shall winter. Comp. הֹרֶף winter (Gen. 8:22).—The beasts will remain there to eat the corpses of the killed.

שי Present. Comp. Ps. 76:12.

A people dragged and peeled. Israel, who has been dragged and flayed during the period of his captivity, will now be brought, to the honour of God, to His abode on Mount Zion. According to R. Moses Hakkohen, this chapter describes the redemption announced by the words—The Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of the people, etc.¹⁶This verse describes, according to R. Moses Hakkohen, the deliverance of the Israelites in the time of Hezekiah. Comp. I. E. on 11:11. (11:11.