Commentary for Isaiah 3:17

And the Lord shall smite with zaaraath Heb. וְשִׂפַּח. This is an expression of zaraath [believed to be a form of leprosy, see Commentary Digest II Kings 5:1], as (in Leviticus 13:6): “It is a mispachath (מִסְפַּחַת).” But since it is written with a ‘sin,’ our Sages expounded about it that they would become enslaved maidservants (שְׁפָחוֹת), and some expounded it to mean that He smote them with many families (מִשְׁפָּחוֹת) of lice.

ושפח And he will smite with a scab. It has the same root as מספחת scab (Lev. 13:6), although written with שׂ; comp. בסורי ═ בשׂורי when I turn away (Hos. 9:12).

shall pour out their “vessels” Heb. פָּתְהֵן יְעָרֶה. Their vessels He shall pour out. This is the Aramaic language, like “a black vessel” פַּתְיָא אוּכְמָא [in] (Pesachim 88a). They would say, Let Him hurry and hasten His deed, to bring on the invaders. An officer will see me and take me. When the retribution came, Nebuchadnezzar’s officers took them for wives because of their beauty. Thereupon, the Holy One, blessed be He, signaled to their ‘fountains,’ and blood of an issue flowed from them profusely, as a person pours from one vessel to another. They became loathsome to them, and they cast them to the ground from upon their chariots (Lamentations Rabbah 4:15). Jonathan, however, rendered: He will remove their glory. פתהן means wideness or greatness.

פתהן Some supply א, so that פאתהן ═ פתהן the locks of their head ; but I compare it rather with הפותות the hinges (1 Kings 7:50), that is, the back of the doors, and find in this verse the description of the plagues of the whole body, from the head to the foot.