Commentary for Isaiah 43:24
לֹא־קָנִ֨יתָ לִּ֤י בַכֶּ֙סֶף֙ קָנֶ֔ה וְחֵ֥לֶב זְבָחֶ֖יךָ לֹ֣א הִרְוִיתָ֑נִי אַ֗ךְ הֶעֱבַדְתַּ֙נִי֙ בְּחַטֹּאותֶ֔יךָ הוֹגַעְתַּ֖נִי בַּעֲוֺנֹתֶֽיךָ׃ (ס)
Thou hast bought Me no sweet cane with money, Neither hast thou satisfied Me with the fat of thy sacrifices; But thou hast burdened Me with thy sins, Thou hast wearied Me with thine iniquities.
Rashi on Isaiah
Neither did you purchase cane for Me with money for incense. You did not have to purchase it with money, for it was very common in your land. Said Rabbi Abba: Cinnamon grew in the Land of Israel, and goats and deer would eat of it. In Midrash Eichah (Proem X). ([Some manuscripts read:] Neither did you purchase cane for Me with money for incense, for you failed to offer to Me what you should have, and you were attracted to idolatry.)
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Ibn Ezra on Isaiah
קנה בשם═קנה Sweet cane (Ex. 30:23).
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Rashi on Isaiah
But you have burdened Me [lit. you have overworked Me.] You have caused Me to be an attendant to pagans, as Ezekiel envisioned (1:4): “And behold a tempest was coming from the north.” For the chariot of the Shechinah was returning from Babylon, where it had gone to conquer the whole world under the domination of Nebuchadnezzar, lest they say that He delivered His children into the hands of an inferior nation, as is found in Hagigah (13b).
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Ibn Ezra on Isaiah
וחלב זבחיך And with the fat of thy sacrifices, of thy sin offerings.24The word זבח is used in connection with שלמים to signify peace-offerings (Lev. 3:1), and as a complement of עולותיך, signifying all animal offerings except the holocaust (ib. 17:8), that is, peace and sin-offerings. The word occurring twice in <underline>this</underline> passage, is therefore explained to refer each time to a different kind of sacrifice. I. E. refers it first to peace-offerings, probably because of the expression neither hast thou honoured me; believing that sin-offerings can never be an honour to the Almighty; they can only be the symbol of a compensation or a satisfaction for wrongs done as it were against the Almighty; this is properly expressed by the verb הרויתני thou hast satisfied me, or thou hast filled me. Supply the preposition ב with before חלב fat; comp. בששת═ששת in six (Ex. 20:11).
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Ibn Ezra on Isaiah
But thou hast made me to serve. This is an anthropomorphism. Through thy sins I was considered by the nations as a slave that has no authority; the same idea is contained in the words which follow: Thou hast wearied me, etc.
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