Comentario sobre Isaías 54:18

Sing, you barren woman Jerusalem, who was as though she had not borne.

O barren, thou that didst not bear. The congregation of Israel is called barren and a woman that did not bear—the latter attribute being the explanation of the former—because of its small number.

you who have not experienced birth pangs Heb. חָלָה, an expression of childbirth, for the woman in confinement gives birth with pains and writhing.

צהלי ,פצחי. I have already explained these two words.¹Comp. I. E. on 14:7, 52:9, and 10:30.

for the children of the desolate one The daughter of Edom.

לא חלה That didst not travail with child. Comp. חיל trembling (Ex. 15:14); repeat עקרה O barren before מבני בעולה .חלה לא Than the children of the married wife, that is, than the children of Babylon,²The explanation introduced by the words על דעת רמ״ה ועל דרך אמת, This is the opinion of Rabbi Moses Hakkohen, but I think, refers doubtlessly to the words בני בעולה, the children of the married woman. The opinion of R. Moses Hakkohen is missing in the printed edition of this Commentary. according to the opinion of R. Moses Hakkohen, but I think, that every nation that has a husband (בעל), that is, every nation that has its own king, is meant here by בעולה the married wife.³This is again an allusion to the difference of opinion between R. Moses Hakkohen and I. E., regarding the subject of these prophecies (xl.—lxvi.). They both agree in the meaning of the figure; but while the one applies it to Babylon, the other applies it to all countries whither Jews have been dispersed through the Roman exile.

and let them stretch forth far off.

Enlarge the place of thy tent, because of the larger number of thy children.

lengthen your cords These are thin ropes that hang at the bottom of tents, and that are tied to stakes called ‘chevills’ in French, which are thrust into the ground.

יטו Let them stretch forth. Let the children of the desolate stretch forth, or let people stretch forth;⁴Comp. I. E. on 2:4, and Note 5. comp. ויאמר and one said (Gen. 48:1).

אל תחשכי Prevent⁵A. V., Spare not. not, the people from stretching forth the curtains of thy tent.

Thy cords. The cords of thy tent.—The restoration of the towns and villages is meant by this figure.

shall you prevail Heb. תִּפְרֹצִי, shall you prevail.

תפרוצי Thou Shalt spread.⁶A. V., Thou shalt break forth. Comp. ופרצת and thou shalt spread abroad (Gen. 28:14). Some connect it with פרץ to break forth⁷That is, to break forth from within the boundaries of the place in order to occupy a larger space. (2 Sam. 6:8).

And thy seed, etc. This is the explanation of the preceding figure.

יושיבו They shall make to be inhabited. The third person plural they refers to זרעך thy seed.⁸I. E. makes this observation, as if to say, that in spite of the change in number (יירש sing., יושיבו pl.) the noun זרעך is the subject to both verbs.

your youth Heb. עֲלוּמַיִךְ, your youth.

לא תחפירי Thou shalt not be ashamed. Comp. וחפרה and shall be confounded (24:23). Fear not, while being in exile.

The shame of thy youth. The exile of the youths is to be understood;⁹This is the translation of the words רמז לגלות עלומיך; but עלומיך is rather suspicious; for first, the third person עלומיה is required; secondly, I. E. would not have used the same word in explaining the phrase. From the context we may infer that גלות מצרים the stay of the Israelites in Egypt is meant. or the phrase refers to the period of the first and second temple,¹⁰עלומיך, according to this explanation, is thy vigour or the period of thy vigour—that is, the period of the independence of the Israelites, the opposite of אלמנותיך thy widowhood, the period of weakness and bereavement. According to the former explanation, עלומיך thy youth refers, as suggested in the preceding note, to the time when the Israelites had not yet taken possession of their land;

אלמנותיך, thy widowhood, to a later period, when they had been dispossessed of it. when the Israelites were sometimes visited with great calamities. Thy widowhood. The loss of thy independence.

בּוֹעֲלַיִךְ ,עשַׁׂיִךְ Thine husband, thy Maker. As to the use of the plural,¹¹בּוֹעֲלַיִךְ ,עשַֹׁיִךְ instead of בּוֹעֲלֵךְ ,עוֹשֵֹךְ. comp. בְּעשׇׁיו in Him that made him (Ps. 149:2); אלהים God; אדונים Lord; I have explained this in my commentary on Genesis (1:1).¹²I. E. calls this form דרך כבוד (pluralis majestatis), and compares it with the use of the plural in modern languages in addressing one person, and with the plural used by sovereigns when speaking in their edicts of themselves. בועליך Thine husband is here used for מלכך thy King. and עשיך thy Maker for אלהיך thy God.¹³The Hebrew text has the words והנה טעם בועליך כמו מלכך ואלהיך כמו. Lit. The meaning of thy husband is thy king and thy God, as e.g.; in his remark on בעולה (ver. 1), I. E. says that the king is the husband of the country; we separate therefore ואלהיך from מלכך, and consider it as the explanation of ועשיך, which is to be supplied; the emended text would be ועשיך כמו ואלהיך.

The God of the whole earth shall He be called. All nations will accept the divine Law. Comp. For then will I turn to the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, etc., (Zeph. 3:9)

who was rejected When she is rejected at times that her husband is a little wroth with her.

As a woman forsaken, etc. The reproach of Israel’s widowhood, the scorn heaped upon the Israelites by other nations, for not having a king of their own, having been mentioned before (ver. 4), the prophet continues in the name of God: Israel has been, it is true, like a woman that is forsaken, and has grieved at the absence of her husband, but her husband is yet alive, etc.; comp. thy Maker is thy husband, etc., (ver. 5)—עצובת grieved is an adjective, not a participle, which it resembles in form—the text continues therefore, the Lord hath called thee.¹⁴The Lord hath called thee to come unto Him, as the husband calls his wife, after having left her for a short time. ואשת נעורים כי תמאס And like a wife of youth, when she is refused,¹⁵A. V., When thou wast refused. thou hast been.

ברגע For a moment. The preposition ב is here pleonastic as in בתחלה at the beginning בראשונה at first.¹⁶The Hebrew text has בראשון; but since this word has the meaning in the first month, it is to be emended into בראשנה, at first; comp. I. E. on 1:26.—The ב in ברגע may justly be considered as superfluous, since רגע is here used as a noun, and the accusative without the preposition ב would likewise express the duration of time. This is not the case with בתחלה, which without the preposition is a noun, the beginning; with the preposition it is an adverb meaning at first. Some say that the meaning of רגע is rebuke; comp. רוגע who rebuketh.¹⁷A. V., That divided. (51:15); their opinion is supported by the parallelism of the verse.¹⁸By the parallelism רגע is the opposite of רחמים mercy.

With a little wrath Heb. שֶׁצֶף. Menahem (Machbereth p. 179) interprets this as, “with kindling of wrath,” and Dunash (Teshuvoth p. 20) states, “with a little wrath,” paralleling “For a small moment have I forsaken you,” and so did Jonathan render.

בשצף In a little. It is hap. leg.

and with everlasting kindness that will exist forever.

With everlasting kindness, etc. This is the opposite of the idea expressed in, I hid my face for a moment. The kingdom of Israel will remain for ever (comp. Dan. 7:27); and the days of the exile, though many, will be like a moment in comparison with the everlasting days of the future happiness.

For this is to Me [as] the waters of Noah [i.e.,] it is an oath in My hand, and He proceeds to explain His words, “as I swore that the waters of Noah shall never again pass over the earth, etc.”

The waters of Noah. The flood that was in the days of Noah.

This, namely, the punishment, which I decreed, and the comfort which I promised.¹⁹The punishment is compared with the flood, the comfort with the promise which was then given by the Lord, that the flood should never be brought again.

And as I have sworn, that the waters of Noah, that is, a flood like that in the days of Noah, should no more go over the earth. Comp. Neither will I again smite any more every thing living as I have done, (Gen. 8:21).

That I would not be wroth with thee, etc. This expression is used because Israel has been compared with a forsaken woman.²⁰I. E. could better refer to the same word קצף wrath, used before (ver. 8).

For the mountains shall depart Even if the merit of the Patriarchs and the Matriarchs is depleted, My kindness shall not depart from you.

The mountains shall depart, etc. It is possible that the mountains should depart, but my kindness cannot depart from thee. The covenant of my peace, etc.²¹I. E. seems to have read שלמך thy peace, instead of שלמי my peace. A figure taken from the mutual promise between husband and wife, who live together in peace and happiness.

תמוטינה Shall be removed. It is the same form as תשובֶינׇה (Ez. 16:55); the plural feminine of the verb ע״ו has two forms.²²נׇה with preceding Sheva, and נׇה with preceding Segol (–ֶי); e.g., תׇּשֹׁבְנׇה and תְּשׁוּבֶינׇה

tempestuous one whose heart storms with many troubles.

"Poor one." After the prophet already prophesied that the barren one would have many children, which is an allegory for the ingathering of the exiles, he describes that at that time Zion will still not be rebuilt on her hill. This poor one, who is Zion, will still storm in the rage of her spirit because she still is not comforted. (This was similarly expressed above in chapter 49, "Behold, these shall come from afar... -- And Zion will say, the Lord has abandoned me..." which is similarly expressing that at the time of the ingathering, Zion would yet sit in ruins, as I explained there.) He is saying: 'the barren woman' is already filled with joy, because 'many are the children of the desolate'; but the 'poor one' is still 'storming, still 'not comforted,' i.e., the land is filled with people returned from the exile, yet Zion is still not built. God replies to her: "Behold, I set your floor-stones with puch" -- the stones on which the foundation rests will be Nofech-stones, and the foundation itself will be of Sapir-stones.

This was said about Jerusalem, that she is like a poor afflicted one shivering as if from a storm wind and there is no one to console her

סוערה Tempestuous; comp. סוער (Jon. 1:11); or Tossed with tempest. Jerusalem is meant.^22aThe Hebrew text has the words והיא זאת ירושלים; either והיא or זאת is superfluous, or בת is to be read instead of זאת.

I will set with carbuncle I pave your floor with carbuncle stones.

פוך A precious stone of black colour. Some think that it is the same as נפך, an emerald (Ex. 28:18).

Thy stones, which will be required for the building.

ספירים Sapphires. Precious stones of red colour, as I have explained²³Saadiah is of opinion that ספיר signifies a stone of white colour, because of the expression לבנת הספיר, the white colour of the sapphire (Ex. 24:10). I. E., however, explains the latter phrase, the pavement of a sapphire stone, and infers, by means of the rule of parallelism, that ספיר has the same colour as פנינים, of which the verb אדמו they are red is used (Lam. 4:7). (Lam. 4:7)

jasper Heb. כַּדְכֹד, a kind of precious stone.

Kadkhod is the gemstone called Shoham, according to the Sages.

כדכד Agates. It is hap. leg.; it is the name of a precious stone.

your windows Jonathan renders: your woodwork, and Menahem associated it with (Dan. 7:10): “ministered to Him (יְשַׁמְּשׁוּנֵהּ).” (Menahem, apparently renders: your utensils, i.e., the vessels that serve you.) And some interpret it as an expression of a sun (שֶׁמֶשׁ), windows through which the sun shines, and they make opposite it a barrier of kinds of colored glass for beauty, and Midrash Psalms interprets שִׁמְשׁוֹתַיִךְ as well as שֶׁמֶשׁ וּמָגֵן (Ps. 84:12) as “the pinnacles of the wall.”

Nofech was the tribal gemstone of Yehuda, and is the symbol of kingship; Sapir was the tribal gemstone of Yissachar, and is the symbol of wisdom and of Torah. These two will be the foundation of the building: the crown of Torah and the crown of kingship.

ושמשתיך And thy windows. It is derived from שמש sun. It signifies the apertures, which are closed with glass²⁴שמשה is the name of the aperture through which the sunlight (שמש) passes into the house; in the earlier centuries they were not filled at all, or they were closed with oil paper; in the time of I. E. glass windows seem to have been introduced, but only in houses of a grand style. Here still more is promised. Precious, transparent stones shall be used as windows in all houses, and even over the gates. The Hebrew text has: ישימו זכוכיות והן בחלונות; it is rather difficult to find the meaning of these words; in the inverted order they read very well והן זכוכיות ישימו בחלונות and these are transparent things which are put in the windows. in stately palaces.

of carbuncle stones Heb. אֶקְדָּח. Jonathan renders: of gomer stones. Gumrin is the Aramaic translation of גֶּחָלִים, coals. He interprets אֶקְדָּח as an expression similar to (supra 50: 11) “who kindle (קֹדְחֵי) fire,” and they are a type of stones that burn like torches and that is the carbuncle (karbokle in O.F.), an expression of a coal. Others interpret it as an expression of a drill, i.e., huge stones of which the entire opening of the doorway is drilled, and the doorposts, the threshold, and the lintel are all hewn from the stone.

Shoham was the stone of Yosef, and is the symbol of success and wealth. This will be the window for sunshine, symbolizing "the delight of the sun's harvest" (Deuteronomy.33.14), an outpouring of wealth and success.

ושעריך And of thy gates.²⁵A. V., And thy gates. And the windows of thy gates.²⁶The words of the Hebrew text, והם המשמשות על השער, require some emendation. Firstly, there is no noun to which the masculine pronoun והם and these could refer; secondly, שמשות is derived from שמש sun, and not from the verb שמש to serve or to attend; thirdly, the word which they explain is missing; the original words are perhaps the following: ושעריך ֗ שמשות שעריך והן השמשות על השער. The translation is based on this suggestion.

of precious stones Desirable stones [from Jonathan].

Ekdach was the stone of Levi, a symbol of the Divine Service. This was the gate: "This is the gateway to Hashem; the righteous shall enter through it." (Psalms.118.20)

אקדח Carbuncles. A precious stone. The א is prosthetic; comp. קדחה is kindled (Deut. 32:22).

"And your entire boundary will be precious stones"; the stones of the remaining tribes will be set into the rest of the building.

To stones that are desired, that are not like those stones which are thrown about, and are of no value.

Also included is the idea that all the tribes will be united then, and will never again split into two kingdoms.

Discord and conflict in a country result from any of four causes, two internal and two external. A. poverty. This he precluded by describing the great wealth and success that would be theirs. B. religious disagreements and sectarian groups based on differences of dogma, as there were during the Second Temple, when the Sadducees and the Boethusians arose. Addressing this, the prophet said:

למודי Taught of. It is an adjective,^26aComp. c. iii., Note 5. and is used as a synonym of תלמיד pupil.

ורב And great shall be. It is a verb; the ו turns the past into the future.

go far away from oppression [Although grammatically this is the imperative, here it is the future,] like (supra 52:2) “Shake yourself from the dust.” You will be far away from those who oppress you.

תכנני Shalt thou be established. It is Hithpael. The ת is omitted and compensated by the Dagesh in the כ. In righteousness, etc. Israel will do justice to all, and will oppress no people, as the heathen nations are used to do.²⁷המלכים the kings of the Hebrew text is perhaps a corruption of המלכות, a general term, used to signify the governments by which the Israelites were kept in a sort of slavery and degradation.

Printed editions of Rashi contain the following addendum: (go far away from oppression You will stay far from oppressing other peoples in the manner the wicked do, that they accumulate money through robbery, but you will not need to rob, for you will not fear poverty or straits, or ruin, for it shall neither come nor shall it approach you. [Abarbanel])

Thou shalt not fear. For the sin of oppression and violence deprives the state of its power.

(With righteousness that you will perform, you will be established with an everlasting redemption, and you will be far from people’s oppression for you will not fear; you will not even have terror or fear of them, and you will be far from ruin, for it will not come near you. [Ayalah Sheluchah])

Behold, the one with whom I am not, shall fear Heb. גּוֹר יָגוּר. Behold, he shall fear and dread evil decrees, he with whom I am not, i.e., Esau. ([Mss. read:] the wicked Esau and his ilk.)

גור יגור. According to R. Jonah: they will surely gather together; comp. ממגורות barns,²⁸Lit., the places where the corn is gathered together. (Joel 1:17). The meaning of the whole verse is accordingly: Is it possible, that any alliance should be made except with my permission ? (The alliance between Gog and Magog is here referred to.)

whoever mobilizes against you Heb. גָר. Whoever mobilizes against you for war. Alternatively, מִי גָר [means:] whoever contends with you (וְנִתְגָּרֶה). And our Rabbis explained it as referring to the proselytes (גֵּרִים), [i.e.,] to say that we will not accept proselytes in Messianic times. And even according to the simple meaning of the verse it is possible to explain: whoever became sojourners with you in your poverty, shall dwell with you in your wealth. Comp. (Gen. 25:18) “In the presence of all his brethren he dwelt (נָפָל).”

He who is now thy ally, and will then become thy enemy, will fall.²⁹This explanation seems to be based on the meaning of the two prepositions אתך and את ;עליך with indicates alliance, friendship; על against, enmity and war. I take גור יגור in its usual meaning and explain the verse thus: Can there dwell any stranger with thee in my land, except it be with my will; he who desires to dwell with thee in my land, עליך יפול must surrender to thee.³⁰A. V., Shall fall for thy sake. The verb נפל has here the same meaning as in אל הכשדים אתה נופל thou fallest away to the Chaldӕans (Jer. 37:13); and in על פני כל אחיו נפל he surrendered to all his brethren (Gen. 25:18); namely: to submit to the authority of.³¹In his commentary on Gen. 23:18, I. E. gives three meanings of the verb נפל in the two passages quoted here: 1. His lot or portion fell. 2. He went away. 3. He died. The meaning adopted here to surrender, is not even mentioned there.

Behold I am He Who created a smith who devises a weapon, and I am He Who has created a destroyer that destroys it. That is, to say: I am He Who incited the enemy against you; I am He Who has prepared retribution for him.

Behold, I have created the smith, etc. It is a figurative expression.

and produces a weapon for his work For necessity. He completes it according to all that is necessary.

ומוציא כלי למעשהו And that bringeth forth a vessel for its work.³²A. V., An instrument for his work. That bringeth forth a vessel out of the fire, to finish it. And I have also created the waster to destroy the instrument of the smith.

Any weapon whetted against you Any weapon that they will whet and sharpen for you, i.e., to battle with you.

יוצר עליך That is formed against thee. Shall not prosper, to become what it is destined to be; but it will be broken. יוצר Is formed. It is Hophal, similar in form to יוסר is taken away, (Lev. 4:35).

whetted Heb. יוּצַר, an expression similar to (Jos. 5:2) “sharp knives (חַרְבוֹתצֻרִים),” also (Ps. 89:44) “You have also turned the edge of his sword (צוּר חַרְבּוֹ).”

And every tongue, etc. This is the explanation of any weapon, etc.³³This same opinion, that the phrase every tongue, etc., is the explanation of the preceding verse, is indicated by I. E. in his remark on ver. 16, at the beginning, It is a figurative expression.

Thou shalt condemn. All nations will accept the religion of Israel, who will prove to them the falsity of the faiths they have hitherto followed.

The heritage which they will receive from the Lord, that is, the Law or the Holy Land.