Comentario sobre Isaías 28:29

This too, etc. This too, like the custom of threshers of grain and those who flail black cumin and cumin, comes forth from the Holy One, blessed be He.

הפליא עצה Who is wonderful in counsel.

He gave marvelous counsel to show you hints in the manner of riddles and with an allegory, marvelous and obscure, for, just as with the cumin and the black cumin, with which they do not deal harshly by overthreshing them because they are easily flailed, so, if you would hasten to accept reproof, He would not bear heavily upon you with decrees, but since you are hard to accept reproof, like the grain that is hard to thresh, therefore, He will mete out heavy punishment upon you ([printed editions] - He will make it very heavy for you), but He will not strive and smite forever, ([certain editions]He will not strive and crush forever to destroy) just as one does not thresh forever, and His arrows and His blows shall terminate but you shall not terminate, in the manner that the wagon wheel breaks, but the wheat is not crushed. [If, however, you were easily destroyed, he would not test you with harsh afflictions, like the flax merchant, when he knows that his flax is of high quality, he beats it.]

תושיה הגדיל Who is great in wisdom.³⁸A. V., Excellent in working. R. Moses Hakkohen derives הושיה from יש substance.³⁹Comp. Commentary (assigned to I. E.) on Prov. 2:7: The wisdom is called תושיה, substance, because it is true substance, it is everlasting.—The nature of the earth and the seeds is better than the character of man, who hears the words of the prophet without any profit The reverse⁴⁰To listen to the words of the prophet with advantage. is expressed by a similar figure: Let my doctrine drop like rain, as I explained (Deut. 32:2)