Commentaire sur Isaïe 41:14

"That you shall accept from them": Not donation of grain, wine, and oil, but gold, silver, and bronze. The Blessed, Holy One said: I set up thirteen things for you in Egypt; you, too, should offer thirteen. The thirteen which [God] did in Egypt are written down by Ezekiel: "I clothed you with embroidered garments, and gave you sandals of dolphin leather to wear, and wound fine linen about your head, and dressed you in silks. I decked you out in finery and put bracelets on your arms and a chain around your neck. I put a ring in your nose, and earrings in your ears, and a splendid crown on your head....the choice flour, the oil, and the honey, which I had provided for you to eat" (Ezekiel 16:10-12, 19) -- which come to thirteen. You, too, should offer me thirteen things: gold, silver, bronze; blue, purple, and crimson yarns; fine linen, goats’ hair; tanned ram skins, dolphin skins, and acacia wood, oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the aromatic incense; lapis lazuli and other stones for setting" (Exodus 25:4-7).....

O worm of Jacob Heb. תּוֹלַעַת. The family of Jacob, which is weak like a worm, which has no strength except in its mouth. תּוֹלַעַת is vermener in O.F., [vermisseau in Modern French, a worm].

Thou worm Jacob, Israel had been considered by the Babylonians as worms. Fear not, that you will be killed together with the Babylonians.

the number of Israel Heb. מְתֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, the number of Israel.

עזרתיך I will help thee. The future is here expressed by the past (עזרתיך), because all the divine decrees concerning the future, are considered as sure as if they were already fulfilled; besides the difference between past and future exists only with regard to created beings.²¹to God all all eternity is one indivisible whole. Time and space and their divisions are not in real existence, but postulates of and for our reason and imagination