Commentaire sur Isaïe 47:13

astrologers Heb. הֹבְרֵי שָׁמַיִם. Jonathan renders it like ‘the gazers of the heavens,’ who gaze at the constellations of the heavens. He compares it to (Song 6:10) “Clear (בָּרָה) as the sun,” and to (Job 33: 3) “Spoke a clear (בָּרוּר) word.” And so did Menahem associate it with them (Machbereth Menahem p. 47f.); those who clarify the orbit of the constellations, and he interpreted it thus because the diviners are unable to determine the seconds of the day and the night until the heaven is perfectly clear to them. Micah, too, said in prophecy (3:6), “It has become too dark for you to divine.” This teaches us that on a dark day the stars are sealed, and they cannot divine (ibid. p. 13).

עֲצׇתׇיׅךְ Thy counsels. It is an irregular form, a combination of the singular and plural; comp. מֲכּׂתְךְ thy plagues (Deut. 28:59), which shows the same peculiarity in the opposite order.²⁰The possessive pronoun of the second person feminine is –ֵךְ or –ַיׅךְ the former, if connected with a noun in the singular, the other, if connected with a noun in the plural; the regular forms for the two words are accordingly עֲצָתֵךְ thy counsel, or עֲצוֹתַיׅךְ thy counsels; מַכְּתֵךְ thy plague, or מַכּוֹתַיִךְ thy plagues.

the monthly prognosticators of what will come upon you For when the moon is in its first phase [lit. renewed], they see at the time of its ‘birth’ part of what is destined to come, but they do not know it clearly. Therefore, it is stated, “of what.” Similarly, he says elsewhere (supra 8:19): “who chirp and mutter,” like these birds who chirp and mutter and do not know why.