Commentaire de citation sur Isaïe 8:5

ויוסף אברהם ויקח אשה, “Avraham continued life as usual by taking a wife;” this is a reference to Hagar who now had a another name, Keturah. We find a similar formulation to the above in Isaiah 8,5: ויוסף ה' דבר אלי עוד, “the Lord continued by speaking to me again;” the Torah wished to teach us civilised norms by reporting this, i.e. that when widower’s sons have grown up but have not married yet, he should wait with remarrying until his children are married. (According to matnot kehunah in Breshit Rabbah the apparently superfluous word ויוסף, “he continued,” is to teach us that it was the same woman to whom he had been married once before, i.e. Hagar.) In order to make the point that a widower under the right conditions is to marry again is why the above line has been written immediately after the Torah had reported the marriage of Yitzchok to Rivkah.

מקום אשר יוסף אסור שם, the Torah had to write this so that we understand how these prisoners came to tell Joseph their dreams, the dreams which became instrumental in Joseph being released from prison, eventually. The word מקום here is in a construct mode to the word אשר. Hence we have only a sheva under the letter מ instead of the full vowel kametz. Similar constructions are found in Job 18,21 מקום לא ידע א-ל, “a place for people who did not know G’d. (no kametz under the מ in the word מקום. The same applies to Isaiah 8,6 ומשוש את רצין, where the word משוש does not have the vowel kametz under the letter מ as it is in a construct mode to רצין בן רמליהו.

with the overwhelming power of prophecy [Lit., with strength of the hand.] When the prophecy became more intensive over me, when He continued to speak concerning this matter, as it is written above (v. 5): “And the Lord continued to speak to me.” And in this language, Ezekiel said, (3: 14): “And the hand of the Lord became strong over me.” This is an expression of prophecy.