פירוש על ישעיהו 17:6

And...shall be left in it Hezekiah and his company, who are inside Jerusalem. They are few people like the gleanings of a vineyard and like the cutter of an olive tree, who leaves over two or three berries.

כנוקף As the shaking of. Comp. ונקף and he will cut down (10:34); ינקופו let them kill (29:1).

like the cutter of an olive tree Heb. כְּנֹקֶף, like the one who cuts olives to pick them from the tree. Comp. (infra 10:34) “And the thickets of the forest shall be cut off (וְנִקַּף).” Our Rabbis expounded: “And...shall be left in it,” as referring to Sennacherib’s army; i.e., there shall be left in the multitude of Sennacherib a few people like the cutter of an olive tree, as it is stated in the Aggadah of ‘Chelek’ (95b).