פירוש על ישעיהו 59:5

vipers a species of harmful snake.

They hatch, etc. They are compared with the cockatrice’s eggs, when they open themselves.⁵A. V., They hatch cockatrice’s eggs. I. E. supplies the relative כאשר when. The Hebrew text has the words: המשילם שהם כביצי צפעוני. Lit., he compared them, (saying) that they are like the eggs of the cockatrice. This passage seems to be corrupt, because, in the first place, if I. E. intended only to say that the prophet compared them with the eggs of the cockatrice, he would have said המשילם לביצי צפעוני, or אמר שהם כביצי צפעוני; secondly, the whole remark would, in that case, be superfluous; thirdly, from the preceding remark of I. E., in which thoughts and words are pointed at as meant by the prophet, it may be inferred, that the commentator will show in this remark that the prophet speaks of the deeds of the people. It is, therefore, probable that the words in question are a corruption of the original מעשיהם לביצי צפעוני המשיל, he compares their deeds with the eggs, etc.

hatched Heb. בִּקְּעוּ, eskloterant in O.F. That is to say that they committed ugly deeds, from which they did not benefit.

וקורי עכביש The web⁶The Hebrew text has ידוע well-known; but יריעה, a web, a curtain, is meant. The same expression is used by Kimchi in explaining the word קורי. of the work of a spider.

and...spider webs Irajjne in O.F., spider, and קוּרֵי is ordiojjrs in O.F., warp. קוּרֵי are the implements of the weaver, those upon which the warp is mounted. Menahem (Machbereth Menahem p. 158) classifies it in the class of קוֹרוֹת, beams, since the spider mounts the warp of his weavings on beams.

Of their eggs. Of the eggs of the cockatrice.

and what hatches Heb. וְהַזּוּרֶה. Jonathan renders: וּמְשַׁחְנָן, an expression of warming, called in O.F. kover [couve], hatching when one warms them, it emerges from them when he cracks the shell. The original meaning of וְהַזּוּרֶה is an expression of pressing to extract what is absorbed within. Comp. (Jud. 6:38) “And pressed (וַיָּזַר) the fleece.” The pressing of this one is its hatching.

וְהַזּוּרֶה And that which is crushed. It is an irregular form; the Segol under ר is substituted for Kamez, as in ולנה and it shall remain (Zec. 5:4.) זורה is participle passive; comp. מולים circumcised (Jos. 5:5); סוגה set about (Songs 7:2). As to its meaning comp. ויזר and he pressed⁷A.V., And thrust together. (Jud. 6:38). If one presses the egg, the cockatrice breaks through and comes out. אפעה Viper. Comp. 30:6

viper Heb. אֶפְעֶה, a species of snake that is harmful, so will nothing result from their deeds but evil.