פירוש על ישעיהו 21:2

A harsh prophecy The prophet says, “This harsh prophecy concerning Babylon was told to me.”

חזות A vision.

the traitor shall be betrayed Jonathan renders: The robbers are robbed and the plunderers are plundered. The Hebrew wording, according to the Targum, is to be explained thus: The traitor another will come and betray him; and the plunderer another will come and plunder him. These are Persia and Media, who rob and plunder Babylon, who, until now plundered and robbed all the countries.

Grievous for Babylon.

march, Elam and come upon them (lit., her).

Unto me. The first person refers to the prophet.⁴This is not the opinion of I. E. himself, as he remarks below, in this same verse; the first person refers to Belshazzar, who is here represented as speaking.

besiege, O Media (צוּרִי). I.e., besiege Babylon with a siege. Comp. (II Sam. 22:3) “God is my rock (צוּרִי).” The accent is on the latter syllable, on the “resh,” whereas, in this case, the accent is on the first syllable, like “rise (קוּמִי),” “return (שׁוּבִי).”

The treacherous dealer, etc. He who wishes to be treacherous and rebellious will be able to be so, and he who wishes to rob will be able to rob.

all sighs have I brought to an end (אַנְחָתָה). (This is) not (spelled with a) “Mappiq heh,” (which would mean “her sigh”) for this is like “all sighs in the world,” and it is an expression denoting a great sigh of many people (sospiradic in O.F.). All sighs have I brought to an end, for the world was sighing because of the yoke of the kingdom of Babylon; now I have brought it to an end.

Elam. A Persian province.⁵See c. xiii. Note 7.

צוּרִֽי Besiege. Root צור to besiege; comp. וצרת and thou wilt besiege (Deut. 20:12). It has the accent on the last syllable, like שׁוּבִֽי return (Ps. 116:7).⁶The regular form is צֽוּרִי. The accent of the verbs ע״ו and עיע, remains on the first letter of the root as long as the principal rules of the Hebrew accentuation permit it.

All the sighing thereof have I made to cease. Some explain, None will be left that should sigh for Babylon; others, All the sighing she has caused, has ceased. I think that the whole passage, from the beginning of this verse⁷The text has the words מתחלת כל אנחתה, from the beginning of ‘All sighing thereof;’ but if I. E. intended to say, from the words ‘ All sighing thereof,’ he would have said מכל אנחתה, from All the sighing thereof; besides, I. E. says distinctly in giving the context, that the preceding words were also spoken by Belshazzar. The translation is based on the conjecture, that the original copy had the words מתחלת הפסוק from the beginning of the verse, instead of מתחלת כל אנחתה, from the beginning of ‘ All the sighing thereof.’—I. E. seems to have read אַנְחָתָהּ with a Dagesh. till the end of the chapter, is the speech which the prophet put into the mouth of King Belshazzar; for it is well known that the prophet rejoiced in the fall of Babylon; how, then, could he have said, Therefore are my loins filled with pain (ver. 3)? The connection is as follows: the king says, When I heard the cry, ‘ Go up, O Elam ‘—the soldiers used to call out in battle the name of their country—I made all her sighing cease with musical instruments; the vessels of the house of the Lord were brought, and they⁸The Hebrew text has ושתה, And he drank; but this is probably a part of the speech of Belshazzar, since it is continued even in the next verse, and it explains how Belshazzar made the sighing of Babylon cease; not only by music, but also by drinking, and using for this purpose the holy vessels of the Temple of Jerusalem; instead of ושתה, the plural ושתו is to be read. drank out of them, while Babylon was in siege and distress.⁹Comp. Dan. 5:1, and 5:30.