פירוש על ישעיהו 28:16

Behold, I have laid a foundation This is the past tense. Comp. (Esther 1:8) “For so had the king established (יִסַּד).” And so must it be interpreted: Behold, I am He Who has already laid [a stone in Zion. Already] a decree has been decreed before Me, and I have set up the King Messiah, who shall be in Zion as an אֶבֶן בּוֹחֵן, a fortress stone, an expression of a fortress and strength. Comp. (infra 32:14) “A tower and a fortress (וּבֹחֵן).” Comp. also (supra 23:13) “They erected its towers (בַּחוּנָיו).”

הנני יִסַּד I will lay the foundation. יסד is an adjective,¹⁹יסד and שבח, according to I. E., may also be considered as participles of the Piël, the preformative מְ of the Piël and Pual being sometimes dropped. derived from a Piel like אִבַּד he hath destroyed (Lam. 2:9).²⁰The Piël past has two forms, פִּעְל and פִּעַל; it is with the latter that יִסַּד is compared, and therefore אִבַּד is quoted. Comp. Zahoth, On the Piël. Comp. ושבח אני and I praise (Koh. 4:2); which is likewise transitive.

a foundation well founded (מוּסַד מוּסָּד). The first one is voweled with a pattah because it is in the construct state, a foundation of a foundation, which is a solid foundation.

בחן Tower.²¹A. V., Tried. Comp. ובוחן and towers (32:14). Zion will be protected against the King of Assyria.

the believer shall not hasten Whoever believes this word shall not hasten it. He shall not say, “If it is true, let it come quickly.”

מוסד מוסד A sure foundation. The first מוסד is a noun, meaning foundation; it is a genitive, governed by the preceding noun יקרת the value of; the second is a participle Hophal, like מוסב; the ס has therefore a Dagesh, as a substitute for the omitted silent letter (ו).²²The Hebrew text has לבלוע הכפל to compensate for the omission of the duplicate; this does not refer to the ד, since the root is not סדד, but to the omission of ו, which is also noticed by the Masora; there should be two ו, one the mater lectionis, the other the first letter of the root. Comp. Zahoth, On the Hiphil.

Shall not make haste. For this prophecy refers to a very remote future.