פירוש על ישעיהו 38:13

I made [myself] myself all night to suffer the tortures of the illness, and I strengthened myself like a lion to suffer.

שויתי I made equal; supply נפשי myself;¹⁸A. V., I reckoned that. or I compared the illness¹⁹In either case שויתי must be considered as an elliptical phrase; but the ellipsis of נפשי, which turns the transitive verb into a reflective one, is more natural. The sense of the whole sentence is: I made myself a lion, in resisting the fierce attacks of the illness; or, I considered the illness as a lion, that tried to break my bones.¹⁹In either case שויתי must be considered as an elliptical phrase; but the ellipsis of נפשי, which turns the transitive verb into a reflective one, is more natural. The sense of the whole sentence is: I made myself a lion, in resisting the fierce attacks of the illness; or, I considered the illness as a lion, that tried to break my bones. in its fierce attacks on me, with a lion which generally breaks the bones. From day even to night it maketh peace with me, to my great surprise, after the attacks during the night.²⁰This remark is to explain the repetition of this idea in this verse, after its having been expressed in the same words in the preceding one.

so it would break my bones Comp. (Ex. 1:12) “So they would multiply and so they would spread.” The more I would strengthen myself, so the illness would overpower me to break all my bones.