Commento su Isaia 63:23

Who is this coming from Edom The prophet prophesies concerning what the Holy One, blessed be He, said that He is destined to wreak vengeance upon Edom, and He, personally, will slay their heavenly prince, like the matter that is said (supra 34:5), “For My sword has become sated in the heaven.” And afterward, (ibid.) “it shall descend upon Edom,” and it is recognizable by the wrath of His face that He has slain [them with] a great massacre, and the prophet is speaking in the expression of the wars of human beings, dressed in clothes, and when they slay a slaying, the blood spatters on their garments, for so is the custom of Scripture; it speaks of the Shechinah anthropomorphically, to convey to the ear what it can hear. Comp. (Ezek. 43:2) “His voice is like the voice of many waters.” The prophet compares His mighty voice to the voice of many waters to convey to the ear according to what it is possible to hear, for one cannot understand and hearken to the magnitude of the mighty of our God to let us hear it as it is.

Who is this that cometh. Some refer this to Messiah, others to the angel Michael;¹Comp. And there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael, your prince Dan. 10:21. but more correctly it may be referred to God.²The words השםִ הנכבד the honoured name of the Hebrew text are used instead of יי the Lord, by I. E., in order not to connect the description with dyed garments, etc., directly with God. Comp. I. E. on 42:8. This prophecy contains the decree made against Edom, that is, against the empire of Rome and Constantinople, who are called Edomites, because they adopted the Edomite religion—that is, the Christian religion—which was first established among the Edomites.^2aThe words This prophecy, etc., till among the Edomites, are omitted in some editions; they were either struck out by the censors, or left out by the printers from fear of the censorship.

Who is this coming from Edom Israel says, “Who is this, etc.?” And He is coming with soiled garments, colored with blood, and anything repugnant because of its smell and its appearance fits to the expression of חִמּוּץ, soiling.

חמוץ Stained. Comp. חומץ vinegar (Num. 6:3).³The two words seem, according to I. E., to be derived from חמץ to be red. See Gesenius Lex. Hebr. Chald.

from Bozrah Our Rabbis said (see Makkoth 12a): “The heavenly prince of Edom is destined to commit two errors. He thinks that Bozrah is identical with Bezer in the desert, which was a refuge city. He will also err insofar as it affords refuge only for inadvertent murder, but he killed Israel intentionally.” There is also an Aggadic midrash (see above 34:6) that because Bozrah supplied a king for Edom when its first king died, as in Gen. (36:33), “And Jobab the son of Zerah from Bozrah reigned in his stead,” and Bozrah is of Moab, according to the matter that is stated (Jer. 48:24): “Upon Kerioth and upon Bozrah.”

זה הדור בלבושו He that was so glorious⁴A. V., This that is glorious. in his apparel, how has he stained himself!

this one who was stately in His attire, צֹעֶה, and girded with the greatness of His strength. And the Holy One, blessed be He, replies to him, ‘It is I, upon Whom the time has come to speak of the righteousness of the Patriarchs, and of the righteousness of the generation of religious persecution, and My righteousness, too, is with them, and I have revealed Myself as being great to save.’ And they say, ‘Why is your clothing red? Why are your garments red?’

צעה Who bindeth⁵A. V., Travelling. others; comp. צועים וצעוהו oppressors, that will oppress him⁶Wanderers, that shall cause him to wander. (Jer. 48:12). The correctness of this explanation⁷That צעה is the participle of a transitive verb, in opposition to the opinion of R. Moses Hakkohen, who says, that צעה is a common noun (שם התואר See c. iii., Note 5). There is no grammatical difficulty in rendering בחו צעה ברב who bindeth people in the greatness of his strength; but the verb would be missing, if צעה were a noun. is confirmed by the words which follow: in the greatness of his strength. R. Moses Hakkohen says, that צועה is here as in 51:14, an adjective, not a transitive verb.—

The answer to the question Who is this, etc., is I that speak in righteousness, etc. רב Mighty. Comp. רב officer (Est. 1:8).

From Bozrah. Bozrah is the name of a place. It is as if He came from there, from the people of Bozrah, from Edom, and all those that follow the same religion, wherever they are.

ללבושך Thine apparel.⁸A. V., In thine apparel. Comp. c. xxxii., Note 1. The preposition ל is pleonastic as in 1) לאבשלום Chr. 3:2). Like him that treadeth in the winefat. Blood is in colour similar to wine.

and from the peoples, none was with Me standing before Me to wage war.

I have trodden, etc. This prophecy refers to the destruction of Edom, and the overthrow of the dominion of his religion.

and their lifeblood sprinkled Heb. נִצְחָם, Their blood, which is the strength and victory (נִצָּחוֹן) of a man.

I alone have thus decreed against Edom.

I soiled Heb. אֶגְאָלְתִּי. Comp. (Lam. 4:14) “They were defiled (נִגֹּאֲלוּ) with blood.”

ואדרכם And I trod them.⁹A. V., For I will tread them. And shall be sprinkled. And I will stain.⁹A. V., For I will tread them. And shall be sprinkled. And I will stain.<¹⁰See I. E. on 1:21, Note 43.sup>9A. V., For I will tread them. And shall be sprinkled. And I will stain. The form of the verb seems to indicate the future, but in fact the imperfect is meant.

וְיֵז And sprinkled. It is similar in form to וַיֵט and he stretched forth (Ex. 9:23).

נצחם Their blood. The blood is called נֶצַח lit. time, because t¹¹The phrase לנצח נצחים (34:10) is explained by I. E., להם זמנים אין קץ periods of time without end. Others compare נצחם their blood with נצח strength (1 Sam. 15:29), the purity and proper circulation of the blood being the essential condition of the health and strength of man; others, again, derive it from a root נזה═נצח to sprinkle. (Ges. Lex. Hebr. Chald.)hrough the blood man lives his time; it is of the same root as נצח for ever (34:10).

אגאלתי I stained. The א is here substituted for ה, the characteristic of the Hiphil, or the word is a compound of the past and future; I prefer the latter explanation. As to its meaning I stained, comp. יגאלהו shall stain it (Job 3:5)

For the day of vengeance, etc. For I will wreak vengeance against my enemies, and I will redeem my friends. גאולי My redeemed. It is participle passive plural with the suffix, first person, referring to God.

And I looked, and there was no one helping Israel.

And I looked, etc. This is a figurative expression; for in fact God does not need that.

and I was astounded An expression of keeping silent, and I have already explained it above (57:16): “And He was astounded for there was no intercessor.”

ואשתומם And I wondered. Compare my explanation of וישתומם (59:16)

and My fury that supported Me My fury that I have against the heathens (the nations [mss. and K’li Paz]), for I was a little wrath with My people, and they helped to harm them. That strengthened My hand and aroused My heart to mete recompense upon them although Israel is not fit and worthy of redemption.

And I trod Heb. וְאָבוּס. An expression of wallowing in blood and treading with the feet. Comp. (Ezekiel 16:6) “wallowing (מִתְבּוֹסֶסֶת) in your blood.” Comp. also (Jer. 12:10): “They trod (בֹּסְסוּ) My field.”

Nations. Other nations beside Edom.

their power Heb. נִצְחָם, the might of their victory.

ואוריד לארץ נצחם And I will pour out their blood¹¹The phrase לנצח נצחים (34:10) is explained by I. E., להם זמנים אין קץ periods of time without end. Others compare נצחם their blood with נצח strength (1 Sam. 15:29), the purity and proper circulation of the blood being the essential condition of the health and strength of man; others, again, derive it from a root נזה═נצח to sprinkle. (Ges. Lex. Hebr. Chald.) to the earth.

The kind acts of the Lord I will mention The prophet says, I will remind Israel of the kind acts of the Lord.

I will mention, etc. The wise of Israel will then acknowledge the great number of benefits bestowed upon them by God at the departure from Egypt, during the exile, and in their deliverance and restoration to their own country.

and much good I will remind Israel of what He bestowed upon the house of Israel with His mercies.

The praises of the Lord. The mention of the kindness of the Lord, is His praise.

ורב טוב And great in goodness.¹²A. V., And the great goodness. This is an attribute of the Lord.¹³By this remark I. E. reminds us not to confound the attribute of God רַב מוב Great in goodness, with רב מוּב the abundance of goodness ═ the great goodness. רַב is an adjective, רֹב an abstract noun.

They are but My people Although it is revealed before Me that they would betray Me, they are, nevertheless, My people, and they are to Me like children who will not deal falsely.

For he said. This is an anthropomorphism.¹⁴In reality, such a miscalculation cannot be attributed to the Omniscient; but the prophet means to say that God favoured the Israelites to such a degree that they ought to have been faithful servants of the Lord at all times. He thought they would become faithful children, and therefore he helped them.

In all their trouble that He would bring upon them.

לא The true meaning of the word is to Him;¹⁵I. E. usually follows the Keri, that is, the reading recommended by the Massorah; לו to him is here the Keri, לׂא not, the Ketib. and לא צר (lit., Unto Him was trouble), he was afflicted, has the same meaning as And His soul was grieved (Jud. 10:16). It is a figurative expression. He was, as it were, in distress, therefore He hastened to deliver them.

He did not trouble [them] He did not trouble them according to their deeds, that they deserved to suffer, for the angel of His presencei.e., Michael the prince of the Presence, of those who minister before Him saved them always as an agent of the Omnipresent.

And the angel of His presence. Comp. And sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt (Num. 20:16); this does by no means refer to Moses.^15aAlthough I. E. admits that the word מלאך angel or messenger is sometimes used of prophets (Comp. I. E. on 42:19), he refers it in this case to the angel in the usual sense of the word. Comp. I. E. on Num. 20:16.

וינטלם And he bare them. Comp. ונטל and the weight (Prov. 27:3). It refers to the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. And he carried them in their land. כל ימי עולם All the days of the long period of their stay in their own land.¹⁶עולם is, according to I. E., a long period, but its nature and limits must be gathered from the context; ימות עולם (Deut. 32:7) refers to the past; עד עולם (Ps. 90:2) for ever to the future; עד עולם (1 Sam. 1:22), the whole lifetime, etc., here I. E. infers from the preceding, And he carried them in their land, that it refers to the period during which they had possession of their land.

But they rebelled Heb. מָרוּ. They angered. Comp. (Deut. 9:7) “You were rebellious (מַמְרִים).”

ועצבו And vexed. Comp. אל תעצבו be not grieved (Gen. 45:5). And vexed His holy spirit. This is a figurative expression. Some understand by the holy spirit the angel of the Lord.¹⁷In order to remove the anthropomorphism. Comp. Targ. Jonathan וארגיזו על מימר נביאי קודשיה they acted provokingly against the words of His holy prophets. He fought against them till they left His land.

And His people remembered the days of old, [the days of] Moses The prophet laments and says in an expression of supplication, Today in exile, His people remembers the days of old, the days of Moses, and in its trouble, it says, Where is Moses our shepherd, who drew us up from the Reed Sea?

Then he remembered the days of old, the days that have passed.

[like] a shepherd his flock Compared to a shepherd who brings up his flock. Where is he who placed within Israel the Holy Spirit of the Holy One, blessed be He, and taught us statutes and ordinances?

משה עמו The days of Moses and his people.¹⁸A. V., Moses and His people. As to the asyndeton משה עמוּ comp. שמש ירח the sun and moon (Hab. 3:11). The word משה, however, may also be taken as a participle, meaning he who brought out, who delivered Israel; but the first explanation is preferable.¹⁹In his excursus on Ex. 3:15, he says that the tetragrammaton is generally used as a proper noun, but sometimes as a common noun, and thus find it analogous to the proper noun משה, which is once used as a common noun, namely, in this passage משה עמו. The words but the first explanation is preferable are, perhaps, spurious.

Where is he that, etc. Where is he, that brought them up, out of the Red Sea?

את רעה צאנו With the shepherd of his flock. With Moses who was the shepherd of Israel.²⁰The words of the Hebrew text are על משקל משה, which seem to have been written by mistake instead of עם with, the explanation of אֵת. Firstly, it is not correct to say that רֹעֵה is formed after משֶֹה; secondly, if the discrepancy with regard to the vowels be not taken into account, it is unnecessary to make any remarks concerning the formation of the regular construct state רֹעֵה from רֹעֶה. The words על משקל are probably the product of some ingenious copyist, who took עם for the initials of על משקל.

That put within him, that put within Moses, the angel of the Lord, or, that put in the midst of Israel.

He led at Moses’ right the arm of His glory The Holy One, blessed be He, led at Moses’ right the arm of His might. Every time he required the aid of the Holy One, blessed be He, His arm was ready at his right.

His glorious arm: His angel, that went before the camp of Israel (Ex. 14:19)

like a horse in the desert which does not stumble since it is smooth land, so they did not stumble in the deep.

The deep. The sea.

In the wilderness, which is upon dry land.²¹I. E. divides the verse into two sentences, He led them through the deep, and He led them, (to be supplied) in the wilderness, or, in the plain, while, according to others, the verse contains only one sentence, He led them through the deep, as a horse (is safely led) in the wilderness.

As animals that spread in the valley, and a valley is a smooth land, where there is no obstacle, campagne in French, open country.

As a beast goeth down, etc. After their departure from the sea, God led them through the wilderness as gently as a beast goes down into the valley; thus the spirit of the Lord תניחנו led them that is, Israel;

spread out Heb. תֵרֵד, spread out. Comp. (supra 45:1) “to flatten (לְרַד) nations before him.” So did the spirit of the Lord guide them to the deep and make therein a paved road.

תניחם═תניחנו. The suffix (ו) of the third person singular may however more accurately be referred to Moses, because of the words which follow, So didst Thou lead Thy people; the prophet speaking both of Moses and the Israelites.

so You guided Your people So was everything as we said; You guided Your people.

where are Your zeal Your early zeal.

Look down, etc. The prophet repeats here the prayer of the intelligent portion of those referred to in ver. 10.²²And He fought against them, that is, He punished them with exile; the better part of the nation then prayed to the Almighty for relief and deliverance.

the yearning of Your heart [Lit. the stirring of Your innards,] that were wont to stir concerning us, like the matter that was stated (Jer. 31:19), “Therefore, My heart yearns for him.” And the stirring of your first mercies toward us have been restrained now. They have been restrained from stirring over us as from then.

מזבול From the habitation. Comp. יזבלני will dwell with me (Gen. 30:21). It is a repetition of the preceding idea in other words.

are restrained Heb. הִתְאַפָּקוּ. Comp. (Gen. 43:31) “And he restrained himself and said, Put down food.” He restrained himself, and they did not recognize that his mercies were stirred toward his brother.

התאפקו They are restrained at present. Comp. להתאפק to refrain himself (Gen. 45:1)

For You are our father and it is incumbent upon You to look and see our troubles.

Thou art our father, and we are Thy children; Thou art a father that is always existing.

for Abraham did not know us in the trouble of Egypt.

Though Abraham be ignorant of us, etc. Abraham is mentioned, as having been the first with whom God made a covenant to be a God unto him and his children; Jacob is also mentioned as the last of the patriarchs, and the founder of our nation exclusively.

neither did Israel recognize us in the desert, for they had already passed away from the world.

יכירָנו Acknowledge us. Comp. יבדילני instead of יבדילֵני hath separated me (56:3)

but You, O Lord, are our father In all of them, You became our father. And our Rabbis expounded this as they expounded in Tractate Shabbath (89b).

Why do You lead us astray Since You have the power to remove the evil inclination, as it is said (Jer. 18:6): “Like clay in the potter’s hand.” Scripture states elsewhere (Ezekiel 36:26): “And I will remove the heart of stone, etc.”

למה תתענו Why dost thou make us to err.²³A. V., Why hast Thou made us to err? It is considered a blasphemy to say of God, that He causes men to sin; the object of the various explanations mentioned by I. E. is, to free the expression from this charge. Because God is the highest, first cause of everything, therefore He is mentioned as the cause of this erring. Others take it in a sense similar to that of the Rabbinical phrase לעשות תשובה אין מספיקין בידו he is not permitted to repent (Mishnah Aboth, 5:18).^23aThis is said of him, who misleads others to sin; he is not permitted to repent, he cannot completely remedy the evil which he has produced. It is easy to mislead, but not so easy to make people, when once misled, understand their error, and return to the right way. The question, Why doest Thou make us to err? is to be explained in a similar way, namely, Why do we find it so difficult to repent, to undo our acts of wickedness? Why doest Thou not make the way of our return unto Thee smooth and easy? Some are of opinion that this is only the imagination of man;²⁴People that feel some strong inclination to sin, are easily misled to imagine that God Himself prevents them from improving, and that it is no more in their power to master themselves. According to this explanation, the question Why dost Thou cause us to err? is to be taken literally, and to be considered as the expression of a false opinion widely spread among the people. others, again, say that this refers to those duties only which we cannot perform during our exile.^24aAs e.g., the commandments introduced by a formula like When ye be come into the land; the commandments concerning the temple and the service therein.

You harden Heb. תַּקְשִׁיחַ, an expression of hardening the heart.

תקשיח Thou removest.²⁵A. V., Thou hast hardened. Comp. הקשיח He hath removed^25aA. V., She is hardened. The same translation is to be given according to I. E. on Job. (Job 39:16).

Thy servants, the patriarchs. The tribes of thine inheritance. The twelve tribes of Israel.²⁶The Hebrew text has השופטים the judges; but there is no reason why the tribes of thine inheritance should be referred to the judges. If the words thy servants refer, as I. E. explains, to the Patriarchs, the expression the tribes of thine inheritance, for whose sake God is implored to return, refers to the twelve sons of Jacob, the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel. השופטים is a corruption of השבטים the tribes, an expression often used in Rabbinical Literature, to signify the twelve sons of Jacob.

For [but] a short time, Your holy people inherited They had their greatness and their inheritance for a short time.

למצער A little while.

trampled [The term בוססו denotes] trampled underfoot.

למצער ידשו עם קדשך The people of thy holiness have possessed the holy land but for a little while, and now the enemies have trodden down, etc. Some explain the verse thus: The people of Thy holiness has been dispossessed (by the enemy) for a small thing, or for a short time,²⁷מצער means small or little, and admits of the rendering a little while as well as a little thing. and this latter explanation is right.

We were now like a people whom You did not choose ever to rule over them, and it is as though Your name was not called upon them.

היינו מעולם וגו' We are like men, over whom Thou hast never ruled.

had You rent the heavens and descended to save us now as You descended to save us from the hand of the Egyptians, then, mountains would drip from before You with fear and quaking.

לוא קרעת שמים Some refer this phrase to the revelation on Mount Sinai, and render it As if Thou hadst not rent the heavens;¹To give us Thy commandments. לוּא is, according to this explanation, the same as לא not. Comp. Targum Jonathan: לא להון ארבנת שמיא not for them (for the heathen people) hast thou descended from heaven. but it is more correct to take לוּ═לוּא in its usual meaning if; (comp. Ps. 84:13), and to explain the sentence thus: If Thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down, that is, if Thou wouldst send forth Thy decrees, then, the mountains, that is, the kings²Kingdoms (מלכות) or nations (גוים) would better correspond with the phrase מפניך גוים ירגזו thus the nations would tremble at Thy presence (64:1), which seems to be the explanation of מפניך הרים נזלו. who sit in safety, would flow down at Thy presence. נָזֹלּוּ Would flow down. The Dagesh in the ל is caused by the pause;³This Dagesh is called by the Grammarians: euphonic (לתפארת הקריאה); comp. חָדְלֽוּ ═ חָדֵלּֽוּ (Jud. 5:7).

נָזֹלּוּ is in form similar to יָכֹלוּ they could (Ex. 8:14).⁴The comparison of נָזֹלּוּ with יָבֹלוּ is only made with regard to the Holem in the second syllable, but not concerning the Dagesh in the third radical, since יָבֹלוּ has no Dagesh.