Commento su Isaia 26:22

The city that was our strength, salvation shall He place The city of Jerusalem, which was always our strength from time immemorial, the Savior shall place salvation for its walls and its bulwark.

עיר עז לנו ישועה ישית To a city which is strength to us,¹A. V., We have a strong city. he will appoint salvation. To Jerusalem, which is strength unto us, God will appoint salvation.²After ישית the word ישועה salvation seems to have been omitted in the Hebrew text.

and a bulwark a low wall before the high wall.

חומות וחל For walls and bulwarks. חֵל הַחוֹמוֹת ═ חֵל the fence of the walls.³See I. E. on 15:1 and ibid. Note 2; on 21:11, Note 22.

Open the gates I.e., open her gates, and let a righteous nation,

Open ye gates, etc. The gates of that city should only be opened for righteous people like the Israelites, to enter and to dwell in it.

awaiting, that waited and longed in its exile many days for the faith of the Holy One, blessed be He, that He fulfill His promise through His prophets, to redeem them.

awaiting (שֹׁמֵר) waiting. Comp. (Gen. 37:11) “And his father awaited (שָׁמַר) the matter.” Similarly (Deut. 7:12), “And the Lord, your God, shall await (וְשָׁמַר) the covenant for you.”

The creature that relied on the Holy One, blessed be He, and depended on Him steadfastly, that did not deviate from his faith because of any fear or torture.

יצר סמוך תצר שלום Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee. Others are of opinion that שלום may be used as masculine and feminine.⁴According to this opinion the translation of the passage is as follows: Peace will guard him whose mind is stayed on thee. There is, however, no other instance in the Bible of שלום being used as a feminine noun.

You shall guard that there be peace, for he trusted in You. It is, therefore, fitting for You to guard him.

for in Yah, the Lord For we must rely on Him for He is the fear of God, the rock and everlasting shelter.

Trust ye, etc. Therefore fathers will say to their children, Trust in the Lord, etc.

ביה In the Lord. ב is a preposition, and has its usual meaning.⁵The name of God consists of the four letters ו ,ה ,י, and ה; the name יה of half that number; in ביה the ב is prepositive; but some take it as part of the name, believing that new names of God are formed by combining the word יה with any letters of the alphabet; e.g., גיה ,ביה ,איה, and so on. In his commentary on the book of Psalms (68:5), I. E. rejects this opinion, but without giving the explanation which is promised here.⁵The name of God consists of the four letters ו ,ה ,י, and ה; the name יה of half that number; in ביה the ב is prepositive; but some take it as part of the name, believing that new names of God are formed by combining the word יה with any letters of the alphabet; e.g., גיה ,ביה ,איה, and so on. In his commentary on the book of Psalms (68:5), I. E. rejects this opinion, but without giving the explanation which is promised here.⁵The name of God consists of the four letters ו ,ה ,י, and ה; the name יה of half that number; in ביה the ב is prepositive; but some take it as part of the name, believing that new names of God are formed by combining the word יה with any letters of the alphabet; e.g., גיה ,ביה ,איה, and so on. In his commentary on the book of Psalms (68:5), I. E. rejects this opinion, but without giving the explanation which is promised here.

צור עולמים Everlasting strength. ביה In some books all the letters of the Alphabet are combined with this word (יה), which consists of one-half the number of letters composing the full name of God, in order to form new names for the Divine Being. In the book of Psalms (68:5) I shall explain this.

the inhabitants of the high places Tyre and other lands. ([Manuscripts yield:] Tyre and Rome and Italy. [Parshandatha])

השח He bringeth down. A verb ע״ע like הֵקַל he afflicted slightly (8:23). Them that dwell on high, etc. This refers to the heathens.

ישפילנה ישפילה He layeth it low, he layeth it low. He will continually lay it low; comp. עזי ומעזי My strength and my fortress (Jer. 16:19).⁶See I. E. on 3:1, Note 1; xxiv. Note 27; xxv. Note 2.

the feet of a poor man The King Messiah, who is referred to as a poor man riding on a donkey (Zech. 9:9).

The foot shall tread it down, etc. He will bring it so low, that it will be trodden not by the foot of the noble but by that of the poor.

the soles of the impoverished Israel, who were heretofore impoverished.

רגלי ═ פעמי feet. Comp. פעמים (Ex. 23:14) ═ רגלים (ibid. 17) times.

The way of the righteous that is straight A way that is straight for the reception of the reward of the righteous You, O God, Who are an upright God, shall weigh the path of the righteous man, to lead him in that way, that he receive his reward. The righteous man is Jacob and his descendants. We must render in this manner: the straight way for the righteous man. ([Printed editions read:] The way for the righteous man to receive the reward for the upright deeds he performed.)

The way of the just, etc. And why is all this? because there is no path for the righteous but that of rectitude,

O Upright One You, the Holy One, blessed be He, the path of the feet of the righteous man, You shall weigh that way for him. This weighing is an expression of kontrepajjs in O.F., You counterbalance, equalize. Like a king who sits and thinks and weighs in his mind, which way is better, this one or that one. So, judge with equity to lead him in the way of receiving the reward for performing his deeds before You with propriety.

and Thou, O Lord, art most upright and dost weigh the path of the just.

תפלס Thou weighest.

Even [for] the way of Your judgments, O Lord, have we hoped for You When we looked forward to receiving benefit from You, likewise we hoped that You would show us the way of the judgments of Your revenge upon the wicked. ([Manuscripts read:] Upon the wicked Esau.)

We waited for thee, O Lord, even for the way of Thy judgment,⁷A. V., In the way of thy judgment. etc. These are the words of the righteous that hope in the Lord, that He will show His judgment in the universe; for the soul is longing for Thy name. Before ארח path supply the preposition ל for.

for Your Name and Your remembrance was the desire of [our] soul Our soul longed to see the name You will gain from them, by wreaking vengeance upon Your adversaries.

[With] my soul I longed for You in my exile, which resembles night, to perform these.

נפשי My soul, that is, the thought of my soul,⁸A. V., With my soul, with my spirit. אויתיך I desired thee, and אשחרך Will I seek thee early, are, according to I. E., the thoughts which fill the soul and spirit of the righteous, and are, therefore, by a kind of metonymy, called their soul and spirit. was בלילה אויתיך I have desired Thee in the night;

even [with] my spirit within me I beseeched you I beseeched You for all this. Why? Because, when Your judgments come to the earth, when you execute justice upon the wicked.

Yea the thought of my spirit within me, was אשחרך I will seek Thee early. Man has נפש soul and רוח spirit, as I explained in Koheleth.⁹In his commentary on Koheleth 3:21, I. E. says that נפש is common to all living creatures, but נשמה is peculiar to human beings alone;—the difference between רוח and נפש is not explained there. On Koheleth 7:3, he remarks that the life of man manifests itself in his vegetable, animal and intellectual nature, or as explained there by I. E. himself, in his appetitive, נפש, sensitive, רוח, and deliberative capacities נשמה.

the inhabitants of the world learn justification They learn to justify Your judgment and to acknowledge Your standards for they see the sinner punished and the righteous receiving a good reward.

When Thy judgments are, etc. When Thy judgments appear on the earth the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

תבל World. The inhabited part of the earth.

Shall the wicked be favored who did not learn righteousness Should you favor the wicked Esau, who lived between two righteous men and did not learn righteousness?

יחן Let favour be shewn. A verb ע״ע; it is a form like יוסב is turned (28:27).¹⁰יחַֻן is future Hophal of יוסב ; חנן future Hophal of סבב.—God is merciful to the wicked, but they will not learn righteousness; He has patience with them for a long time, they might perhaps improve.

in the land of uprightness Jerusalem and the Temple, he will deal unjustly, to pillage and spoil and to destroy.

In the land of uprightness. In the place where the people are upright, they (the wicked) will do wrong.

and he does not see the pride of the Lord He did not regard Your pride and greatness. The expression, וּבַל יִרְאֶה, (lit., he shall not see,) is an expression of a habitual act, meaning: he did not see, he did not regard. Comp. (Job 1:5) “In this manner, Job was wont to do (יַעֲשֶׂה).”

נבחות Straightforwardness. It is related to נכח before (Ex. 26:35); comp. נכחים right (2 Sam. 15:3). And will not behold, etc. He does not wish to consider the greatness of God.

O Lord, Your hand has been taken away I have seen many Aggadic Midrashim on the verses of the above section and the following, but they are not appropriate, either because of the grammatical forms of the language or because of the context of the verses. I had to explain it according to its order. There is an Aggadic Midrash that states that the prophet begs that the nations not see the bounty of the Holy One, blessed be He, when He lavishes good upon Israel. The Holy One, blessed be He, replied, “It is better that they see and be ashamed,” (Eliyahu Zuta ch. 21). (The Midrash explains the verse as follows: O Lord, take away Your hand, so that they see not. I.e., the prophet begs that God conceal His might from the nations that they see it not. Thereupon, God replies, “Let them see and be ashamed...”) This does not fit with the language, however, since it does not say, “Raise Your hand.” Moreover, this word differs from all similar words. Every יָד רָמָה is accented on the final syllable, whereas this one is accented on the first syllable. Comp. (Gen. 37:7) “Behold, my sheaf rose (קָמָה).” Comp. also (Ruth 1:9) “Behold your sister in law has returned (שָׁבָה).” All of these are in the past tense. This too is to be explained: The hand of Your might has been taken away from upon Your enemies so that they see not Your might for they have seen that their way has prospered. I beg of You, let them see and be ashamed.

רמה ידך בל יחזיון When Thy hand is lifted up¹¹רמה Is lifted up, that is, does not touch them or does not punish them. they will not see. יחזו ויבשו קנאת עם But they shall see and be ashamed for their envy at the people; let them show their envy of Thy people, and be ashamed, אף אש צריך תאכלם And let the fire devour Thine enemies. Some explain the former phrase thus: Let them see Thy punishment inflicted upon all of them. According to this explanation, the phrase has the same meaning as the words אף אש צריך תאכלם yea, even the fire, which shall devour thine enemies.¹²A. V., They shall see and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea the fire of Thine enemies shall devour them.—The Hebrew text has קנאתך בבלם יחזו, which is perhaps to be altered into יחזו קנאתך בכל עם, since the difference between the two explanations is, that according to the first, עם refers to Israel, according to the second, to all other nations, so that קנאת עם is either the envy of the heathen people at Israel, or the punishment inflicted upon all people, that are enemies to Israel or to God.

the envy of a people Let them see the bounty that You shall lavish upon Your people, Even they themselves shall see the judgment of Your vengeance, that the fire (of envy) shall consume them.

You shall prepare (תִּשְׁפֹּת) you shall prepare. Comp. (II Kings 4:38) “Prepare (שְׁפוֹת) the... pot.” Also (Ps. 22:16), “And for the dust of death You have prepared me (תִּשְׁפְּתֵנִי).” (All) these can (likewise) be interpreted as an expression of placing, (or establishing). You shall establish peace for us.

תשפות Thou wilt ordain. Comp. שפות set on (Ez. 24:3).

for also the recompense of all our deeds (our) evil (deeds).

For thou also hast wrought, etc. For Thou hast always done for us what we do not know how to do.

have You dealt to us commensurate punishment for them we have received from Your hand for all our sins.

have possessed us They have become our masters and have oppressed us.

Other lords, besides Thee, have had dominion, etc. For we worshipped Thee even when others became our masters. בעלונו Had dominion over us, were our masters (בעלים); comp. לבעליו unto the owner of them (Ex. 21:34). But by Thee only we make mention of Thy name. Nevertheless we praised Thy name. לבד בך But by Thee. Thou hast helped us, therefore we were able to praise Thee.

other than You In a matter contrary to Your will, to seek other Gods, to transgress Your Torah, but we - only concerning You have we mentioned Godliness, and we will not ascribe the name of His Godliness to another God, only to Him alone.

Your name The name of Your Godliness we will mention, saying that our God alone is God.

The dead shall not live May it be Your will that these wicked men shall not live in the World to Come, and that these slackers who slackened their hands from Your commandments shall not have restoration.

They are dead. Those our masters, that have owned us, are now dead.

therefore, You visited [upon them] and You destroyed them Have You not already visited upon them and destroyed them with the words of Your mouth, like the matter that is stated (Exodus 17:14): “For I will surely erase the memory of Amalek.”

You have added to the nation to Israel (Tan. Pinchas 16) You added to them Torah and greatness and honor, and the more that You added to them, the more You were honored, for they thank You and praise You for all the bounty, unlike the custom of the heathens (var. of Esau). Therefore, You rejected from before You all other ends of the earth, i.e., all distant nations. Behold, in their bounty, in this manner the Israelites bestow praise and honor upon You, and in their straits.

יספת Thou hast continued.¹³A. V., Thou hast increased the nation. I. E. explains יספת Thou hast continued, and supplies the infinitive to chastise. Thou hast removed it far unto all the ends of the earth. The more Thou hast chastised Thy people, the more they acknowledged Thy glory, even when exiled from their country.

O Lord, in their straits they remembered You They do not question Your retributions.

In trouble. In their trouble.

they pour out prayer the pouring of speech and prayer.

צקון They poured out. The נ is paragogic, as in ידעון they knew (Deut. 8:3); the word is besides irregular; the regular form is יצקו; the first radical is dropped in צקון; comp. ירד═רד he went down (Judg. 19:11). As to the phrase they poured out a prayer, comp. he will pour out his prayer (Ps. 102:1).

when Your chastening is upon them When they are chastened, when Your chastening comes upon them; and so is their prayer.

מוסרך למו Thy chastening upon them.¹⁴A. V., When thy chastening was upon them. They mention in their prayer the punishment which thou hast inflicted upon them.

As a pregnant woman comes near to give birth, etc. So were we because of You; we see troubles being renewed, and we think that they are sorts of indications of salvation and redemption, for we are promised to be redeemed out of straits, as a woman giving birth.

Like as a woman, etc. This verse describes the chastening mentioned in the preceding verse.

because of You Because of Your decrees.

תקריב That draweth near Lit. that bringeth near, namely, herself.¹⁵תקריב is Hiphil, and therefore transitive; the object herself must be supplied.

We conceived, we shuddered a shudder like a woman giving birth, as though we had given birth, as though we were close to being redeemed, yet it was wind and no salvation.

We have conceived, we have been in pain with, as we have brought forth, wind.¹⁶A. V., We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have, as it were (כְמוֹ) brought forth wind. According to I. E. the word כמו compares the verbs הָרִינוּ we have conceived and הַלְנוּ we have been in pain, with the verb יָלַדְנוּ רוּחַ we have brought forth, with regard to the object רוּחַ wind, which is common to all of them. We have conceived, and we have been in pain with wind, and so we have also brought forth wind. We had no strength to deliver ourselves; this is the meaning of the following ישועות בל נעשה we have not wrought any deliverance. We were not able to bring any deliverance.

we wreak no salvation [in] the land We have suffered everything, and our troubles (sic) we do not understand for ourselves a salvation.[Rashi in Nach Lublin] ([Warsaw edition reads:] With all our suffering and our trouble, we do not prepare salvation for ourselves.) ([K’li Paz reads:] with all our pains and our troubles, we do not bring salvation for ourselves.) ([Some manuscripts read:] Throughout our troubles we do not see any salvation.) ([Others read:] We do not recognize any salvation.) ([Others read:] We cannot prepare for ourselves any salvation.)

ארץ In the earth. Supply ב; comp. בששת═ששת (Ex. 20:11).

neither do the inhabitants of the world fall The nations (var. the children of Esau), who are the inhabitants of the world, since they conquered and filled the earth, do not fall. And Jonathan rendered יִפְּלוּ as an expression related to (Ex. 33:16): “And wonders shall be wrought (וְנִפְלִינוּ) for me and Your people.” The inhabitants of the world cannot perform a wonder.

ובל יפלו Some say, that א is omitted, as in ויפלו (Neh. 6:16); but the latter has its usual meaning (and they fell), as will be explained by me. I explain בל יפלו we could not help their falling.¹⁷According to I. E. the root of יפלו is נפל to fall. ובל יפלו ישבי תבל We could not effect that the inhabitants of the world should not fall; that is, we could not prevent the destruction which threatened to come over a great many of the inhabitants of the world.—A. V., Neither have the inhabitants of the earth fallen.—The passage quoted from Nehemiah ויפלו מאוד בעיניהם is explained by I. E. בשפלים ונפלים ממעלתם they appeared to themselves low and degraded.

May Your dead live Above (v. 14) he prayed that the wicked should not live, and here he prayed that the righteous should live. I beseech You that those who were slain for Your sake come to life. May a royal edict emanate from You saying, “My corpses shall rise.” The corpses of My people who made themselves corpses for My sake, they shall be raised up. This is the opposite of what is written above (v. 14): “Slackers shall not rise.” These, however, shall rise.

Thy dead men shall live. Only Thy dead men shall live; God is addressed. Generally, it is believed, that this phrase contains some reference to the resurrection of the dead.¹⁸Comp. Targum: Thou wilt revive the dead. Some explain it as a contrast to They are dead, they will not live, (ver. 14), they, that is, our masters, are dead, but we, who were considered as dead, are living.

awaken and sing All this the Holy One, blessed be He, shall say to them. “Awaken and sing,” is an imperative form.

My dead body. The first person refers to the prophet, who is one of the Israelites, that are considered as dead. Let Thy dead men live, and let the dead of my people rise, as if they heard the cry: Awake, etc.

for a dew of lights is Your dew For it is fitting for You to do so, that the dew of Your Torah and Your commandments shall be to them dew of light.

טל אורות A dew of light.¹⁹A. V., The dew of herbs. A dew acccompanied by light. Thy dew. God is addressed in these words. According to others, אורות means herbs; comp. 2 Kings 4:39; it signifies a kind of herb, which turns toward the sun and moon.²⁰Comp. Plin. Nat. Hist. Lib. XVIII., cap. 36 (Lupinus) cum sole quotidie circumagitur, horasque agricolis etiam nubilo demonstrat. The lupine makes its daily circuit with the sun, and shows the farmer the time even when the heaven is covered with clouds.

and [to the] earth You shall cast the slackers And to the earth and to the dust You shall cast the land of (sic) the slackers who slackened their hands from Your Torah.

וְהָאָרֶץ ═ וָאָרֶץ. And the earth Shall cast out the dead, out of itself. תפיל Shall cast out, shall bear; comp. כנפל אשח As the untimely birth of a woman (Psalm 58:9). Others explain, Thou alone hast given life to Thy dead; for it is the nature of the earth to throw the dead into its midst.²¹The dead are buried and hidden under the surface of the earth, whence we do not see them rise again; the restoration of the dead to life is therefore not the usual course of nature, but an extraordinary and miraculous act of the Almighty.

You shall cast the slackers Since he stated (v. 18) “Neither do the inhabitants of the world fall,” he repeats, “You cast them down, for our merits do not suffice to cast them down.”

Go, My people, come into your chambers This reply they replied to the prophet, “Go, My people, come into your chambers,” into the synagogues and the study houses. Alternatively, think about your deeds, in the chambers of your heart. In this manner Rabbi Tanhuma expounded it.

Come, my people, etc. R. Moses Hakkohen explains this verse to mean that the people shall shut themselves in Jerusalem, because of Sennacherib.²²See xxiv., Notes 18 and 24.

close your door about you Jonathan renders: Do good deeds that will protect you. Rabbi Tanhuma, however, expounded: Close the doors of your mouth so as not to question the divine standard of justice.

חבי Some explain this word as a regular form of a verb (חבה) ל״ה; the feminine form חבי is used, because עם is sometimes feminine; comp. וחטאת עמך And thy people sinneth (Ex. 5:16). R. Jehudah, the Grammarian, says,²³See two treatises on verbs containing feeble and double letters, of R. Jehuda Hayug, of Fez, etc., ed. by John W. Nutt, M.A., sub voce חבה. that חבי is a noun like שבי captivity. The first explanation is the right one.

hide Hide a little until the wrath passes, for indeed I will visit upon your enemies.

For behold the Lord comes forth from the divine standard of mercy to the divine standard of justice.

The Lord cometh out. The decrees of the Lord come out.²⁴See xvi., Note 26.

the dweller of the land That is Mount Seir. ([Some manuscripts read:] That is Esau and Mount Seir.) ([Others read:] That is Esau on Mount Seir.)

Her blood. The slain, that are buried in the earth.

its slain ones that they slew of Israel.