Citazione Commento su Isaia 15:1

which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem Now, did he not prophesy concerning many nations, viz. the prophecy of Babylonia (ch. 13), the prophecy of Moab (ch. 15)? Thus you learn that this is not the beginning of the Book, and that the Book is not given its name for this prophecy. So we learned in the Baraitha of the Mechilta (Exod. 15: 9,10): “In the year of King Uzziah’s death” (6:1) is the beginning of the Book, but there is no early and late in the order [i.e., the order of the chapters is no indication of the chronological order. (Others read: There is no early and late in the Book—Parshandatha.] The context proves this point, for, on the day of the earthquake (see Zech. 14:5), the day Uzziah became a metzora (see 2 Chron. 26:19), it was said: “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here I am; send me” (6:8). We learn that this was the beginning of his mission, and this prophecy was said afterwards. And concerning this alone, it is stated: which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, just as Scripture says concerning each nation, “the prophecy of such and such a nation.” Here too, Scripture writes: “which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.” Since they are harsh reproofs, he calls them “chazon,” which is the harshest of the ten expressions by which prophecy is called, as is stated in Gen. Rabbah (44:7), and proof of this is the verse (infra 21:2), “A harsh prophecy (חָזוּת) was told to me.”

מליל Of the night. It should be followed by a genitive; it is without the genitive,²²See c. xv., Note 1.—Of the two examples mentioned here, the first is wrong, since the constructive form יִיִן is properly followed by the genitive of the noun חלבון whiteness, or Helbon (name of a place), not by an adjective white, or good, as I. E. seems to suppose; in the other example, if יִיִן is necessarily to be taken as the construct state, הטוב the best (of the before- mentioned vine and apples) can serve as the required genitive of a noun (the wine of the best grapes and apples); but the supposition of a second form besides יַיִן in the absolute state, recommends itself as more natural, and at at once aside all the difficulties. I. E. himself, repeatedly recommends the rule, that the form of the noun is subject to variation, and the application of this rule in the case of מִלִּיִל is supported by the parallelism; מַה מִלַּיְלָה in the first part appears to have the same meaning as מַה מִלֵּיל in the second part. like בייז חלבון in the good wine of²³A. V., The wine of Helbon; like the best wine.²³A. V., The wine of Helbon; like the best wine. (Ez. 27:18); מיין הטוב like the good wine of (Song 7:10), where the name of the place, whence the wine comes, is omitted. According to the Gaon (Saadiah), the meaning of the phrase is, O watchman, how much has passed of the night? O watchman, how much is left?²⁴The words of the Gaon referred to, are the following: يا حافظ أجْمُرْنَا كم مضي من آللَّيْل وكم بقي منْهُ I explain it thus, O watchman, what of such and such a night of the week; comp. 15:1

ועתה שבו נא בזה, “and now, please stay here, etc.” The word בזה refers to “this place.”
גם אתם הלילה, “also you, for the night.” [According to the cantillation there is a comma between “also you” and “night.” Ed.] Our sages claim that G’d punished Moav for this “night” which its emissaries spent with Bileam. They derive this from Isaiah 15,1 in which the prophet deals with G’d’s judgment of Moav. The prophet writes: “Ah, in the night Ar was sacked (a capital of Moav), Moav was ruined; Ah, in the night Kir was sacked, Moav was ruined.” The two nights which two delegations of Moav spent with Bileam attempting to get him to curse the Jewish people proved ultimately to boomerang on them. [This writer believes that the dropping of an atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the Americans also boomeranged, i.e. the men the U.S. lost in Korea and in Vietnam. Ed.].