에스겔 21:1의 주석
וַיְהִ֥י דְבַר־יְהוָ֖ה אֵלַ֥י לֵאמֹֽר׃
여호와의 말씀이 또 내게 임하여 가라사대
Rashi on Ezekiel
southward The land of Israel is south of Babylon.
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Malbim on Ezekiel
set your face southward – Setting one’s face indicates that the prophet is preparing himself towards whichever side he will prophecy. This verse is referring to the prophecy which he spoke concerning the siege of Jerusalem from verse thirteen and on. There he described how Nevuchadnezzar used divinations to determine if he should go left toward Rabbat Bnei Amon or right toward Jerusalem. The lot fell on the southern path, meaning that he should go to the right, as it says “At his right was the divination to Jerusalem…” (Ezekiel 21:27):
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Rashi on Ezekiel
to the forest of the field in the south To My Temple, which is destined to be like a forest and like a field, to be plowed in order to be overrun by foxes.
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Malbim on Ezekiel
and speak to the south – this speaking (hatafah) is a small, brief prophecy which in this case is his succinct prophecy on the destruction of the Holy Temple, as it says “…sigh, with the breaking of the loins…” (21:11) The Temple is called south (darom) because south (darom) derives its name from its position at the height (rom) of the globe opposite the north, which is in the depth. This is according to the understanding of the ancients who believed that the sun was stronger in the south. So too the Temple stands at the height (rom) of the globe, on the heights of the mountains in the south (darom) of the land of Israel:
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Malbim on Ezekiel
prophesy to the forest of the field in the south – This refers to the prophecy on the slaughter which will be throughout the land of Israel, as it says “And you shall say to the forest of the south…” (Ezekiel 21:3) and then says explicitly “And you shall say to the land of Israel…” (Ezekiel 21:8) He compares it to a forest which is full of varied trees, just as the land is filled with people. He called it south (negev) because the south is arid (naguv) and dry due to the abundant heat. The portion of the tribe of Yehudah is in the south of the land of Israel:
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Rashi on Ezekiel
shall be scorched Heb. וְנִצְרְבוּ, an expression related to (Lev. 13:23): “a scar (צָרֶבֶת) from the boil”; (Prov. 16:27), “and on his lips is a kind of searing (צָרֶבֶת) fire,” an expression of a burn.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
all faces from the south to the north All the people south of Babylon, which is to the north. וְנִצְרְבוּ, shall be scorched, comes from צרב (as Lev. 13:2), retrere in Old French, to shrivel up.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
‘Is he not an inventor of parables’ when I prophesy to them in language of parable and riddle, such as a forest and a fire consuming [trees] moist and dry.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying Prophesy to them a clear prophecy. What I said to you, “Set your face southward,” I explain to you: “Set your face toward Jerusalem.”
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Rashi on Ezekiel
and prophesy Heb. וְהַטֵף, and prophesy. Similarly (Micah 2:6): “Preach (תַטִיפוּ) not”; (Amos 7: 16), “and do not prophesy (תַטִיף) concerning the house of Isaac.”
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Rashi on Ezekiel
about the sanctuaries That is the forest of the field.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
“Sanctuaries” denotes the two destructions.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
righteous and wicked That is “the moist and the dry.”
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Rashi on Ezekiel
Since I cut off from you and I knew that the nations would rejoice at your misfortune, I shall be wroth with them and incite Nebuchadnezzar against all of them, and that is what I wrote, “and all faces from the south will be scorched.”
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Rashi on Ezekiel
A sword, a sword Two swords: the sword of the king of Babylon first, and afterwards the sword of the children of Ammon in the hand of Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, who will slay Gedaliah and those gathered to him of the survivors of the sword, as is delineated in Jeremiah (41:1-10).
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Rashi on Ezekiel
furbished Heb. מְרוּטָה, forbide in Old French, furbished, polished. Menachem (p. 120), however, associated it as an expression of drawing. Likewise (verse 16): “and He gave it to draw (לְמָרְטָה),” and so all of them.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
that it may glitter Heb. בָּרָק, to have a glitter, a shine, flandours, a flash, flashing (as in Deut 32: 41).
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Rashi on Ezekiel
Shall we rejoice? This is a rhetorical question. Do we have anything more to be happy about?
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Rashi on Ezekiel
The rod for My son disdains every stick The rod with which I strike My son to chastise him is the hardest of all rods, and it disdains the blow of every staff and every stick, for they are like nothing to it.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
Then he had it the rod.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
furbished to grasp in the hand To furbish it so that it be easy and fit to grasp with the hand.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
that is the sword that was sharpened That is the rod; it is a sharp and furbished sword, to give it into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar to slay with it.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
and wail Heb. וְהֵילֵל, a term for wailing (יְלָלָה).
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Rashi on Ezekiel
for it The sword will be upon My people and upon their princes and officers.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
those gathered to the sword Heb. מְגוּרֵי, a gathering of nations coming to the sword were around My people. So did Jonathan render מְגוּרֵי, related to the word in (Prov. 10: 5): “An intelligent son gathers (אוֹגֵר) in the summer”; (ibid. 6:8), “She gathers (אָגְרָה) her food in the harvest”; (Joel 1:17), “garners (מַמְּגֻרוֹת) are demolished”; (Haggai 2:19), “The seed is still in the granary (בַּמְגוּרָה).” Menachem, however, connected it to the word for fear, like (Num. 22:3): “And Moab became terrified (וַיָגָר).”
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Rashi on Ezekiel
therefore, clap upon your thigh as a wailing and a lament.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
For a test For a great test, with torments in many other forms of retribution, they were tested: the rod, pestilence, famine, and wild beasts.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
and what of it, if there be also a rod that disdains—He will not be And what more will be on My son if also this disdainful rod comes upon him with the rest of the test?
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Rashi on Ezekiel
He will not be My son will no longer be in the world. Jonathan also rendered it “they will not exist,” but the rest of the verse he did not render in this [i.e., Rashi’s] way, but so it appears to me. I heard many explanations for it, and I saw [others] in books of interpretations, but they did not appear correct to me, and the ‘payat’ who composed for Chanukah [for the morning of the first Sabbath]: “That which disdained all wood stabbed the adulterer,” supports me, for he called the sword “that which disdained all wood.” Jonathan rendered in this manner: (verse 15) אוֹ נָשִׂישׂ. because the tribe of the house of Judah and Benjamin rejoiced at the tribes of Israel when they were exiled for worshipping idols, and they returned to stray after wooden images. He, too, explains אוֹ נָשִׂישׂ as a rhetorical question.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
For a test and what if also a rod that disdains He will not be [Jonathan renders:] “For the prophets prophesied about them but they did not repent.” That is to say, the matter is already determined that they will not repent. And what will be their end?
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Rashi on Ezekiel
if also a disdainful rod? He will not be He [Jonathan] says: “And also the tribes of the house of Judah and Benjamin will be exiled, and with their evil deeds, they not [continue to] exist.” The kingdom of the tribe that disdained its fellow and scorned them and the evil that befell themshe too will not be and will not endure. I shall further interpret it in another manner: Or shall we rejoice, etc. Or perhaps we should rejoice, for you say to Me that the tribe of My son disdains all wood: The kings of Judah disdain idolatry, as we find with Abijah, who said (II Chron. 13:8): “and with you are the golden calves,” and Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah, who abolished all the idolatry in the world that was under their control, and these [the remaining tribes] too will repent.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
Cry and wail and do not rejoice over this, for it will be upon My people. And why? Because it is tested The matter is already tested and determined before Me that they will not repent properly. And what if even they disdain wood, it will not be And what if I wait longer? Even if they came to repent and to disdain idolatry, the matter would not last with them because they would hasten to revert to their wickedness. That is what is said in Jeremiah (8: 4): “if he repents, will he not return?”
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Rashi on Ezekiel
prophesy and clap your hands one upon the other in the manner of those who lament, and what is the prophecy?
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Rashi on Ezekiel
and a third sword shall be doubled I said, “A sword, a sword”; Nebuchadnezzar’s sword to destroy Jerusalem and the sword of the children of Ammon upon Gedaliah. There is yet a third sword, doubled as much as these two, and it shall be a sword of the slain; that is the sword of the great slaughter, which causes many slain to fall.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
which penetrates to them Wherever you go out, it will pursue you into the innermost chambers. Behold, Johanan the son of Kareah and the generals of the armies will go to Egypt; there the sword will overtake them, and so in all the place from which they will flee, to the fortified cities, as it is stated in this piece: “by all your cities I gave the scream of the sword.”
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Rashi on Ezekiel
In order to melt Heb. לָמוּג, an expression of moving. Another explanation: an expression of something melting.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
and to increase the stumbling blocks Heb. וְהַרְבֵּה, and to increase the stumbling blocks, and so every הַרְבֵּה in Scripture is an expression of increasing, an infinitive.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
the scream of the sword Heb. אִבְחֳת. Some interpret [this as] טִבְחַת, the slaughter of, the ‘teth’ in place of the ‘aleph,’ by the code of א"ט ב"ח [whereby ‘aleph’ is interchangeable with ‘teth,’ ‘beth’ with ‘cheth,’ etc.] [This appears to be Jonathan’s interpretation.] Others interpret it as אִבְעַת an expression of בְּעָתָה [fright], but this cannot be because the ‘tav’ in אִבְחֳת is not part of the radical, and it comes only for the construct state, whereas the ‘tav’ in בְּעָתָה is a radical. Therefore, I say that אִבְחֳתחֶרֶב means the sounding of the voice of those slain by the sword, an expression of barking (נְבִיחָה) glapissement in French, yelping, for the ‘nun’ in נְבִיחָה is a defective radical, like the ‘nun’ in נְשִּׁיכָה biting, and the ‘aleph’ comes in its place, like (Job 13:17): “and...my speech (אַחְוָתִי) in your ears”; (II Kings 4:2), “except a jug (אָסוּךְ) of oil.” Menachem (p. 12) explained it as fear of the sword. It has no counterpart, but is interpreted according to the context.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
Woe, it is made to glitter Alas and alack! For it is made into a furbished and polished blade.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
enwrapped for the slaughter And enwrapped in a cloth until it would be grasped in the hand for slaughter on the day of war. Some interpret מְעֻטָה as a form of the word for diminishing (מִעוּט), for it diminishes when they sharpen it, but it is an error that they have made, for the absence of the ‘vav’ and the ‘dagesh’ in the ‘teth’ indicate about it that the ‘mem’ is not a radical, [but,] like the ‘mem’ of מְעֻנָה, afflicted, מְעֻטָה, enwrapped, and (Songs 5:14) מְעֻלֶפֶת, “overlaid with sapphires.” Menachem (p. 132) associated it as an expression of thought, like (Dan. 2:14): “answered with counsel (עֵטָא) and discretion.” Dunash, however, interprets it (p. 78) like (Ps. 104:2): “[You] enwrap (עֹטֶה) Yourself with light like a garment.”
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Rashi on Ezekiel
Get yourself to one side To one place, either to the right or to the left.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
directed Heb. מֻעָדוֹת, prepared.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
I, too, shall clap My hands I say to you, “Clap your hands one upon the other,” and “I, too,” like you, lament over them, and I “shall clap My hands” one upon the other, but My fury burns within Me, “and I shall give it rest.”
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Rashi on Ezekiel
make for yourself two roads as He concludes the [next] verse.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
and clear a place; at the head of the road to the city Clear for yourself a place at the head of the road you are on, and make for yourself a sort of road opening into the crossroads, one facing right and one facing left.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
both of them will emanate The two roads.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
and clear a place A place cleared of the thorns and the thistles; [בָּרִא is like] essarter in French, to clear. A word similar to it appears in the Book of Joshua (17:15): “then go up to the forest, and clear it (וּבֵרֵאתָ) for yourself there.” Again (ibid. verse 18): “But the mountain shall be yours, for it is a forest, and you shall cut it down (וּבֵרֵאתוֹ).” Menachem connected them all (p. 48) as an expression of choosing, like (I Sam. 17:8): “Choose (בְּרוּ) for yourselves a man”; בָּרֵא meaning lisant in Old French, choosing, appointing.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
You shall make a road for the coming, etc. These two roads symbolize the king of Babylon, who is leaving his country with the intention of going either to Jerusalem or to Rabbah of the children of Ammon. To whichever of the two of them the lot will fall for him by his divinations, he will march, as is delineated (verse 26): “For the king of Babylon stood, etc.”
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Rashi on Ezekiel
the crossroads Heb. אֵם הַדֶרֶךְ, carrefour in French, crossroads.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
he furbished the arrows Heb. קִלְקַל, he furbished the arrows with a glitter. He shot an arrow upward, and it turns by itself right or left, and to the place it turns—that is the lot.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
he flashed with the arrows Menachem (p. 155), connected it with (above 1:7): “burnished (קָלָל) copper”; (Ecc. 10:10): “and he did not sharpen (קִלְקֵל) the edge.” It may also be explained as an expression of deterioration, as in (Jer. 4:24): “and all the hills deteriorated (הִתְקַלְקָלוּ).” Some translate קִלְקַל into French, as trait, he shot, and Jonathan as well renders קִלְקַל בֲּחִצִים as קְשֲּׁתבְּגִרְרֲיָא.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
he inquired of the teraphim An image that talks through magic, and there is a set time, that if one makes it at that time, it possesses speech forever.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
looked into the liver There are some experts who divine with liver.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
At his right was the divination to Jerusalem All his lots gave divinistic indication to come to Jerusalem.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
to appoint officers Heb. כָּרִים, appointed officers, heads of troops.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
to station officers over the gates You and your troop, take position by such-and-such a gate.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
to pour a siege mound They pour earth and tread it down and pile up a high mound and press it down, in a fashion similar to the way they press down the mound of the towers, to stand on it and to wage war against the people of the city.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
And it was to them To Israelwhat Nebuchadnezzar did.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
like a false divination and they will not believe that he would succeed, but indeed, they had seven sevens. Nebuchadnezzar divined forty-nine times, and all the divinations coincided exactly.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
and he brings iniquity to be remembered in order that they be seized And Nebuchadnezzar, in his divinations, would cause the iniquities that Israel committed to be remembered, for Ammon and Moab, their neighbors, would make them known to him because they would hear the reproofs of the prophets.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
in order that they be seized [lit. to be seized.] That Israel be seized in his hand.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered For you commit new transgressions daily, and your earlier iniquities are remembered through them.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
in that your transgressions are revealed [i.e.,] the new ones.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
so that your sins appear [i.e.,] the old ones.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
because of your being remembered before Me for evil, therefore...
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Rashi on Ezekiel
you shall be seized in the hand You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
wicked man, sentenced to be slain Liable to be slain for your wickedness.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
prince of Israel Zedekiah.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
at the time of the final iniquity At the time the measure has become filled and the final iniquity, which fills the measure, has arrived.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
I shall remove the turban and lift off the crown, etc. This is to be explained as the Targum renders: I shall remove the turban from Seraiah the High Priest, and I shall abolish the crown from King Zedekiah. He said: Neither this nor that will remain in its place.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
the humble will be uplifted Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, to whom it did not belong, will take it, and Zedekiah, to whom it did belongit will be taken from him.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
A ruin, a ruin Heb. עַוָה, an expression of (Micah 1:6): “a heap (עִי) in the field,” an expression of ruin after ruin, two and three times, I shall make it: It was already taken from Jeconiah and given to Zedekiah, and from Zedekiah it will be given to Gedaliah; this makes twice. Menachem (p. 131) connected עַוָה with (Esther 1:16): “has Vashti the queen done wrong (עָוְתָה)?”; (Ps. 106:5), “we have committed iniquity (הֶעֱוִינוּ) and wickedness.”
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Rashi on Ezekiel
this too will not be Also, to Gedaliah it will not remain, [only] until Ishmael the son of Nethaniah [the assassin] comes.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
until he who has the judgment Upon whom I placed [the mission] to exact My vengeance and My judgment.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
and I will deliver him into his hands.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
concerning the children of Ammon and concerning their blasphemy, [in] that they rejoiced when Nebuchadnezzar’s lot in his divinations fell out to come upon Jerusalem, and they blasphemed Me and My people, saying that their deity was triumphant.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
to consume Heb. לְהָכִיל, to cause many slain to fall. in order to glitter In order that its shiny appearance should not be darkened by its slain ones.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
When you prophesy vanity for yourself The diviners of Ammon prophesied vanity for themselves, saying, “Nothing more will come upon us.”
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Rashi on Ezekiel
to place you with the necks of the slain of the wicked To mislead you and to place your neck like the necks of the slain of the wicked of Israel.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
whose day has come, etc. Heb. יוֹמָם, their day.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
It has been returned Heb. הָשֵּׁב, like שָּׁבָה, it has returned, because the ‘shin’ has no ‘dagesh.’ [The missing ‘dagesh’ indicates that no letter is missing; hence, the root is שוּב, return, rather than ישב, sit or dwell.] Wait until the sword that is upon Israel returns into its sheath, and afterward, when he has finished His revenge upon Israel, He will return upon you, and in the place you were created, etc.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
I shall blow upon you Heb. אָפִּיחָ, an expression for blowing fire with a bellows.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
brutish men Who behave madly to ruin and to destroy.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
craftsmen of destruction Artisans of murder. (Already many days [have passed] since I explained this chapter as it is written above. Now I see from the peculiarities of its wording that the prophet is talking only about the sword.) “To place you upon the necks of the slain of the wicked,” “It has been returned to its sheath, etc.” “I shall blow upon you.” This wording is appropriate only for metal, and so “craftsmen of destruction.” It seems to me that this prophecy was stated about Nebuchadnezzar, and so it appears [from]: “prophesy and say: So said the Lord God concerning the children of Ammon and concerning their taunts.” That is to say, [their taunts] over Nebuchadnezzar [because of Nebuchadnezzar], for the children of Ammon were taunting Israel because Nebuchadnezzar destroyed them.
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Rashi on Ezekiel
Sword, drawn sword The sword of Nebuchadnezzar, which is double, to go out on the two waysagainst Jerusalem and against the children of Ammon, as is delineated in the above chapterthus the retribution on the children of Ammon. [34]
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Rashi on Ezekiel
When you prophesy for yourself, when you divine lies for yourself You think that through your divinations of vanity, futility, and lies, you will prosper, for your sword is placed upon the necks of the slain of the wicked, whose day has come by decree from before Me at the time of the payment at the time of their end. [35]
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Rashi on Ezekiel
It has been returned to its sheath That is to say, the time will come that the sword will return to its sheath, and the sword will receive its own retribution, at the hands of the kings of Media, and then I shall blow upon you with the fire of My wrath, and you shall be delivered into the hands of mad blacksmiths, who are craftsmen of destruction, who will come to sharpen and to furbish it as of yore, and they will destroy you.
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