Komentarz do Izajasza 21:21

The harsh prophecy of the western desert This prophecy refers to Babylonia, as is delineated therein. If you ask, Did he not already prophesy about it (supra 13): “On a tranquil mountain raise a banner,” and the entire chapter? sometimes the prophecy comes into his mouth today in one manner, and later in another manner.

מדבר ים The desert¹Babylon, whose destruction the prophet is going to predict, is already called a desert by prolepsis. of the west, that is, Babylon, which is west of Persia and Media; or the desert of the sea,²The river Euphrates may be called ים sea, on account of its width. ים being taken in its original sense, the sea.

The harsh prophecy of the western desert Jonathan paraphrases: A harsh prophecy concerning the armies that come from the desert, as numerous as the waters of the sea.

לחלוף To pass through.

like tempests in arid land, to pass Like a tempest that whirls in an arid land, that raises much dust.

He cometh from the desert. He, the enemy, comes from the desert, and not from the sea.³It is not clear what I. E. means by this remark; the passage is, perhaps, corrupt, and originally expressed some attribute of the enemy.

to pass So will many camps pass to come upon Babylon.

From a terrible land. From Persia and Media.

from the desert they shall come to them (lit.. to her).

from an awesome land Jonathan renders: From a land where mighty deeds have been performed. It is also possible to explain that it is a place of snakes and scorpions, as it is said (Deut. 8: 15): “The great and awesome desert.”

A harsh prophecy The prophet says, “This harsh prophecy concerning Babylon was told to me.”

חזות A vision.

the traitor shall be betrayed Jonathan renders: The robbers are robbed and the plunderers are plundered. The Hebrew wording, according to the Targum, is to be explained thus: The traitor another will come and betray him; and the plunderer another will come and plunder him. These are Persia and Media, who rob and plunder Babylon, who, until now plundered and robbed all the countries.

Grievous for Babylon.

march, Elam and come upon them (lit., her).

Unto me. The first person refers to the prophet.⁴This is not the opinion of I. E. himself, as he remarks below, in this same verse; the first person refers to Belshazzar, who is here represented as speaking.

besiege, O Media (צוּרִי). I.e., besiege Babylon with a siege. Comp. (II Sam. 22:3) “God is my rock (צוּרִי).” The accent is on the latter syllable, on the “resh,” whereas, in this case, the accent is on the first syllable, like “rise (קוּמִי),” “return (שׁוּבִי).”

The treacherous dealer, etc. He who wishes to be treacherous and rebellious will be able to be so, and he who wishes to rob will be able to rob.

all sighs have I brought to an end (אַנְחָתָה). (This is) not (spelled with a) “Mappiq heh,” (which would mean “her sigh”) for this is like “all sighs in the world,” and it is an expression denoting a great sigh of many people (sospiradic in O.F.). All sighs have I brought to an end, for the world was sighing because of the yoke of the kingdom of Babylon; now I have brought it to an end.

Elam. A Persian province.⁵See c. xiii. Note 7.

צוּרִֽי Besiege. Root צור to besiege; comp. וצרת and thou wilt besiege (Deut. 20:12). It has the accent on the last syllable, like שׁוּבִֽי return (Ps. 116:7).⁶The regular form is צֽוּרִי. The accent of the verbs ע״ו and עיע, remains on the first letter of the root as long as the principal rules of the Hebrew accentuation permit it.

All the sighing thereof have I made to cease. Some explain, None will be left that should sigh for Babylon; others, All the sighing she has caused, has ceased. I think that the whole passage, from the beginning of this verse⁷The text has the words מתחלת כל אנחתה, from the beginning of ‘All sighing thereof;’ but if I. E. intended to say, from the words ‘ All sighing thereof,’ he would have said מכל אנחתה, from All the sighing thereof; besides, I. E. says distinctly in giving the context, that the preceding words were also spoken by Belshazzar. The translation is based on the conjecture, that the original copy had the words מתחלת הפסוק from the beginning of the verse, instead of מתחלת כל אנחתה, from the beginning of ‘ All the sighing thereof.’—I. E. seems to have read אַנְחָתָהּ with a Dagesh. till the end of the chapter, is the speech which the prophet put into the mouth of King Belshazzar; for it is well known that the prophet rejoiced in the fall of Babylon; how, then, could he have said, Therefore are my loins filled with pain (ver. 3)? The connection is as follows: the king says, When I heard the cry, ‘ Go up, O Elam ‘—the soldiers used to call out in battle the name of their country—I made all her sighing cease with musical instruments; the vessels of the house of the Lord were brought, and they⁸The Hebrew text has ושתה, And he drank; but this is probably a part of the speech of Belshazzar, since it is continued even in the next verse, and it explains how Belshazzar made the sighing of Babylon cease; not only by music, but also by drinking, and using for this purpose the holy vessels of the Temple of Jerusalem; instead of ושתה, the plural ושתו is to be read. drank out of them, while Babylon was in siege and distress.⁹Comp. Dan. 5:1, and 5:30.

my loins are filled with trembling The prophet is merciful and sighs over the retribution meted out to the nations. This is the Midrash Aggadah (Tan., beginning of Balak). According to its simple meaning, however, the prophet is reciting the lamentation and the mourning as though this were Babylonia lamenting. pangs (צִירִים), an expression denoting trembling and pains. And our Rabbis said: A woman has doors and hinges (צִירִים) on her womb just as the doors of a house have hinges (Bechoroth 45a).

Therefore. Because I heard the cry, Go up, O Elam, I neither heard nor saw anything on account of my great fear.

I became confused This is a malady known as עֲוִית, convulsions, in the language of the Sages.

fright (פַּלָּצוּת). fright.

פלצות Boasting.¹⁰A. V., Fearfulness. Comp. מפלצתה her pride (1 Kings 15:13); the meaning of the whole phrase is: The boasting of the Persians terrified me; it may also be rendered trembling; comp. יתפלצון they tremble (Job 9:6).¹¹פלץ has, according to I. E., two meanings, (1) to boast, (2) to terrify. For the first, however, there is no authority; the instance of מפלצתה proves nothing; it means, as may be seen from the context, her idol, the object of her fear, so that all meanings of this root can be derived from the same origin, פלץ to terrify.

the evening of my desire The night that I longed for, for rejoicing and for a banquet. In the Book of Josipon we find that he was happy since his troops had defeated the army of Persia. (Book 1, ch. 5) That night He made for me into trembling, as it is said (Dan. 5:1): “King Belshazzar made a great feast...They drank wine...(verse 4). On that very night, King Belshazzar was slain...(verse 30).” (6:1) “And Darius the Mede received the kingdom.”

The night of my pleasure. The night in which he drank out of the holy vessels. Hath he turned, into fear unto me. Belshazzar was frightened when Daniel read to him the miraculous writing (Dan. 5:3)

setting up the lamp (הַצָּפִית), Set up the lamp. In Gen. Rabbah (63:14) we learn that people call a lamp צָפִיתָא.

צפה הצפית I think that these words are hap. leg., and that the phrase means sing the song.¹²A. V., Watch the watchtower.—Since the word is declared to be hap. leg., we can only test by the context whether the given translation is right or not. The arrangements of the feast necessitate perhaps the introduction of song and music.

eating, drinking And in the midst of the eating and the drinking, they cried, “Arise, princes!”

Arise ye princes, and anoint the shield. For Belshazzar was killed that same night, and Darius, the old, was anointed king. The king is called shield, מָגֵז, because he protects the people; comp. Behold, O Lord, our shield¹³Our shield is not in apposition to O Lord; it is the objective case, governed by the imperative behold, and refers to the same person as the face of our anointed in the second half of the verse. The words Arise, etc., are according to this interpretation, no longer the words of Belshazzar, but the words of the prophet addressed to the princes of Babylon. (Ps. 84:10)

anoint a shield They were shields of boiled leather, and they would anoint them with oil so that the weapons would glide off. The same is mentioned concerning Saul (II Sam. 1:21): “For there the shield of the mighty was rejected.” It rejected its anointing and did not absorb it, and Saul’s shield became as though it was not anointed with oil.

Go set up the lookout One of your disciples is destined to complain about My attribute, concerning the long prosperity of Babylon, and that was Habakkuk who made a circle and stood inside it, and said (Habakkuk 2:1), “On my watch will I stand, and I will look out to see what He will speak within me.” Said the Holy One, blessed be He, “Put up that lookout and promise him in My Name that he will stand on his watch and what he sees in the downfall of Babylon he will tell.”

For thus hath the Lord said unto me. These are the words of the prophet.¹⁴This remark should have been made before, on the preceding verse, but it is probably given here, in order to explain at the same time, that the first person in unto me, refers to the prophet.

Set the watchman. This is not to be done really, but only to be seen in a vision.

And he shall see a chariot and I will show him there a sort of chariot with a pair of riders, one riding a donkey and one riding a camel, and that is a sign of Persia and Media.

וראה וגו׳ When he sees¹⁵A. V., And he saw, And he hearkened. According to I. E., these sentences are not co-ordinate, but the former is subordinate, and the latter is the principal sentence.¹⁵A. V., And he saw, And he hearkened. According to I. E., these sentences are not co-¹⁶A. V., And.ordinate, but the former is subordinate, and the latter is the principal sentence. a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, or a chariot of camels, he will hearken diligently to learn what news they have to tell.

and he shall listen attentively And there he shall hear in his prophecy a representation of the mighty rumbling and stirring of armies.

And the lion called That is Habakkuk. אַרְיֵה (lion) has the same numerical value as Habakkuk. Isaiah prophesied that Habakkuk was destined to pray for this and say the following.

אריה A lion. According to the Midrash, Habakkukis meant, because חבקוק ═ אריה taking the arithmetical value of the letters.¹⁷The arithmetical value of the letters of the word אריה, is 1 + 200 + 10 + 5 ═ 216, that of חבקוק, 8 + 2 + 100 + 6 + 100 ═ 216. Our attention is called to this arithmetical equation, as if Isaiah foreshadowed a prophecy of Habakkuk in similar terms. See Rashi ad locum. I think ב must be supplied; comp. אש אוכלה as a consuming fire¹⁸A. V., A consuming fire. (Deut. 4:24). The watchman called with a loud voice like a lion.

on the watchtower, O Lord O Lord, my God, I always stand on the watchtower to inform me about this.

I stand continually upon the watch-tower, to seek prophecy.

And behold this is coming When he prays concerning this, he will see sort of a chariot of men, etc.

צמד With a couple. Supply עם. with, before ויען .צמד

Babylon has fallen, yea, it has fallen Jonathan renders: Has fallen and is also destined to fall. This denotes two downfalls in two consecutive years, first through Media and Persia, and in the second year, through Heaven, as it is stated (supra 13:19): “And Babylon, the beauty of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldees, shall be like God’s overturning of Sodom...” And so we find in Seder Olam (ch. 28): And in that year the news came concerning Darius, and after him, in the year, the news, “And Babylon, the beauty of the kingdoms...shall be like the overturning, etc.” (supra 13:19).

And every one of them answered,¹⁹The use of the singular in ויען, And he answered, after the plural chariots of men, etc., is explained by assuming the identity of the plural they, and the singular, every one of them. See, c. ii., Note 18.

Babylon is fallen, is fallen. The repetition indicates that no remnant has been left to her.

He hath broken. There is no noun in the text to which the pronoun he could refer; comp. אשר ילדה אותה ללוי whom she had born unto Levi (Num. 26:59).²⁰The use of the third person singular active for the passive, is explained by supplying the participle active contained in the verb of the phrase; e.g., .יָלְדָה הַיוֹלֶדֶת ,שִׁבֵּר הַמְּשַׁבֵּ־

My threshed grain and the product of my threshing floor My hallowed grain, the stack of wheat which I was commanded by the Holy Spirit to rectify you and lead you on the straight path, like a man who threshes and winnows his grain on the threshing floor.

My threshing. Babylon is the object of threshing; the pronoun my refers to God, to the prophet, or to the chariot of men. The meaning of the phrase is: I also threshed it, and it has become like ‘ the corn of my floor.’ It is also possible that בן גרן signifies the pure corn that is kept in the threshing-floor, and refers figuratively to Israel.²¹According to the first explanation, Babylon is to be understood by the expression My threshing and the com of my floor; according to the second, it signifies Babylon and Israel.

What I heard from Him I have related to you.

The harsh prophecy of Dumah That is Edom, and so does Scripture say (Ezekiel 27:32): “Who is like Tyre, like Dumah in the midst of the sea?”

Dumah. Comp. Gen. 25:18.

To Me one calls from Seir Said the Holy One, blessed be He: “To Me the prophet or the angel calls from the yoke of the kingdom of Seir.”

He calleth to me. The prophet here represents Dumah as speaking, and we have to imagine a spy coming from Seir to search Dumah; he asks the watchman, Watchman, tell me, what is the time of the night, what is the time of the night? just as one of the people of Dumah would ask who had to rise early for a journey, or for work in the field, as is usual in a great many places. The repetition indicates that he asks several men. I, however, think that this question is put to see whether the watchmen sleep.

Watchman, what will be of the night? Watcher of Israel, what will be of this night and this darkness?

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

Said the watchman The Holy One, blessed be He.

Morning hath come, and also the night.²⁵A. V., The morning cometh, etc. Many mornings and nights have passed, and you, O Seirites—for you^25aThe Seirite spy is addressed. See ver. 11. are one of them—did not come against us to war.

Morning has come I have the ability to make the morning shine for you.

תבעיון Ye wish.²⁶This root is very often met with in the Talmud in the phrases ,אבעיו להו ,ליה בעי They or he asked a question.—A. V., Ye will enquire. Enquire ye.²⁶This root is very often met with in the Talmud in the phrases ,אבעיו להו ,ליה בעי They or he asked a question.—A. V., Ye will enquire. Enquire ye.²⁶This root is very often met with in the Talmud in the phrases ,אבעיו להו ,ליה בעי They or he asked a question.—A. V., Ye will enquire. Enquire ye. The root בעה to wish, to enquire, is of Chaldaic origin; the third letter of the root is here fully written, י being substituted for ה. The same is the case in בְּעָיוּ wish ye, which is like שְׁלָחוּ send (2 Kings 2:17). The meaning of the whole phrase is: If you wish to come, do so.

and also night is prepared for the wicked at the time of the end.

Return to those that sent you, and come all together.

if you will request, request If you make your request to hasten the end of the exile.

אתיו Come. The word is irregular, the regular form is אְַתוּ; the א has a Zere,²⁷The text has נקמץ, the Zere being also called Kamez katan.—א being a guttural, it cannot have a simple Sheva, which the regular form requires; comp. שְׁלָחוּ send. Usually, the simple Sheva is then replaced by a compound one, by Chateph-Pathah, Chateph-Segol, or Chateph-Kamez exceptionally by a vowel, as, e.g., here, in אֵתָיוּ by Zere. probably because of its guttural character.

return and come in repentance.

By the watchman, the chief of the country is perhaps meant; for there are many chiefs that cannot endure hardship, and prefer to surrender their country.

The harsh prophecy concerning Arabia About the Arabs.

בערב In Arabia. Comp. Jer. 25:29. The Arabs belong to the family of Kedar; the second בערב has the same meaning.

In the forest in Arabia did you lodge I saw what you did when Assyria exiled my people, and they begged their captors to lead them through your land, since you are the descendants of their uncles, perhaps you would have mercy on them, and you were going out and lodging in the forest, the road where the caravans pass.

Dodanim. Comp. Gen. 10:6. The land of the Dodanim is hot and dry, wanting water.

the roads of your cousins the children of your uncle.

Toward the thirsty it is customary to bring water, but you, the inhabitants of the land of Tema, did not do so, but with his bread they came before the wanderer; they brought them sorts of salty foods and blown up flasks full of air, and he would eat and ask to drink, and he would put the opening of the flask into his mouth, and the air would go into his innards, and he would die. Another explanation of “Toward the thirsty they bring water,” is as follows: I did not do so to your forefather, Ishmael; when he was thirsty, I revealed to him a well of water.

Bring water. The prophet tells them to be kind to the caravans, and to give them water, for Moab was rebuked for not having done so (Deut. 23:5).

התיו Bring. ה is instead of ²⁸This passage seems to be corrupt, for in הֵתָיוּ, the ה is not instead of אֵתָוּ ;א Come, being imperative Kal, הֵתָיוּ bring, imperative Hiphil. Very probably I. E. means to say that the ה is instead of ה and א, the full form being הַאְַתָיוּ or הֵאתָיוּ..א

Tema. Comp. Gen. 25:15.

With his bread. With the bread of him that is now thirsty.—Be kind to him, for he used to feed every one that came wandering to him.

They prevented. They, that is, he and his men or friends.

Since because of the swords they wandered (I.e.,) my people (wandered).

For they fled from the swords. They, that are wandering about, are fleeing because of the king of Assyria.

the outstretched sword (נְטוּשָׁה), spread over the surface of the earth, as (I Sam. 30:16) “And behold, they were scattered (נְטוּשִׁים) over the entire landscape,” (II Sam. 5: 18) “And spread out (וַיִּנָּטְשׁוּ) in the Valley of Rephaim.” Another explanation is that נְטוּשָׁה is like לְטוּשָׁה, sharp. All letters whose sources are close to being from one place, (i.e., from one speech organ,) are interchangeable with one another, the ‘nun’ with the ‘lamed,’ as in the case stated (in Nehemiah 13: 7): “To make him a chamber (נִשְׁכָּה),” like לִשְׁכָּה.

נטושה. According to some, sharp, the נ being put instead of ל, (לטושה ═ נטושה); this is wrong;²⁹No reason is mentioned for the rejection of this opinion; but it is obviously bad to assume an interchange of letters when the word in question admits of a meaning which is sufficiently supported by examples, and is not contradicted by the context. נטושה means spread; comp. 1 Sam. 30:16

like the year of a hireling I will be exact with them to limit the time like a hireling, hired by years, who is exact with the time of the completion of his year.

For thus hath the Lord said unto me, etc., because of this sin, that they did not show kindness; comp. because they did not prevent you, etc. (Deut. 23:5.)

Within a year, according to the years of an hireling. That is, within a year, that will seem to be as long as the year of an hireling.³⁰The tertium comparationis is usually found in the circumstance that the hireling does not prolong his work beyond the time agreed upon, and the time granted to Moab will also not be protracted over three years. As to the opinion of I. E. comp. his remarks on 16:14.

And the rest the remnant.

And the residue, etc. This expression indicates that the greater part will perish.

the bows of the heroes of the children of Kedar Archers, for they are like their forefather, (Ishmael,) about whom it is stated (Gen. 21:2): “And he was an archer.”