Komentarz do Izajasza 8:21

And the one who passes therein shall suffer hardships and hunger This refers to the above. What is mentioned at the beginning of the section? “And He admonished me from going in the way of this people.” And he explained what that way is, viz. “You shall not call a band...” the union of the ten tribes, who will unite with the kings of Egypt, and he delineated their punishment: “And it shall be for a portent, and they shall stumble on them,” and the entire section.

And they shall pass through it, etc. Some explain this verse in the following way: Days will come when he that is travelling in Judah, and being himself of the tribe of Judah, will be hardly bestead and hungry through the host of Sennacherib; and when he sees that neither his king nor his idol will help him, then he will turn upwards to pray to God in heaven. I think it refers to the host of Sennacherib when marching through the land of Judah; for when the army is large, it is frequently exposed to hunger.

and shall pass therein [i.e.,] the one who passes on that way in abandoning the Holy One, blessed be He and relying upon the kings of Egypt.

Their king; that is, the King of Assyria.

shall suffer hardships Difficult circumstances.

And look upward. Wherever they will turn, upward or downward, only darkness shall meet them.

He shall be wearied by hardships and hunger For the harshness of the siege and the oppression shall come upon them during the siege, the three years that Sennacherib besieged Samaria.

and it shall come to pass, when he is hungry and wroth, he shall curse the calves and the baalim that they worshipped.

and he will turn to Heaven to beseech the Holy One, blessed be He, and He will not listen, for the verdict will have been sealed. Jonathan, too, rendered it in this manner.