Комментарий к Йешайау 19:30

is riding on a light cloud quickly to send easily and quickly the decree of His word to punish Egypt.

The Lord rideth upon a swift cloud. This figure signifies the imminent fulfilment of the divine decrees.

and the idols of Egypt shall quake from before Him They will have no power to save their people from the messengers of the king of Assyria. The prophet presented the retribution of Egypt in this manner, unlike the way he presented it to other nations, because they are accustomed to being punished in this manner. (Exodus 12:12) “And I will pass through the land of Egypt...and upon all the gods of Egypt [will I execute punishment],” and it is customary to frighten a person with a misfortune from which he has already suffered.

And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians The end of the verse explains its beginning: And they shall war one man against his brother.

וסכסכתי And I will set. Comp. יסכסך He will set up (9:10)

And the spirit of Egypt shall empty out Heb. וְנָבְקָה. His wisdom shall be emptied out. Comp. (infra 24:1) “Empties out (בּוֹקֵק) the land.”

ונבקה And shall fail. Root בקק to empty. Comp. בוקק maketh empty (24:1). נבקה is Niphal of בקק, and is formed like נסבה and it will be wound about¹The regular form of the Niphal third person fem. sing. past of בקק and סבב is נָסַבָּה נָבַקָּה, but the reduplication is very often neglected in the verbs עיע. Comp. יָזְמוּ ,וְנָבְלָה (Gen. 11:6,7) from בלל and זטם. (Ez. 41:7).

sorcerers Heb. הָאִטִּים, one of the names of the idols.

אטים Charmers. Comp. אט softly (1 Kings 21:27); אטים signifies things that are done secretly.

And I will deliver וְסִכַּרְתִּי, And I will deliver. Alternatively, it can be interpreted as an expression like (Gen. 8:2): “And the fountains of the deep were stopped up (וַיִּסָּכְרוּ).” I will stop him up and bind him.

וסכרתי And I will give over. The כ is here, according to some, substituted for נ, but, in fact, only the silent letters interchange; it is rather to be compared with ויסכרו and were stopped²The second explanation is not different from the first in substance, but in the wording, because after all סכר means the same as סגר to shut, to stop, to deliver up, whether we say that the former is derived from the latter by the change of ג into כ or not. (Gen. 8:2).

into the hands of a harsh master Heb. אֲדֹנִים קָשֶׁה. Any expression of lordship is used in the plural, even for a singular. Comp. (ibid. 39:20) “Joseph’s master (אֲדֹנֵי)”; (ibid. 16) “Until his master (אֲדֹנָיו) came.”

אדנים קשה A cruel lord. The grammatical irregularity is already explained (Ex. 21:4).³On Exod. 21:4, I. E. remarks that the plural form of a noun is sometimes used to signify one person, as a mark of honour and distinction, but that this only applies to nouns, not to verbs or adjectives.

and a mighty king The king of Assyria.

And a fierce king. The king of Assyria.

And water from the sea shall dry up Heb. וְנִשְּׁתוּ, an expression like (Lam. 3:47): “The desolation (הַשְׁאֵת) and the breach.” Since the entire productivity of Egypt is due to the Nile, since no rain falls there, but the Nile rises and waters it through its man made canals, he, therefore, compares its retribution to the drying up of canals. [Some manuscripts read:] Rivers and canals.

ונשתו And shall be dried up.⁴A. V., And shall fail, faileth. Comp. לשונם בצמא נשתה their tongue is dry for thirst (41:17)

And water from the sea shall dry up And the sea shall not return the Nile to its source, but the Nile will descend into it and will not ascend to water Egypt.

and the river This is the Nile.

And they shall abandon When the water decreases, the mud is noticeable in it, and it becomes a mire and is abandoned.

והאזניחו And shall leave.⁵A. V., And they shall turn far away.. א is epenthetic. והאזניחו נהרות And the people will leave the rivers.⁶They will leave the rivers, on the fruitful banks of which they had settled, because they are now barren and waste.

דללו They shall be poor.⁷A. V., Shall be emptied. Comp. דל poor (Lev. 14:21).

the deep canals Heb. יְאֹרֵי מָצוֹר. The deep canals, like the ditches of the sieges of cities. [Rashi according to Parshandatha. Printed editions read:] In the ditches of the sieges of cities.

יאורי מצור The ponds of siege.⁸A. V., The rivers of defence. The ponds which are prepared in order that the enemy should not be able to destroy the inhabitants through want of water, when he besieges the town.

reeds and rushes that grew there because of their abundant water.

קנה וסוף The reeds and flags. The plants on the banks of the river.

shall be cut off When the canals dry up, the reeds stop growing, and they dry up and fall. Jonathan renders: Shall not come up. Elsewhere (infra 33:9), he renders: “The Lebanon was dried up, cut off (קָמַל),” as ‘fell.’ I say, however, that it is an expression of cutting off, that they are cut off by themselves because of their dryness, and they fall.

קמלו Shall be cut off.⁹A. V., Shall wither. Another instance of the same root occurs in this book (33:9)

The well-rooted plants by the stream, by the brink of the stream Heb. עָרוֹת, an expression denoting something rooted very well. Comp. (Psalms 37:35) “The wicked, terrible in power, striking roots (מִתְעָרֶה) like a green tree in its native soil.” Menachem, too, equated it in this manner in his lexicon. [Menachem, however, explains both terms as an expression of growing and of freshness.] Seeds, well-rooted by the Nile, and even on its brink, and all those planted thereby, everything shall dry up and be driven away.

ערות Some compare it with מתערה spreading himself (Ps. 37:35), and say that it means green;¹⁰A. V., The paper reeds. all green herbs that grow on the banks of the river and at its mouth, and all that is sown near the river, all will dry up. Others, The banks of the river and its mouths have been stripped of every thing that had been there, for the plants may be considered as a covering to them.¹¹ערה to be naked, to be without the covering; ערות naked places is, according to this remark, the proper expression for banks of rivers which are bare of their usual verdure, the verdure being, as it were, the covering of the earth.

And...shall lament Heb. וְאָנוּ, an expression of lamentation and mourning.

ואנו And they shall mourn.

the fishermen They are the Egyptians who catch fish from the Nile, which spreads and goes up into many canals made on its banks over the surface of all the land of Egypt, unlike other rivers.

הדיגים The fishers. A noun analogous to גַּנָּבִים thieves (1:23).

fishhooks ajjm in O.F.

חכה Angle. Comp. בחכה with an angle (Hab. 1:15), an instrument by which the fish are caught. Many derive the word from חֵךְ palate, but they are far from being right.¹²I. E. does not show, why he rejects this derivation; it seems rather probable that חכה angle is derived from חֵךְ palate, because the hook takes hold of the fish in the palate.

מכמרת Net.

Those who work at flax Who sow flax by the river.

שריקות Red.¹³A. V., Fire. Some compare it with משרק comb, but more correctly it is derived from שורק vine branch (5:2), and it signifies, having the colour of the vine branch, red; comp. שרקים red (Zac. 1:8).

to be combed Flax that they comb and from which they weave fish nets, which are made with many holes.

חורי It is either an adjective, meaning white,¹⁴A. V., Net-works. or a noun, signifying fine things, חוֹרָי being a plural form used instead of חורים; comp. חוֹרֵי the nobles of (Jer. 27:20).¹⁵As the Hebrew text stands וכמוהו חוֹרֵי יהודה, it is not clear what this instance is to prove; the regular construct state חוֹרֵי does not contribute anything to the explanation of the irregular form חוֹרָי. The text seems to be incorrect; after כמוהו some instance like חַלוֹנָי windows (Jer. 22:17), or נּוֹבַי grasshoppers (Am. 12:1) is expected, and instead of חורי יהודה we should perhaps read בהראות היו״ד the י being sounded. (See Rashi and Michlal Jophi ad locum.)

nets [lit. holes.] Since the suffix is irregular, ordinarily חוֹרִים Rashi enumerates similar instances e.g.,] (Psalms 8:5) “The beasts of the field (שָׂדָי)”; (Jer. 22:14) “And he will cut out for himself windows (חַלּוֹנָי).”

And its foundations shall be crushed, all who make dams Eklusa in O.F., a sluice. Comp. (Gen. 8:2) “And the fountains of the deep were stopped up (וַיִּסָּכְרוּ),” for they would stop up the water that went out of the banks of the river and spread out, forming a pond of still water, standing in its place, where fish would spawn. The prophet says that the foundations of their diggings shall be crushed, and the dammed up pools that they made.

שתותיה Her foundations.¹⁶A. V., In the purposes thereof. Comp. Ps. 11:3. The buildings which they erect to take the fish in.

still ponds An expression like (Ex. 31:17): “He rested and was refreshed (וַיִּנָּפַשׁ),” for the water of the ponds rests and stands in one place. Jonathan, however, renders: Who would make the dams and gather the water, each one for himself.

שכר Sluices. Comp. ויסכרו and they were stopped (Gen. 8:2), although שכר is spelt with שֹ; comp. בסורי ═ בשורי when I depart (Hos. 9:12).

אנמי נפש The ponds for fish. Ponds containing the lives (נפש) of the fish.¹⁷This explanation is against the accents, which require שכר rather to be joined to עשי than to the following word. According to I. E. שכר together with נפש אנמי is one expression, the object to עשי; the latter should therefore have a disjunctive accent, e.g., עֹשֵֹ֖י שֶֹכֶ֥ר אַנְמֵי־נָ֑פֶשֹ.

How will you say from now on to Pharaoh, each one of you about himself, I am a son of the wise? Since he will fail because of your counsel, how will you boast before him to say, We are sons of the wise, O you who are a son of the kings of old.

חכמי פרעה, יעצי פרעה ═ חכמי יועצי פרעה The wise men of Pharaoh, the counsellors of Pharaoh.¹⁸A. V., The wise counsellors of Pharaoh. This is an elliptical expression; comp. נחרי נחלי דבש Rivers, brooks of honey¹⁹An ellipsis like this may be supposed, wherever two co-ordinate nouns govern one genitive; by here calling our attention to it, I. E. seems to reject the assumption that the second noun יעצי is a genitive governed by the first noun חכמי: the wise of the counsellors of Pharaoh. (Job 20:17).

נבערה Foolish.²⁰A. V., Is become brutish;. Comp. בער fool (Ps. 73:22).

I am a son of wise men. Comp. A son of free men (Koh. 10:17). Each of them will praise himself: my father was wise, my forefathers in days of old were also kings.

Where are thy wise men, etc. If they in reality be the sons of wise men, of royal family, why do they not know what God has decided for Egypt.

have become foolish Heb. נוֹאֲלוּ, an expression related to אֱלִילִים, fools.

נואלו Are become fools. Comp. נואלנו we acted foolishly (Num. 12:11).

have been misled Heb. נָשְּׁאוּ, have been misled. Comp. (Gen. 3:13) “The snake misled me (הִשִּׁיאַנִּי) and I ate.”

נשאו They are deceived. Comp. השיאני hath beguiled me (Gen. 3:13); it is Niphal.

פנת The stay. The nobles. Comp. פנות the chiefs (Judges 20:2).

שבטיה The tribes thereof, that is, her families.

The Lord has poured into its midst He mixed a drink for them in its midst, which perverted their spirit, an expression similar to (Prov. 9:2), “She mixed (מָסְכָה) her wine.” Mixing a beverage in a cask until he blends it to its proper flavor is called מֶסֶךְ.

נסך ═ מסך Hath mingled. The two roots have the same meaning, namely, to mingle.

perverseness Heb. עִוְעִים, the name of a malady of confusion.

עועים Perverseness. An irregular form of עוה to overturn. Comp. עַוָּה Overturned (Ez. 21:32)

that either the head or the tail, the branch or the reed shall do These are the sorcerers and the astrologers who see in the stars that in the sky are heavenly bodies called by these names, formed in the pattern of a head and a tail, and they are placed in Aries. [Other editions read:] In Draco. Alternatively, it can be interpreted like the Targum: a head and a lower dignitary, a prince and a governor.

Head or tail. Even a plant in its integrity, with head and tail, will not be left to them. Others take the phrase and explain it figuratively, They are wandering about and do not know what to begin; they can do neither the work of the head, of the old and noble (9:14), nor that of the tail, of the common people. In the same way the phrase, palm-tree and reed, is to be explained.

And it shall be afraid, etc. When the Egyptians shall have heard these decrees of the Lord, and also witnessed their fulfilment, they will fear the Lord.

And the land of Judah shall be to Egypt for a dread When those remaining in Egypt from the captivity of Sennacherib hear of his downfall, that he will fall in the land of Judah without any physical warfare, they will know that the Divine Presence is manifest in Israel and that their Savior is mighty, and they will fear and be frightened of the land of Judah.

לחגא For a terror. Comp. יחגו they reel to and fro (Ps. 107:27). ובמחוגה and with the compass²¹Root חוג ═ חגג, to move about, to stagger, to fear. (44:13).

a dread Heb. לְחָגָּא, an expression of a breach and fear and fright, similar to (Psalms 107:27): “They were frightened (יָחוֹגוּ) and wander like a drunkard,” similarly (Song 2:14), “In the cracks of (בְּחַגְוֵי) the rock.”

The land of Jehudah. The glory of God, which is manifested in that land, is meant.

because of the plan of the Lord of Hosts which he planned against him to cause him to fall into the hands of Sennacherib, and Judah will escape from his hand.

On that day there shall be five cities, etc. We learned in Seder Olam (ch. 23): Following Sennacherib’s defeat, Hezekiah stood up and released the armies he had brought with him from Egypt and from Cush in chains before Jerusalem, and they imposed upon themselves the kingdom of heaven, and returned to their place, and it is said: “On that day there shall be five cities, etc.” They went and built an altar to the Lord in the land of Egypt and they would sacrifice on it to heaven, to fulfill what was said: On that day there shall be an altar to the Lord in the land of Egypt. Some of our Sages expounded it in the tractate Menahoth (109b) as referring to the altar of the temple of Onias the son of Simon the Just, who fled to Egypt and built an altar there.

The language of Canaan. We may learn from this that the Canaanites spoke the holy language.²²According to I. E., the prophet undoubtedly means to say that Hebrew will be spoken in Egypt. If this be granted, the inference is right that the Canaanites spoke the Hebrew language, since the expression Canaan is here used for Hebrew. Rashi explains: The holy language spoken by the Israelites, who dwell in Canaan.

speaking the language of Canaan like the Israelites in the land of Canaan.

עיר ההרס²³A. V., The city of destruction. The name of a town. It is surprising how people can confound ה with ח ²⁴The Targum has besides the literal translation of עיר ההרס, namely דעתידא למחרב קרתא city of destruction, also the name בית שמש, the city of the sun, the origin of which some find in the reading of עיר החרס, instead of עיר ההרס. As to חרס sun, comp. Job 9:7. See Rashi, ad locum..(ההרס with החרס)

one of which will be called “the city of Heres.” Jonathan paraphrases: The city of Beth-shemesh which is destined to be destroyed will be said to be one of them. Jonathan renders “Heres” in two ways: an expression related to (Job 9:7) “Who says to the sun (לַחֶרֶס) and it will not shine,” [הֶרֶס and חֶרֶס being interchangeable since ‘heh’ and ‘heth’ are both gutterals,] and an expression of demolition and destruction. (Some editions add:) And whence did Jonathan derive this? From Jeremiah’s prophecy, which he prophesied in Tahpanhes (43:13): “He shall also break the monuments of Beth shemesh which is in the land of Egypt.” We learn from here that Beth-shemesh that was in the land of Egypt [and the monument] was destined to be destroyed, and the monuments mentioned there are identical with “the monument beside its border, to the Lord,” mentioned here, and it may be said that Beth-shemesh was situated in the border of Egypt on the boundary. Therefore it is stated: Beside its border.

Shall there be an altar, etc. The explanation of the Midrash is known, that the altar refers to the slaughter of the Egyptians;²⁵This is not mentioned in Yalkut, nor is any allusion made to it by Rashi or Targum. but the verse can be explained literally.²⁶Some take it literally, and point for the fulfilment of this prophecy to the altar built in Egypt by Onias. See Menachoth, 109 b.; Josephus Antiq., XII. 11:7. Comp. And they will worship with sacrifice and meat-offering (ver. 21)

And it shall be The altar shall be for a sign and for a witness between them and the Omnipresent.

They shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors, etc. Whosoever will be in trouble will come thither to bring his offering.

a savior and a prince Heb. מוֹשִׁיעַ וְרָב, a savior and a prince.

ורב And a great one.²⁷According to I. E. מושיע ורב may be explained as ἐν διà δυoῖν: a deliverer who is also a great man; a great deliverer. It would be a more natural explanation to take רב as participle of ריב to plead; a helper and a defender. Comp. רב chief (Est. 1:8)

And the Lord shall be known to the Egyptians The strength of His might shall be recognized by them.

ועבדו בזבח ═ ועבדו זבח And they shall worship with sacrifice.

And...shall plague Heb. נָגֹף. This is an expression of smiting.

ורפאם רפא ═ ורפא And he will surely heal them.

plaguing and healing And after the plague, He will create a cure for them.

ונעתר And he will be entreated. He will accept their prayer.

and He shall accept their prayer [lit.] and He shall be reconciled with them.

there shall be a highway And there shall be a paved road by which they will always go from Egypt to Assyria.

אשורה To Assyria.—Egypt and Assyria will be in peace together, after a part of the Egyptians have been taken captive and made subjects of the king of Assyria.²⁸This assertion is probably based on the last words of this verse, מצרים את אשור ועברו, And the Egyptians shall serve the Assyrians. (A. V., with the Assyrians.) The Hebrew את can, however, be explained in two ways: as the sign of the objective case, and as a preposition signifying with.

and Assyria shall come upon Egypt Jonathan renders: And the Assyrians shall wage war with the Egyptians.

Israel shall be a third to Egypt and to Assyria for a blessing, since there was no prominent nation in the world at that time like Egypt and like Assyria, and the Jews were humble in the days of Ahaz and in the days of Hoshea the son of Elah. And the prophet states that, through the miracle that will be performed for Hezekiah, Israel’s name will be greatly magnified, and they will be as prominent as one of these kingdoms in regards to blessing and greatness.

שלשיה The third. Most of the commentators compare it with ושלשים and chiefs²⁹Literally, according to I. E., officers of the third rank. Comp. I. E. on Exod. 14:7. (Ex. 14:7); but they must presume the existence of the second degree before they speak of the third.³⁰If שלישיה meant chief, it would signify, according to I. E., an officer of a lower rank that had above him the משנה, the officer of the second rank, that is, the officer next to the king. I. E. hesitates to give this attribute to the Israelites, as if the Assyrians and Egyptians were superior to them, and explains therefore שלישיה a third in the alliance with Egypt and Assyria. More naturally it is derived from שלשה three, and explained by the third; for there will be in Assyria people that will know the Lord, and many more so in Egypt; and Israel will be a blessing in the midst of the land, for through him Egypt and part of Assyria will know the Lord.³¹Comp. next verse.

Which...blessed them [lit. him,] i.e., Israel.

Whom the Lord of hosts hath blessed. For the Lord has blessed Israel, therefore he will be a blessing, etc; or He has blessed each of the three.³²The question is here, to which word does the pronoun in בֵּרְכוֹ he blessed him refer. The one explanation refers it to Israel; because God has blessed Israel, therefore he can again be a source of blessing to other nations. The second explanation refers it to Israel, Egypt, and Assyria, and explains the singular of the pronoun in the usual way, each of them.

Blessed is My people Israel, whom I chose for Myself as a people when they were in Egypt.

My people. Because they will erect an altar to the Lord publicly, He calls them my people.

and the work of My hands I showed them with the mighty deeds I performed wondrously against Assyria, and through those miracles they will repent and be as though I just made them anew, and they will be My heritage, Israel. Jonathan paraphrased this in a similar manner.

And the work of my hands (and not my people), for there will be only a few of them that will know the work of the Lord.

And mine inheritance. Israel remains His inheritance for ever, for Assyria and Egypt are this only temporarily in comparison with Israel. The Chaldæan translation renders this passage thus: Blessed be my people that is in Egypt.