Комментарий к Йешайау 25:13

counsels from long ago in true faith Counsels that You advised from long ago to Abraham in the Covenant between the Parts.

My God. The first person singular refers to the prophet, or these are the words which every one of the ancients is represented speaking (24:23).

true faith (אֱמוּנָה אֹמֶן). אֹמֶן is like אֹהֶל, tent, אֹכֶל, food, and it is not a verb in present tense but an expression of a noun, obrement (truth) in O.F.

עצות מרחוק Counsels of old. Objective case governed by עשית thou hast done.—The counsels of oldare the plans of God predicted by the prophets.

אמונה אמן With faithfulness and truth.¹A. V., Are faithfulness and truth. According to I. E. the meaning of the phrase is: God has fulfilled His prophecies with faithfulness and truth. As to the repetition אמונה אמן comp. עזי ומעזי my strength and my fortress (Jer. 16:19).²A word is sometimes repeated either in the same or in a different form for the sake of emphasis. Comp. iii., Note 1, and xxiv., Note 27.

For You have made Mount Seir from a city into a heap.

For thou hast made a city an heap, etc. Many cities will be destroyed, when Gog and Magog³See xxiv., Notes 18 and 24.³See xxiv., Notes 18 and 24. will come. According to R. Moses Hakkohen it refers to the period of Sennacherib.

a palace of strangers, because of the city Because of the iniquity they committed in Your city, that they destroyed it, You shall make its palaces a ruin, which shall never be rebuilt.

לגל An heap. Comp. Gen. 31:51.

זרים Strangers. Non-Israelites.

מעיר Of every city.⁴A. V., To be no city. The translation of the whole phrase according to I. E., who very strangely explains the preposition מֵ (lit. from) to be the sign of the possessive genitive, is, The palaces of the heathen people shall never be built again in any city.

יכבדוך עם עז Shall a strong people glorify thee. Those who have escaped or are far off shall glorify thee, when they will hear the report.^4aOf the defeat of Gog and Magog or of Sennacherib.

a shelter from pouring rain a covering of a tent to save from pouring rain and a shade to protect from heat. Now, what is that pouring rain? A spirit of tyrants, for their spirit is like a stream that floods the wall and causes it to fall.

For thou hast been, etc. It is wonderful how all well fortified towns were taken, and the city of the poor, that is, Jerusalem, escaped. A refuge from the showers,⁵A. V., A refuge from the storm. from the enemy who is compared to showers of water.

For the blast of the terrible ones is as showers against the wall. This phrase is to explain the expression from the showers.

Like heat in the dry season In the dry season, when the seeds dry out to be cut off, so shall You humble the multitude of the strangers.

בציון In a dry place. Comp. בארץ ציה in a dry land (Jer. 2:6).

like heat with a thick cloud When the heavens thicken with thick clouds in the hot season, with which everyone rejoices, so will the song of the righteous be sung concerning the cutting down of the tyrants and their downfall.

חורב בצל עב ונו׳ The heat in^5aA. V., With. the shadow of a cloud, etc. Repetition of the same idea.

the downfall of (lit., the cutting down of. זְמִיר). An expression related to (Lev. 25:4): “You shall not prune (תִזְמֹר).”

בצל עב In the shadow of a cloud, that is, in the shadow which hides the clouds and makes them invisible.⁶I. E. means to say that in the shadow of a cloud is the same as in the absence of all clouds, or in sunshine; but it can hardly be seen what compelled I. E. to assume here such a metaphor, unless it be the parallelism, which seems to demand a greater similarity between בציון and בצל עב than that existing between in a dry land and in the shadow of a cloud; the land is supposed to be dry when sunshine continues for some time, but not when the heaven is covered with clouds.

זמיר עריצים The song of the terrible ones.⁷A. V., The branch of the terrible ones. It is the same as שאון זרים; comp. זמירות songs (24:16).

יענה Shall be low. It is an intransitive verb of the same root as עני poor (Deut. 24:12); לענות to be humbled (Ex. 10:3)

And the Lord of Hosts shall make for all the peoples when they come to mobilize against Jerusalem.

In this mountain. In Zion.

a feast of fat things which they think that it will be easy for them like fat, which is smooth and soft, will be converted for them to a feast of dregs.

A feast of fat things, etc. God will feed them with fat things,

fat things full of marrow soft and fat like the marrow of bones, will be dregs well refined from any liquid of wine or oil, for there will be there only the dregs. All this will be in the war of Gog and Magog.

ממחים with things full of marrow—comp. ומוח and the marrow (Job. 21:24); ממחים is participle Pual—

and then he will give them to drink lees well refined, so that they will become drunk; ⁸A figure often used by the prophets to indicate the approaching catastrophe decreed by the Lord. comp. As you have drunk on my holy mountain, etc. (Obad. 16)

the covering The covering that covers all the people. Heb. הלוט, similar to “he wrapped his face” (I Kings 19:13), and to “behold, it is wrapped in a garment” (I Samuel 21:10).

ובלע And he shall discover.⁹A. V., And he will destroy. Comp. כבלע when are discovered¹⁰A. V., When are covered. I. E., in his commentary ad locum mentions both explanations, when are covered and when are discovered, and gives the preference to the former. (Num. 4:20).

and the kingdom (Heb. וְהַמַּסֵּכָה.) An expression of kingdom and ruling.

הלוט The covering. Comp. וילט and he wrapped (1 Kgs. 19:13); it is the same as the corresponding מכסה ═ מסכה covering; comp. והמסכה and the covering (28:20)

He has concealed death He will cover it and hide it forever from Israel.

בלע המות Death will destroy¹¹A. V., He will swallow up death. them.¹²The nations mentioned in the preceding verse.¹²The nations mentioned in the preceding verse.

And the Lord will wipe away tears from off all faces. For they have caused great evils to all.¹³They have caused by their wicked actions, tears and sorrow to everybody; those tears will be shed no longer, when death has swallowed up the evil-doers.

And they shall say (Lit., and he shall say, i.e.,) His people (shall say) on that day, “Behold, etc.”

ואמר And they will say.¹⁴A. V., And it shall be said. The people mentioned before, will say.

we hoped for Him that he would save us We were hoping for Him that He would save us.

ויושענו And he saved us.¹⁵A. V., And he will save us. And he saved us continually. It is the imperfect tense.¹⁶See i., Note 43.

For the hand of the Lord shall rest The might of the Omnipresent.

The hand of the Lord. His punishment.

shall be trampled וְנָדוֹשׁ, shall be trampled.

Moab, that will come to help the besiegers of Zion.

in its place (תַּחְתָּיו, lit., under him,) in its place. וְנָדוֹשׁ is of the same structure as (Eccl. 12: 6) “And the wheel is crushed (וְנָרוֹץ),” the “nun” indicating the passive voice.

ונדוש And shall be trodden down. Niphal of a verb (דוש) ע״ו or בְּהִדּוּשׁ .(דשש) ע״ע As is trodden down. Infinitive Niphal; וּ is here instead of וֹ; these two vowels are capable of interchange.

straw (מַתְבֵּן) derived from תֶּבֶן.

מדמנה Dunghill.

mire (מַדְמֵנָה) mire. Comp. (Jer. 8:2) “For dung (לְדֹמֶן) on the face of the earth.”

And he shall spread out his hands (וּפֵרַשׂ) He shall break his hands and his arms by clapping his hands in weeping.

And he shall spread forth. The Lord shall spread forth. In the midst of them. In the midst of Moab.

the swimmer (הַשׂחֶה) the one who floats upon the water.

השוחה He that swimmeth. Comp. שחו to swim (Ez. 47:5).

to swim (לִשְׂחוֹת) to float, as: (Ezekiel 47:5) “Water fit to swim in (מֵי שָׂחוּ).”

His pride. The pride of Moab.

and He shall humble the One Who humbles his haughtiness.

ארבות Hap. leg.; the meaning must be found from the context.^16a Some compare it with ארבות windows (Gen. 7:11), but their explanation is far-fetched.

with the cunning of His hands (אָרְבוֹת,) an expression similar to (Deut. 19:11): “And he lay in wait for him (וְאָרַב).” Jonathan renders: The layings of His hands. The place where He lays His hands to lie in wait. These are the high towers. אַשְׁוַת is an expression of walls and towers, as: (Jer. 50: 15) “Her walls fell (אָשְׁיוֹתֶיהָ).”

the strength of your walls He addresses Moab.

Thy walls. The pronoun refers to Moab.

השח השפיל He brought down, he laid low.¹⁷It is strange that I. E. does not state what the meaning of the word is; the context admits of many meanings, as may be seen from a comparison of the various renderings of the word, e.g., Rashi: towers, Kimchi: the wrists, R. Jonah: the multitude, A. V., the spoils. Asyndeton; comp. כרע שכב נפל He bowed, he fell, he lay down (Judg. 5:27). The past is used here because the action was already completed in the time of Sennacherib.¹⁷A. V., He shall bring low, lay low. I. E. refers this prophecy to the period of the war of Gog and Magog, while Moab was to receive her punishment long before that period, in the days of Sennacherib.