Комментарий к Йешайау 38:23

In those days Three days before Sennacherib’s downfall, Hezekiah became ill, and the third day, when he went up to the house of the Lord, was the day of Sennacherib’s downfall, and it was the first festive day of Passover.

for you are going to die and you shall not live You are going to die in this world, and you shall not live in the world to come, for you have not married, as it is stated in Berachoth 10b.

Please, O Lord (אָנָּה) Where is Your mercy?

Behold I will add (יוֹסִיף, lit., he will add.) Behold I am He Who will add to your life.

And from the hand of the king of Assyria will I save you We deduce that he became ill before the downfall of Sennacherib.

And this is your sign That you shall be cured, and that your days shall be increased, as is explained below (v. 22), and in Kings (2 20:8) he asked, “What is the sign that I will go up?”

Behold I return the shade backwards ten steps which it went down.

the shade of the steps A sort of steps made opposite the sun to determine the hours of the day, like the clocks (horloge in French) that craftsmen make (sectarians make [Parshandatha]).

that it went down It hastened to go down, and the day was shortened by ten hours on the day Ahaz died, in order that they should not eulogize him, and now they went backwards on the day Hezekiah recovered, and ten hours were added to the day.

The writing of Hezekiah Jonathan paraphrases: A writing of thanksgiving for the miracle performed for Hezekiah.

ויחי And was recovered. Comp. עד חיותם till they were whole (Jos. 5:8), ואתה מחיה and thou preservest (Neh. 9:6). It might also mean, And he lived.¹In this case the word מחליו which follows, must be translated: his illness being no more, or after having been ill.

I said, In the desolation of my days (בִּדְמִי) When I saw my days בִּדְמִי, in desolation and in silence. Comp. (Zeph. 1:11) “For the entire people of Canaan has been silenced (נִדְמָה).” That is to say that when I became ill, I said, “I will go into the gates of the grave.” Now I will die, since, until that day, no sick person had recovered.

בדמי. Some derive it from דָּם blood, and explain it, In the vigour;²דם Blood or ═ לשׁד moisture, sap (Ps. 32:4); דמי freshness, vigour; בדמי ימי in the vigour of my days, that is, in the midst of my days. The י in דמי is not radical according to this explanation. The second opinion is, that י is a radical letter, replacing ה, and that דְּמִי is a noun formed of דמה to cut off, like פְּרִי fruit of פּרה.²דם Blood or ═ לשׁד moisture, sap (Ps. 32:4); דמי freshness, vigour; בדמי ימי in the vigour of my days, that is, in the midst of my days. The י in דמי is not radical according to this explanation. The second opinion is, that י is a radical letter, replacing ה, and that דְּמִי is a noun formed of דמה to cut off, like פְּרִי fruit of פּרה. but the correct explanation is: In the cutting off. Comp. נדמה נדמה shall utterly be cut off (Hos. 10:15).

I am deprived of the rest of my years (פֻּקַּדְתִּי) Comp. “(Num. 31:49) No man was missing (נִפְקַד) of us.” I am missing the rest of my years. Jonathan, however, renders: My remembrance has entered for good; years have been added to my years. I have been visited (נִפְקַדְתִּי) for good, and my years have been increased.

שאל The grave, which is deep in the earth; the opposite of heaven, which is always above; comp. Ps. 139:8:³In the psalm quoted, the poet says that wherever he should choose to go God would see him, whether he ascended to heaven or descended into the earth. There is, according to I. E., no occasion for introducing there the idea of hell; as a contrast to heaven above, the grave in the earth below is mentioned: If I make my bed in the grave, behold thou art there. it does not mean hell.

פקדתי I am deprived. Comp. ולא נפקד and there lacketh not (Num. 31:49); it is a poetical expression,⁴For the common I die. as also used in Arabic.⁵فَقَدَ he lost. Pass. he was lost, he died. Some say that פקדתי is the same as ממני פקד was taken from me, and compare it with יצאוני are gone forth from me (Jer. 10:20);⁶The comparison is not correct, because ני in יצאוני is in the objective case, while תי in פקדתי denotes the subject. according to others it means I was remembered, in the same sense as and the Lord remembered (Gen. 21:1).⁷The three explanations of the phrase פקדתי יתר שנותי, given by I. E., are: 1. I shall be missing (that is, dead) during the remainder of my years, that is, of the years which I should have lived, were I not afflicted with this illness. 2. The remainder of my years was taken from me. 3. But the remainder of my years was granted unto me.

The residue of my years. Comp. the number of thy days I will complete (Ex. 23:26). In my commentary on that verse I have explained it.⁸The years or the days of man are those determined by the natural constitution of his body; their number is often diminished by accidents, but remains complete by the protection and blessing of Providence. Comp. also I. E. on Exod. 33:21.

[Addendum: I will not see the Eternal (יָהּ) I will no longer use the name יָהּ.

I shall not see the Lord, etc. God is not subject to accidents, that a human eye should be able to perceive Him; He is, however, known by His works. The meaning of this verse is therefore: I shall not see any longer the works of the Almighty; I shall not understand the works of the Lord in this world, in the land of the living. These latter words are thus added as a kind of explanation of the preceding phrase. The pleasure which man has in this world in understanding the works of the Almighty is first mentioned; and then, in the words, I shall behold man no more, his pleasure in seeing his fellow-men.

in the land of the living The living use it, but the dead are not permitted, as it is said (Ps. 115:17): “The dead shall not praise the Eternal (יָהּ).” It is a rule for the dead that they may never mention the Name consisting of two letters.]

חדל World. חדל is perhaps the same as חלד life, as כשב is the same as כבש lamb; comp. חלדי my life (Ps. 39:6); it is possible that the word has the same meaning in the phrase מה חדל אני how long I am living⁹A. V., How frail I am. (Ps. 39:5). The life of man in this world is perhaps called ¹⁰From חדל to cease. In this case we need not assume the transposition of letters (חלד ═ חדל), unless we consider חדל to be the original word, and חלד the changed form of it. Usually חלד life is derived from חלד to be firm, to last, a verb found in Arabic.חדל because man must at some time cease to be therein.¹¹Comp. I. E. on Ps. 49:9.

in the land of the living in the Temple.

I will no longer look upon man (I.e., I will) no longer (look upon) a living (man).

with those who dwell in withdrawal (חָדֶל) For I will be with the dead, who dwell in a land withdrawn and withheld from the living.

My generation was removed and exiled from me The people of my generation were removed from me. was removed (נִסַּע) synonymous with נִסְּחוּ. Comp. (supra 33:20) “whose pegs shall never be moved (יִסַּע).”

דורי My dwelling.¹²A. V., Mine age. Comp. מדור from dwelling (Ps. 39:5); the word is frequent in Chaldee;¹³Comp. דירה dwelling, דיורין occupants of a house (Talm. Bab. Sukka ix.) דור generation (13:20) is perhaps to be derived from the same root;¹⁴דור A generation, that is, the average time a man dwells upon the earth. comp. for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner (Ps. 39:13).

like a shepherd’s tent Like the tent of one who tends animals, which he moves from here and sets up in another pasture when this pasture is depleted.

נִסַּע Is departed. The radical נ is replaced by Dagesh in the ס.

I severed (קִפַּדְתִּי) I severed my life quickly, like a weaver who hastens to weave. All this I thought. Jonathan renders: Like a stream with banks, like a stream that flows between high banks, which does not spread out, and consequently, its water flows swiftly. And I say that it is a swift stream named Oreg, and this is what Job (7:6) said, “My days are lighter than Areg,” also (ibid. 9:26), “They passed with the ships of Ebeh.”

ונגלה And is removed. Comp. גלות exile (20:4).

from glory He shall deprive me (מִדַּלֶּה יְבַצְּעֵנִי). Jonathan renders: From the glory of my kingdom I am exiled. I thought that now He would deprive me of all my glory. The word דַלָּה is an expression of height. Comp. (Song 7:5) “And the braid (וְדַלַּת) of your head.”

ממני═מני From me. Comp. 22:4.

from day and night You shall finish me (lit., from day to night.) Comp. (Num. 5:3) “Both male and female,” (lit., from male to female.) That is to say, from days and nights you shall finish me, and so did Jonathan render: My days and my nights are over.

רועי Either my shepherd, the י being the pronominal suffix, or belonging to a shepherd, the י signifying relation, as in פנימי inner (1 Kings 6:26), אכזרי cruel (13:9);¹⁵Comp. c. xiii. Note 7. for the tent of the shepherd does not remain in one place.

קפדתי I folded together.¹⁶A. V., I have cut off.

Like a weaver. Comp. And my days are swifter than the weaver’s shuttle (Job 7:6).

מדלה With pining sickness. Comp. דל lean (1 Sam. 13:4). With this illness, which I am suffering now,

יבצעני He will cut me off, that my life will expire; comp. ויבצעני and cut me off (Job 6:9).

מיום עד לילה תשלימני From day even to night it will make peace with me.¹⁷A. V., Wilt thou make an end of me?¹⁷A. V., Wilt thou make an end of me? It is an illness that keeps peace with the patient during the day, and makes war during the night; a fact often observed in cases of illness.תשלימני It will make peace with me Comp. תשלים it will make peace (Deut. 20:12)

I made [myself] myself all night to suffer the tortures of the illness, and I strengthened myself like a lion to suffer.

שויתי I made equal; supply נפשי myself;¹⁸A. V., I reckoned that. or I compared the illness¹⁹In either case שויתי must be considered as an elliptical phrase; but the ellipsis of נפשי, which turns the transitive verb into a reflective one, is more natural. The sense of the whole sentence is: I made myself a lion, in resisting the fierce attacks of the illness; or, I considered the illness as a lion, that tried to break my bones.¹⁹In either case שויתי must be considered as an elliptical phrase; but the ellipsis of נפשי, which turns the transitive verb into a reflective one, is more natural. The sense of the whole sentence is: I made myself a lion, in resisting the fierce attacks of the illness; or, I considered the illness as a lion, that tried to break my bones. in its fierce attacks on me, with a lion which generally breaks the bones. From day even to night it maketh peace with me, to my great surprise, after the attacks during the night.²⁰This remark is to explain the repetition of this idea in this verse, after its having been expressed in the same words in the preceding one.

so it would break my bones Comp. (Ex. 1:12) “So they would multiply and so they would spread.” The more I would strengthen myself, so the illness would overpower me to break all my bones.

like a crane (סוּס) same as (Jer. 8:7), סִיס, and that is the name of a bird.

כסוס כעגור═כסוס עגור. Comp. כרע כאח לי as though he had been my friend, my brother (Ps. 35:14). In the same way ככבש כאלוף ═ אלוף ככבש like a lamb, like an ox (Jer. 14:19). סיס and עגור are names of birds, a crane, a swallow. So did I chatter. The patient in his heavy illness mutters and speaks what no one is able to understand.

like a crane, a swallow like a crane and a swallow. (Alternatively,) like this bird, seized by the neck, and it screeches. So did Jonathan render: Like a crane that is caught and screeches.

דלו They are lifted up.²¹A. V., Fail. Root דלל, comp. דליו they are high (Prov. 26:7).

Rob me (עָשְׁקָה), like עֲשֹׁק. Rob me, take me out of the hand of the angel of death, and pledge Yourself to save me. This (עָרְבֵנִי) is an expression of surety (garantieh in O.F.). Comp. (Ps. 119) “Pledge Yourself (עֲרוֹב) to Your servant for good.”

עשקה לי It oppresseth me.²²A. V., I am oppressed.—עָֽשְׁקָה is third person feminine past of עשק; I. E. supplies, therefore, the subject דלה illness. The illness oppresseth me.

Rob me (לִי) Rob me from his hand. Comp. (Num. 12:13) “Please cure her (לָהּ),” like, cure her (אוֹתָהּ).

ערבני Undertake for me. Comp.²³The Hebrew text has עתה now; but its meaning can hardly be found out; besides, the word טגזרת, the usual introduction of a parallel passage, is missing; and the conjecture that עת׳ is a corruption of מגזרת is well founded. ערוב be surety (Ps. 119:112); according to some הרבני ═ ערבני destroy me; this is nonsense. The word ערבני, lit. pledge thyself for me, is an anthropomorphism; it means, sympathise with me in my troubles.

What shall I speak praise and adoration before Him? Behold He promised me consolations, and He fulfilled them.

He hath spoken unto me. He said, I will add to thy days (ver. 5),

I will cause all my sleep to flee Comp. (Gen. 31:40) “And my sleep fled.” Jonathan renders שְׁנוֹתַי as an expression of years.

והוא עשה And himself will do it.²⁴A. V., And hath done. The past is here used for the future; comp. נתתי I will give (Gen. 23:13)^24aAbraham says to Ephron נתתי כסף השדה; lit.: I gave thee money for the field (Gen. 23:13); and in the same chapter, ver. 15, it is stated Abraham weighed to Ephron, etc. The past נתתי is here used for the future.; or And himself hath done this kindness unto me²⁵viz. give me that promise., and still I shall go softly in the bitterness of my soul, when remembering these troubles, which I had to suffer.

concerning the bitterness of my soul which was bitter, and You consoled me.

אדדה I shall go softly. Hithpaël;²⁶It is impossible to suppose that I. E. explained אֶדַּדֶּה to be Niphal, as the Hebrew text reads ומלת אדדה מבנין נפעל; either נפעל is a corruption of התפעל, or I. E. read אֶדָּדֶה instead of אֶדַּדֶּה there is no parallel to it in the Bible, but אדדם I went with them (Ps. 42:5), and in the Mishna מדדה (Shabb. 18:2) in the well known meaning.²⁷To lead, or to assist in walking.

O Lord! Concerning them, [You said] they shall live Jonathan renders: O Lord! Concerning all the dead, You said to resurrect.

עליהם By them.²⁸A. V., By these things men live.²⁸A. V., By these things men live. By the words, hinted at in the phrase And he said (ver. 15). עליהם יחיו By them they live. By thy words and acts the living beings exist. ולכל And always²⁹A. V., And in all these things.. The word עת time is to be supplied.

and before all of them the life of my spirit And before all of them He resurrected the life of my spirit. But I say according to the simple meaning: The Lord is upon them, upon ‘my years’ mentioned above.

ותחלימני So wilt thou recover me. Comp. יחלמו they are strong (Job 39:4); חלום strong (Talm. Bab. Rosh Hashanah 28)

‘How can I serve Him and repay Him for all the years,’ He caused His Shechinah and His kindness to rest upon them and said to me through His prophets, that they shall live.

and to all upon which the life of my soul depends And to everything upon which the life of my soul depends, the Lord said concerning them and they shall live.

and You shall make me well From now on, I know that you shall make me well and give me life. You shall make me well (תַּחְלִימֵנִי) You shall make me well and strengthen me. Comp. (Job 39:4) “Their children shall become strong (יַחְלְמוּ).”

Behold for peace, it is bitter for me, yea it is bitter When I was notified of the tidings of peace, even that was bitter for me, for my recovery was dependent upon the merit of others (v. 5): “So has the Lord God of your father David said...”; (supra 37:35) “For My sake and for the sake of David your father.” Here You let me know that I am a sinner (See Ber. 10b). (So did the Sages explain it, but in order to reconcile the verse, it appears to mean: Behold for peace, it was bitter for me, yea it was bitter - When I was given the news by You that You would save me from the hand of Sennacherib, it was bitter for me, yea it was bitter because of my illness, that I was close to death, and I did not rejoice with the news.) But You desired my soul, that it descend not to the grave.

Behold when I hoped for peace,³⁰A. V., Behold for peace. etc., when I was in the middle of my years, (Hezekiah was 39 years old, when he was taken ill); for when the choler³¹The four humours of which the ancients supposed the blood to be composed are: blood רם, choler מרה אדומה, phlegm לחה, melancholy מרה שחורה; the prevalence of the one or the other in man was believed to determine the constitution of his mind, or his temper. As man becomes older, the choleric temper disappears, while the phlegmatic humour increases. is predominant in man, he is ailing in his youth, but healthy in his old age; the reverse takes place, if the phlegm is predominant; but the middle years are generally expected to be peaceful.

מר לי מר I had great bitterness. The repetition indicates emphasis. Some derive מר from תמורה

the reverse. בלי Some compare it with בלתי I am waxed old (Gen. 18:12), and consider it as a noun like פרי fruit meaning corruption. Others say that בלי means in this verse not, and that the sentence is inverted.³²The proper order of the words, according to this opinion, may be supposed to be as follows: ואתה לא חשקת נפשי משחת but thou hast not desired my soul to go down to the grave. The מ in משחת, however, presents some difficulty, and probably for that reason this explanation is rejected by I. E. The first explanation is preferable: And thou hast desired my soul, and brought me up from the pit of corruption.

For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. A figure taken from man, that does not see, what is behind his back; for we know, that God, the Creator of all bodies, has no body. This verse proves the assertion of some authorities, that in consequence of a sin committed by him, Hezekiah should have died earlier; and since, as they otherwise stated, he who dies before his fifty-second year suffers the punishment כָּרְת to be cut off,³³Comp. I. E. on Gen. 17:14; and Talm. Bab. Moed. Katan. 28a: He who dies in the fiftieth year of his life, dies by the punishment of כָּרֵת; he who dies in the fifty-second year enjoys a death like that of the prophet Samuel. he was grieved, that he should be punished with כָּרְת, not being conscious of having committed a sin deserving it; he says therefore: Remember now, how I have walked before Thee, and have done what is good in Thine eyes (ver. 3); he mentions two things, the thought and the practice.³⁴I. E. refers the words how I have walked before Thee to the fulfilment of the duties of the heart, because they are followed by in truth and with a perfect heart. Tradition says, that he had not yet obeyed the commandment to marry.³⁵Comp. Talm. Bab. Berachoth 10a.

[For the grave shall not thank You Had I died, I would not thank You for the miracle of the downfall of Sennacherib, and I would not hope for the realization of Your promise that You promised me concerning him.]

For the grave, etc. The body which is in the grave; the negation לא is to be repeated after מות: death cannot celebrate thee; comp. Prov. 21:14.³⁶In the verse מתן בסתר יכפה אף ושחד בחק חמה עזה A gift in secret pacifieth anger, and a reward in the bosom strong wrath, the verb יכפה pacifieth must be repeated before חמה wrath.

ישברו They hope. Comp. Ps. 145:15. Many are surprised to find here the prophet declaring such things, as if denying the truth of the resurrection of the dead; but the body has no power, no knowledge, when the soul has left it; and why should we be surprised at it? Man has sometimes no understanding when the soul is in the body, much less after his death.

The living, the living This is an expression denoting living people; i.e., when they are living people in the world, this one is living and this one is living, thanksgiving emanates from between them. [Other editions: A living one to a living one You are living, and it is proper to give thanksgiving to a living one.]

The living, the living. The word חי living is repeated as if to say he who is living, as I do, or he who has recovered from illness. Shall praise thee, shall give thanks in words, in which soul and body appear to unite. According to some the first חי refers to God;³⁷The translation of the words חי חי הוא יודך according to this explanation would be: O living God, he who liveth shall praise Thee. but there is no necessity for this assumption.

inform enseigner in French, to teach.

Thy truth. These acts of truth.³⁸To send relief and help to the afflicted and suffering.

of Your truth (lit., to your truth.) The father informs and directs his son’s thoughts to Your truth, to believe in You.

The Lord. Supply hath said, or will say, or will command.

And my songs, the songs which I shall compose. We will sing. I, and the singers in the temple, will sing, all our life.

a cake of pressed figs (דְּבֶלֶת) A pressed cake made from figs. When they are fresh, they are called תְּאֵנִים, and when they are pressed into a circular cake, they are called דְּבֵלָה.

Let them take a lump of figs, etc. This is a miracle, because the figs are injurious to him who suffers from the scab;³⁹Comp. Rashi ad locum. and the reason that the future forms וימרחו ,ישאו are used,⁴⁰The words יש אומרים of the Hebrew text give no sense; after וזה שאמר and that he says, the words, which he said, are expected. They are very probably a corruption of במצות ;ישאו ,וימרחו is either identical with, or wrongly copied for בצווי in the imperative. is, that here only the command is reported.⁴¹It is frequently the case that a command is mentioned, and it must be inferred from the context that it was carried out; comp. Zech. 3:4.

and lay it for a plaster And they shall smooth it out to cause it to adhere to the boil, and this was a miracle within a miracle, for, even healthy flesh, upon which pressed figs are placed, decays. But the Holy One, blessed be He, places an injurious substance upon vulnerable tissue, and it heals.

דבלת תאנים A lump of figs. Figs, that are opened, pressed together, and form a mass which is cut with a knife.

וימרחו And lay it for a plaster. The word has a similar meaning in Arabic; what it means is well known.⁴²مَرَخَ to rub. Comp. c. xxxiv. Note 17.

What a sign How good and how beautiful is this sign which is given to me that I will go up to the house of the Lord!

ויאמר חזקיהו Hezekiah also had said before, What is the sign, as mentioned above (38:7)