Комментарий к Йешайау 45:26

to His anointed one Every title of greatness is called anointing. Comp. (Num. 18:8) “To you I have given them for greatness (לְמָשְׁחָה).” Our Sages, however, said: To the King Messiah, the Holy One, blessed be He, says, “I complain to you about Cyrus,” as it is stated in Tractate Megillah 12a.

His anointed. According to some, the prophet; others think that Cyrus is meant; either explanation is admissible; comp. The Lord hath anointed me (61:1), and Anoint Hazael to be king (1 K. 19:15).

to flatten nations before him Heb. לְרַד, to spread out and to flatten nations before him. לְרַד is equivalent to לְרַדֵּד, to spread out.

לרד To subdue. It is infinitive of רדד ; comp. הרדד who subdueth (Ps. 144:2); as to its form comp. לְעַד to prey (Zeph. 3:8)

and the loins of kings I will loosen This is an expression of weakness and breaking strength, for girding the loins constitutes arming with strength. Comp. (Job 38:3) “Gird up your loins like a mighty man”; (Jer. 1:17) “And you gird up your loins”; (Job 12:21) “And the belt of the mighty He loosens”; an expression of breaking strength.

to open...before him the portals of the gates of Babylon. Gates are the space of the opening of the gate; portals are those with which they open and lock the gate.

“Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD…” (Shemot 15:1) There are ten songs. The first was said in Egypt, as it says “For you, there shall be singing As on a night when a festival is hallowed…” (Isaiah 30:29) The second was ‘Then Moses sang…’ Third was on the well “Then Israel sang this song…” (Bamidbar 21:17) The fourth was the song ‘Listen now…’ (Devarim 32:1) The fifth was “Joshua addressed the LORD…” (Yehoshua 10:12) The sixth “On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang…” (Shoftim 5:1) The seventh “David addressed the words of this song to the LORD…” (Shmuel II 22:1) The eight was “A song for the dedication of the House.” (Psalms 30:1) The ninth was Yehoshefat, as it is written “he stationed singers to the LORD extolling the One majestic in holiness as they went forth ahead of the vanguard, saying, “Praise the LORD, for His steadfast love is eternal.”” (Chronicles II 20:21) The tenth is in the time to come, as it says “Sing to the LORD a new song…” (Isaiah 42:10) This song is different, as it is named in the masculine form (shir chadash and not shirah chadasha). All the other songs are named in the feminine form because just as a female gives birth so all of these salvations had after them another subjugation; but in the time to come will be a salvation which is not followed by any subjugation, as it says “But Israel has won through the LORD Triumph everlasting…” (Isaiah 45:17) Thus it is written ‘a new song’ in the masculine (shir chadash), just as a male does not give birth. So it says “Ask and see: Surely males do not bear young!” (Jeremiah 30:6)

and I will straighten out crooked paths Heb. וַהֲדוּרִים אֲיַשֵּׁר. Jonathan renders: I will level the walls. Comp. (Shab. 77b) “the surrounding area (הדר הדרנא),” since the wall surrounds the city. The word may also be explained as: I will straighten out crooked paths before him.

I. The support of God or the heavenly prince of Persia is to be understood;¹This remark of I. E. is intended to smooth the anthropological expression I (God) will go before thee. Two explanations are given; the first substitutes for I the expression my support; the second assigns these words to the angel, the messenger of God, who speaks of God sometimes in the first, sometimes in the third person. Comp. c. xvi. Note 7. comp. Dan. 10:20.

והדורים The crooked places. It is the opposite of ישר straight. Some derive it from הדר glory;²According to this derivation the mountains are called הדורים the glorious, majestic part of the earth, because of their rising above the rest of the surface of the earth.—הרר of the Hebrew text is a corruption of הדר. it means mountains, and is as to its form either adjective or participle passive.³By this remark I. E. means to say, that strictly speaking, we have to supply here the noun, to which הדורים is an attribute.

דלתות The doors⁴A, V., The gates. that are in the gates of the city.

Who calls [you] by your name You are not yet born, and I call you by the name Cyrus.

And I will give thee the treasures of darkness. Cyrus will take the spoil of the countries.

That thou mayest know. For before that he did not fear the Lord.

For the sake of My servant Jacob that you take him out of Babylonian exile.

For Jacob my servant’s sake, etc. All this success is not granted to thee for thine own sake, but for Israel, that thou shouldst send back the captives of Israel and rebuild Jerusalem.

yet you have not known Me You did not do My will, for I said, (infra v. 13) “He shall build My city,” but he when he assumed the throne said, “Whoever among you is from all His people, may ascend.” He gave them permission to go, but he cast off all the trouble from upon his neck.

I have named thee. Comp. I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine (43:1)

I am the Lord, I alone know what will happen in future; as the victory of Cyrus shows.

I shall gird thee. I shall strengthen thee, although thou hast not worshipped Me.

That they may know, etc. I have besides given thee strength, in order that My name shall be known everywhere, that I am alone the Lord, and that there is none beside Me.

Who forms light for the righteous.

I form the light, etc. Things which are opposite to each other are mentioned in this verse.

and creates darkness for Babylon, and the same applies to “Who makes peace and creates evil.”

ובורא חשך And causeth⁵A. V., And create.⁵A. V., And create. darkness. ברא has here the same meaning as גזר to decree; for darkness is nothing by itself, it is but the absence of light.⁶Darkness is no substance in itself; the verb to create, which signifies to bring a substance into existence (להוציא יש מאין), cannot therefore be applied to it, and the verb ברא, which is used here by the prophet with regard to darkness, means to decree, to order. But God commands that there shall be darkness, is the same as, God commands the light to withdraw. I. E., however, lays rather too much stress on his exposition of the verb ברא.

The same is to be said^6aThe evil seems sometimes to be something real, to which the verb to create might well be applied, as e.g. war, illness. But I. E. explains that these evils are but a certain relation of existing beings to each other; and finds the verb to decree or to command to be more applicable to them than the verb to create. concerning ובורא רע And causeth evil. By evil war is meant as the opposite of peace, or the sickness under which man labours, as being at war with his constitution. These antitheses are used to indicate that in the same way God will strengthen Cyrus and weaken the king of Babylon.

Cause the heavens to drip Righteousness, mentioned in the verse, is the object of the dripping and the pouring. Make the heavens drip righteousness and the skies shall pour righteousness, i.e., from Me shall come the righteousness to benefit them from the heavens.

Drop down. This is a command to the angels⁷Heavens and skies are in this verse, according to I. E., metaphors for angels, for the messengers or servants of the Lord, that execute His decrees. As to the use of שמים and similar expressions for angels Comp. I. E. on Dan. 10:20 and Ex. 25:40. that they shall drop righteousness, and cause salvation and truth to succeed.

created it I created this thing.

אני יי בראתיו I, the Lord, have created for him,⁸A. V., Have created it. have created righteousness for Cyrus; he will establish righteousness in the world.⁹By overthrowing the Babylonian Empire, and delivering those who were oppressed by it.

Woe to him who contends with his Creator Isaiah prophesied concerning Habakkuk, who was destined to stand and complain about the length of Nebuchadnezzar’s success (1:2): “How long, O Lord, have I entreated [You]?...” (v. 14) “And [why] have You made man like the fish of the sea?” And the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Isaiah, Why does this one come to contend with Me? Does he think that I do not give thought to save My people? When the time lapses, “that the land will appease its sabbaths” (Lev. 26:34).

הוי Hi!¹⁰A. V., Woe unto him. Interjectio vocandi. The prophet calls unto him, that does not believe in the words of God, who foretells these future events.

has no place [lit. has no hands,] has no place.

רב את יוצר That striveth with his maker. יוצר has here the same meaning as in Ps. 2:9; namely potter.¹¹The lit. rendering of the phrase רב את יצרו is: that striveth with its pother; but the word him that striveth with his maker express the same idea, if the pronouns him and his be referred to the noun potsherd, mentioned in the phrase which follows.

The potsherd. The man who is like a potsherd of earthenware.

Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? This cannot be ; but he who fashions the clay does what he wishes.

ופעלך אין ידים לו Or thy work, etc. Or shall the clay say to him who fashions it, What thou doest is not done by thy hands.¹²A. V., He hath no hands. According to the explanation of I. E. it is very strange that the most important word thine should be omitted. I think that this phrase contains the same idea as the preceding, namely : Thy work is made without hands; thou hast no power to do it as thou likest.

Woe to him who says to a father, “What do you beget?” He thinks that he has more pity on the son than his father. Another explanation is: Woe is the son who says to his father, “Why have you begotten?” He is analogous to the one who contends with his Creator.

He that saith to his father, etc. Or can the son before his birth say to his father, What wilt thou beget,¹³A. V., What begettest thou. What hast thou brought forth.¹³A. V., What begettest thou. What hast thou brought forth. or to the woman, that is, to his mother, what wilt thou bring forth? תחילין Thou will bring forth. Comp. כי חלה נם ילדה ציון Zion travailed, she brought forth (66:8)

Ask Me about the signs etc. Heb. הָאוֹתִיוֹת. The ‘heh’ is voweled with a ‘kamatz.’ This indicates that it is not the interrogative, but this is its explanation: If you have come to ask Me, you and the prophets, ask Me about the signs of the heavens and the wonders that you see coming about on the earth; about them you may ask Me, what they are, but about My children and about the work of My hands, Israel, for whose sake I formed everything, shall you come to command Me and to complain before Me?

And his maker. I am he who made Israel.

do you command Me? This is the interrogative. Must you command Me concerning My children? I have already created the salvation for them in the thought that has entered My mind [lit. has come before Me]. How so? I aroused him with righteousness. This is stated regarding Cyrus.

שְׁאׇלוּגׅי Ask me. It is imperative like שְׁמׇלוּגׅי hear me (Gen. 23:8), the kamez being substituted for zeré because of the guttural letter (א) ¹⁴The regular form would be שַׁאֲלוּגׅי שׁׅמׅעוּגׅי. See I. E. on 41:25, and Note 31..

,mubhWill ye command me.¹⁵A. V., Ask me. Comp. Rashi ad locum. It is a question.—As the potter knows what to do with the clay, so I know what to do with Israel, who is my son. The other nations, the Non-Israelites are addressed in these words.

I made the earth and gave it to whoever pleased Me [lit. was straight in My eyes].

I have made the earth, etc. How will you command me concerning my children, when the whole universe belongs to me? I have created earth and man upon it; my hands have stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts have I commanded, and consequently they were created. I commanded is poetically said¹⁶I. E. explains I commanded by I spoke, because this verse refers to the creation of heaven and earth and all their hosts, and the verb to command cannot properly be applied to things which do not yet exist. for I spoke as in the verse He commanded and they were created (Ps. 148:5)

I have raised him, namely Cyrus.

And I will make straight all his ways, and all this only because He shall build, etc.

The toil of Egypt etc. I have informed how I will save My children from the hand of Babylon, for I have aroused Cyrus for that purpose with My righteousness. I further inform you of the salvation from Sennacherib that will take place in the days of Hezekiah. When he returns (supra 36:36) from marching upon Tirhaka, king of Cush, he will return to Jerusalem with all the valuable treasures of Cush, and Egypt, who will go to aid Cush, in his possession, and he will come with those spoils and fall in Jerusalem, and Hezekiah and his people will plunder everything. So is it delineated in Seder Olam (ch. 23) that it is stated concerning Sennacherib.

The labour of Egypt, etc. This verse shows that Cyrus was also to conquer Egypt, and to carry the inhabitants thereof away into captivity; the way, as is well known, led through. Palestine, which is situated in the midst between Elam and Egypt.¹⁷As to the position of Elam, see c. xiii. Note 7. Cyrus did not conquer Egypt, but Kambyses, his successor, conquered it 525 B. C.

men of stature Tall people.

Men of measure. Men of great measure; for all men have a certain measure; comp. show thyself a man═show thyself a brave man (1 Kgs. 2:2).

over to you Jerusalem.

Surely God is in thee. These are the words which they will confess and declare; this was in fact the case after the return of Israel from the Babylonian captivity.¹⁸Comp. I. E. 19:19, note 26.

they shall come over in chains For Sennacherib brought them there, with neck-irons fastened to them, and after his defeat, Hezekiah stood and released all those captives, who became converted to Judaism and recognized the kingdom of Heaven.

Only in you is God They will acknowledge that there is no God but the Lord alone. ([Mss. and K’li Paz read:] but to Israel.)

Indeed, You are a God Who conceals Himself And so they shall say to the Holy One, blessed be He, “Indeed, You have given us to understand (we understand [Mss. and K’li Paz]) that to collect the debts of Your people, You conceal yourself from showing Your victory. So to speak, You have not the ability, and when Your mercy is aroused, You are the God of Israel, the Savior.” So it is explained in Mechilta (Ex. 14:4).

Verily thou art a God, etc. Then they will confess to God and say, It is true that thou art God who hid himself from the people in which He delighted, and now thou art the God of the Israelites, who helps them. Some say that אל נסתר ═ אל מסתתר invisible God, and explain the verse thus: God, though invisible, revealed himself for the sake of Israel. This explanation, however, is not supported by the rules of Hebrew grammar, מסתתר being Hithpael, and signifying who hid himself.

master painters Heb. חָרָשֵׁי צִירִים, the master painters of the idols, from among the pagans.

They shall go with confusion,¹⁹A. V., To confusion. etc. They that make the idols, and come with honour to those that send for them, shall go, etc. צירים Messengers.²⁰A. V., Idols. According to I. E. חרשי means the makers of idols, צירים of messengers, that is, for whom messengers were sent from a distance. Comp. ציר an ambassador (Jer. 49:14). הלכו They shall go. They shall return to their land.

Israel is saved by the Lord. Therefore they will not be ashamed, as those men have been put to shame, that made vain things which cannot help in times of trouble.

עד Innumerable.²¹A. V., Without end. The literal translation of עַד according to I. E. is till, and the phrase they cannot be numbered for multitude, must be supplied. Comp. I. E. on c. 57:15 and 65:18.

He did not create it for a waste but He formed it to be inhabited.

He hath established it, as the habitation for men and beasts.

תהו In vain.

Not in secret did I speak When I gave the Torah, and I did not say for naught and in vain to the seed of Jacob, Seek Me, but to receive great reward.

I have not spoken, etc. I have not made the earth in vain, how then should I say to the Israelites Seek ye me in vain.²²God has not created the earth in vain; he wishes that it shall be inhabited; how then should He ask the Israelites, whose land is desolate and waste, to seek Him, that is, to pray to Him, for the restoration of the country, in vain, that is, without being relieved? Many refer this verse to the revelation on Sinai;^22aSee Rashi ad locum. but I refer it to those future events, of which the Lord informed the prophet, and which the prophet announced to Israel and all other nations ; this may be gathered from the words מגיד מישרים I declare things that are right.²³According to I. E., the words Things that are right, refer to the predictions concerning the redemption of the Israelites, which is sure to take place as soon as they make up their minds to return to God.

I am the Lord Who speaks righteousness Since I commenced to speak to them concerning My righteousness, to inform them of the giving of their reward, afterwards I told them things that are right, My statutes and My laws, for before the giving of the Torah it was said to them, “And now, if you heed, etc., you shall be for Me a treasure...a kingdom of priests, etc.” (Ex. 19:5f.).

approach Heb. הִתְנַגְּשׁוּ, an expression of approaching (הַגָּשָׁה) and the ‘nun’ is attached to it, as one says “they were struck (הִתְנַגְּפוּ)”; “they will be struck (יִתְנַגְּפוּ).”

הקבצו ובאו התנגשו Assemble yourselves and come, draw near. These are imperatives.

you survivors of the nations who survived the sword of Nebuchadnezzar.

Ye, that are escaped, etc. The Babylonians are addressed.—I called thus long ago, but they have, no knowledge that set up, etc.

who carry their graven wooden image...do not know to understand knowledge.

who announced this from before Who of your idols is it that announced from before that your God brought salvation, each one to its worshipers?

Tell ye the truth.

Is it not I, the Lord, and there are no other For I announce what I am destined to do for My people, and I fulfill My words.

And bring near your wise men.

יועצו Let them take counsel. It is Niphal of יעץ

Turn to Me and abandon your graven images, all the ends of the earth, and, thereby, you shall be saved.

And be ye saved. This is the same as and you will be saved; it is in your own power.²⁴The imperative And be ye saved is here used, although the Israelites cannot properly be commanded to save themselves, for it is God who saves them; because the relief sent to them by God is only the consequence of their good actions, which they are here indirectly commanded to do.

By Myself I swore and righteousness emanated from My mouth to accept all those who return to Me. I spoke a word, and it will not be retracted. What is the righteousness that emanated from My mouth? That to Me shall every knee kneel, and I will accept them, as the matter is stated (Zeph. 3: 9): “For then will I change for the people a pure language, to call all of them in the name of the Lord...”

By myself, who am eternal. I have sworn. I have made a decree, which will not be undone.

דבר צדקה ═ צדקה a righteous word.^24aThis remark is added to explain the discrepancy between the genders of the verb יצא and the noun צדקה. Comp. צדקה she hath been righteous (Gen. 38:27).²⁵This quotation is adduced to prove that the word צדקה admits also of the meaning truth.

That unto me, etc. These things here foretold I shall do, till unto me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear to belong to me. לי unto me must be repeated before תשבע shall swear ; it is an ellipsis, such as is frequently met with. Comp.²⁶As to the meaning of נשבע to swear to be faithful to. And shall swear by His name (Deut. 6:13)

But to me did He say by the Lord Heb. אַךְ בַה' לִי אָמַר [lit. but by the Lord to me He said]. This verse is inverted, and thus is its interpretation: But to me did He say by the Lord righteousness and strength. Although all the nations shall prostrate themselves before Him [correct reading according to Warsaw edition, K’li Paz, and mss.], but to me alone, the congregation of Israel, has been promised by the Lord righteousness and strength, and other nations shall not be included in my glory.

לי Unto me. The pronoun of the first person refers to the prophet. He declares, that he does not know these future events by the aid of his reason, but by the Lord alone, who informed him of these things of righteousness and strength.²⁷Mentioned in the preceding verse, and referring to the faithful fulfilment of the divine promise. It is more correct to explain the verse thus : Surely in the Lord, alone is righteousness and strength, the words לי אמר are a relative sentence signifying who spoke unto me.

to Him shall come and be ashamed etc. All who were incensed against the Holy One, blessed be He, shall come to Him to regret what they did in their lifetimes and be ashamed.

עדיו To Him. Comp. Am. 4:6

all who are incensed Heb. כֹּל הַנֶּחֱרִים בּוֹ, all who are incensed.

Through the Lord...find righteousness and boast Through the promise of the support of His love they shall find righteousness and boast of His strength.

In the Lord. In faithfully believing in the Lord.

boast Heb. וְיִתְהַלְלוּ, porvantir in O.F.