נַפְשִׁ֥י לַֽאדֹנָ֑י מִשֹּׁמְרִ֥ים לַ֝בֹּ֗קֶר שֹׁמְרִ֥ים לַבֹּֽקֶר׃
Ang aking kaluluwa ay naghihintay sa Panginoon nang higit pa sa mga bantay na naghihintay sa umaga, mga bantay na naghihintay sa umaga.
Ibn Ezra
Watchmen. By this name those that mourn for Zion are meant, who do nothing else but cry, who do not sleep during the night, but are like watchmen upon the walls,
Ibn Ezra
nor do they sleep during the day, while watchmen may at least sleep during the day; comp. They that cause to watch for lying vanities, forsake their idol (Jon. 2:9).4A. V., They that observe lying vanities.—I. E. proves by this quotation that the expression to watch signifies sometimes to wait for help, to pray; because משמרים means they that cause to pray, and refers to the people in the ship that stirred each other up to prayer; so here also the word שמרים watchmen refers to those that feel themselves continually stirred up to pray to the Almighty for the restoration of Jerusalem and the temple. The prophet himself explains the expression watchmen by the words המזכירים את יי that remind the Lord. מזכירים is a causative verb; lit., that cause the Lord to remember; comp. הזכירני put me in remembrance (43:26)
Rabbeinu Bahya
There is an allusion to our present exile under the descendants of Edom in the experience of the Jewish people in their first exile under the Egyptians. The Jews in Egypt had to bear up under increasingly difficult conditions only in order to experience a wonderful redemption and in seeing their oppressors being killed after suffering many plagues and then dying a painful death by drowning. Similarly, when the time comes we will experience a wonderful redemption when the Messiah will arrive, a redemption by comparison to which the Exodus of the Jewish people will fade into relative insignificance. David referred to this redemption in Psalm 130,6 where he described the longing of the כנסת ישראלsaying “I am more eager for the Lord than watchmen for the morning.” If in spite of our impatient wait for the redemption it has been delayed then this is only in order to add to the guilt of our oppressors in the interval and in order to punish them more severely for their sins against G’d and against His people. Just as we find that oppression of the Jewish people reached a new intensity after Moses asked that his people be allowed to celebrate a holiday for the Lord in the desert, the redemption in the future will be ushered in after a period of unparalleled suffering by the Jewish people. The initial attempt at bringing about the final redemption will suffer setbacks just as the initial attempt by Moses to secure the release of the Jewish people encountered setbacks.
Our sages in Shemot Rabbah 5,20 comment on verse 20 where Moses and Aaron are being assailed by the overseers of the Jewish laborers for having been instrumental in their situation deteriorating rather than improving, that after 6 months G’d appeared to Moses in Midyan and said to him: “go back to Egypt (4,19) for all the people who wish to kill you have died.” When Moses and Aaron met, the former coming from Midyan and the latter from Egypt, the overseers met them as they emerged from their audience with Pharaoh. We find a similar comment in Midrash Chazita on Song of Songs 2,9: “My beloved is like a gazelle.” Just as a gazelle is visible to the eye one moment, disappears and then reappears, so the first redeemer appeared to the Jewish people, disappeared, and reappeared again in due course. Rabbi Tanchuma said that Moses disappeared for only three months and that this is the meaning of ויפגעו את משה ואת אהרן. [The expression ויפגעו always refers to an unexpected meeting, i.e. since both Moses and Aaron had returned to their previous abodes there was no reason to expect them at the palace gates of Pharaoh at the time (quoted in the name of עץ יוסף)]. When the prophet Micah 7,15 speaks of G’d performing miracles “just as in the days when you came out of Egypt,” he alludes to certain similarities between what preceded the Exodus from Egypt to what will occur when the final redemption will be at hand. We have another Midrash (Sanhedrin 98) according to which the meaning of Isaiah 59,19: “for he will come like a hemmed in stream which the wind of the Lord drives on,” is that if you observe a certain generation being flooded by troubles from all sides like a river, await him (the Messiah), seeing that the prophet Isaiah continued there (verse 20) “for he shall come as a redeemer to Zion and to those who turn back from sin.”
Our sages in Shemot Rabbah 5,20 comment on verse 20 where Moses and Aaron are being assailed by the overseers of the Jewish laborers for having been instrumental in their situation deteriorating rather than improving, that after 6 months G’d appeared to Moses in Midyan and said to him: “go back to Egypt (4,19) for all the people who wish to kill you have died.” When Moses and Aaron met, the former coming from Midyan and the latter from Egypt, the overseers met them as they emerged from their audience with Pharaoh. We find a similar comment in Midrash Chazita on Song of Songs 2,9: “My beloved is like a gazelle.” Just as a gazelle is visible to the eye one moment, disappears and then reappears, so the first redeemer appeared to the Jewish people, disappeared, and reappeared again in due course. Rabbi Tanchuma said that Moses disappeared for only three months and that this is the meaning of ויפגעו את משה ואת אהרן. [The expression ויפגעו always refers to an unexpected meeting, i.e. since both Moses and Aaron had returned to their previous abodes there was no reason to expect them at the palace gates of Pharaoh at the time (quoted in the name of עץ יוסף)]. When the prophet Micah 7,15 speaks of G’d performing miracles “just as in the days when you came out of Egypt,” he alludes to certain similarities between what preceded the Exodus from Egypt to what will occur when the final redemption will be at hand. We have another Midrash (Sanhedrin 98) according to which the meaning of Isaiah 59,19: “for he will come like a hemmed in stream which the wind of the Lord drives on,” is that if you observe a certain generation being flooded by troubles from all sides like a river, await him (the Messiah), seeing that the prophet Isaiah continued there (verse 20) “for he shall come as a redeemer to Zion and to those who turn back from sin.”