Steinsaltz on Isaiah
Steinsaltz on Isaiah somebodySteinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 01
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 01 somebodyThe vision of Isaiah son of Amotz that he envisioned mainly concerning Judah and Jerusalem, although his prophecies also addressed the independent Kingdom of Israel, as well as other nations, near and far. Isaiah received his prophecies in the days of Uziyahu, Yotam, Ahaz, and Hizkiyahu, who were kings of Judah. Vision is a synonym for prophecy; it expresses the prophet’s ability to see hidden matters.
Hear, heavens, and listen, earth, as the Lord has spoken: I have reared children, the nation of Israel, and raised them up, and they have rebelled against Me.
Even an ox, which is not a particularly perceptive creature, knows the identity of its owner, and a donkey recognizes its master’s trough. Not only is the animal aware that the object is a trough, but it thereby realizes that it has a master. Conversely, Israel does not know; My people does not perceive. They pay no attention to the fact that God is their Master.
The prophet proceeds to describe Israel in a far more severe manner: Woe! Sinful nation, people laden with iniquity, whose sins are heavy, villainous descendants, who perform evil, corrupting children. They forsook the Lord, they scorned God, the Holy One of Israel; they have turned backward. They do not merely fall back; they actively withdraw from God, the source of their sanctity.
For what reason will you be struck, that you continue straying still? The more you are afflicted, the more you rebel. Each head is ill and every heart suffers.
From foot to head, there is nothing whole in it, any person of Israel; a bleeding wound, and bruise, and fresh blow have not been treated and healed, or bandaged or softened with oil for relief. Israel is depicted here as a body that is wholly stricken, wounded, and neglected.
The depiction of the land is correspondingly bleak: Your land is desolation, your cities are burned in fire; as to your land, strangers devour it, its produce, in your presence, before your own eyes, and it itself is desolation like an upheaval by strangers. The invasion of foreigners leads not only to theft and damage, but also to the general disturbance of order and the loss of security and peace of mind, a familiar experience to those whose houses have been burglarized.
The daughter of Zion, the people of Israel, remains neglected, like a guard’s booth in a plundered vineyard, like a shed in a field of gourds, in which a guard lodges, and like a besieged city, where no one enters or exits. Some explain that this means a destroyed city (see 49:6, 65:4).
The people of Israel state: Had not the Lord of hosts left for us a miniscule remnant of survivors, we would have been like Sodom, we would have been comparable to Gomorrah, two cities that were entirely overthrown and which became symbols of devastation and destruction.
The prophet addresses his people with the same terms they used to describe themselves in the previous verse: Hear the word of the Lord, leaders of Sodom! Listen to the Torah of our God, people of Gomorrah! The city of Sodom is used as a symbol for two different concepts: as a place that was completely destroyed, and a wholly wicked city. After the people describe their land as almost as desolate as Sodom, the prophet castigates them by saying that their behavior is likewise similar to that of Sodom. The lives of the inhabitants of Judah at that time, presumably in the early years of Hizkiyahu’s reign, were focused on the Temple, as it was a period of religious awakening. The sacrificial rites were performed properly, and there was little worship of idols. Consequently, the people were satisfied with their own behavior and religious situation. It can be assumed that this feeling was strengthened by a comparison with their neighbors in the Kingdom of Israel, who did not participate in the Temple rites. This is the background to the prophet’s reproof.
Why do I need the multitude of your offerings, says the Lord; I am sated with burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fattened bulls and I do not desire the blood of bulls and sheep and goats. You bring more and more offerings, and feel elevated and content with yourselves. Do you imagine that I need your gifts?
When you come to the Temple to appear before Me during your festival pilgrimages, pilgrimages that are described as the duty “to appear before the Lord your God,” who sought this from your hand, trampling My courtyards? For what purpose do you tread in the courtyard of God and trample its stones?
Do not continue bringing a vain meal offering. Your meal offering is an empty gift, devoid of content and proper intention. There is no meaning behind it. Likewise, instead of being accepted by Me with favor, the incense that you bring is an abomination to Me. Furthermore, on the days of the New Moon and Sabbath, and on the days of convoking convocations, I cannot abide evil and the gathering of the assembly for public prayer. The blending of evil with a religious assembly is intolerable. Like the offerings, the prayers are recited in accordance with all the formal laws, but this very insistence on the rules of the ritual, when little attention is paid to the duty that lies beyond, is an abomination.
My soul loathes your New Moons and your festivals, days of assembly and celebration, when it was customary to visit the Temple or important personages, such as prophets and Sages; they are a burden for Me and I have wearied of forbearance. You observe all the ceremonies and rituals in a superficial manner, without any effect on your daily lives.
And when you spread your hands upward in prayer, I will avert My eyes from you; even when you increase prayer, I do not listen, I do not respond to it, as your hands that are stretched out to Me pleadingly are full of blood. This does not necessarily refer to actual bloodshed, as in Isaiah’s time murder was not particularly common in Judah, but rather to injustice, extortion, and the abuse of unfortunates.
The prophet calls upon the people: Instead of your current behavior, wash your hands that are full of blood, purify yourselves from wrongdoing, and remove the evil of your actions, which I see continuously, from before My eyes; cease doing evil.
Learn well the way of truth. Alternatively, this means: Learn how to act well with others. Seek justice, bolster the oppressed; adjudicate for the orphan, champion the widow. Perhaps the legal system has not rotted to the core, but it does not give a chance to such people, who are most in need of its assistance and protection.
Let us go now and reason and debate together, says the Lord. God is not simply accusing you; He has suggestions for a remedy as well: If your sins are like scarlet, they will, if you so choose, be whitened as snow. They can be amended by repenting. Similarly, if they are reddened like crimson, they will be like white wool, if you repent.
If you are willing, and you heed the word of God, the goodness of the land you will eat.
But if you refuse and are defiant, you will be devoured, destroyed, by the sword, as the mouth of the Lord has spoken. This is God’s side of the debate: He has specified these conditions and you should choose to fulfill them.
Due to the classical style of this prophecy, the beauty of its phrases, the perfection of its images, and the magnificence of its parallels, one does not always notice its scathing content: How did it become a harlot, the faithful city? Jerusalem, which should be God’s loyal city, has become a metaphorical harlot. The city was once filled with principle, and justice would abide in it, but now its residents are murderers.
Your silver has become pieces of dross, non-precious metal. During the regular process of refining silver, the dross is the waste product, extracted so that the remainder is pure silver. In your case the opposite occurs: Your silver turns into dross, and this is true not only of the financial system. Your liquor, such as wine, is diluted with water. As well as serving as practical examples, the compromised silver and diluted wine are also general metaphors for widespread cheating and corruption.
Your princes are wayward, undisciplined and unfair, and they are cohorts of thieves. They quietly collaborate with robbers. Each member of the ruling class and the judiciary loves bribery and pursues graft. Consequently, they do not provide justice for an orphan, who is unable to pay them, and the cause of a widow does not come to them. If the widow or the orphan complain of harassment, the princes will not bring their cases to the light of justice.
Therefore – the utterance of the Master, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel– Woe! I will be mollified of My adversaries. Once I have punished them I will be able to relax, as it were. And I will be avenged on My enemies. These sinners are considered God’s adversaries and enemies.
I will turn My hand against you to deal with you, and I will refine your pieces of dross as with lye, a caustic cleansing substance, and I will remove all your slag [bedilayikh], which is the common waste matter within silver ore. It was called this perhaps because it was separated [nivdal] from the more valuable metal during the refinement.
I will restore your judges to as they were at first, and your counselors, who fulfilled various leadership roles, to as they were at the beginning. Thereafter, you, Jerusalem, will be called the city of righteousness, just like when justice abided in it, and you will again be termed the faithful city, as in the past.
Zion will be redeemed with the performance of justice, and its returnees will come back to rebuild it with righteousness.
And there will be breaking of transgressors and sinners together, and those others who forsake the Lord will perish with them,
for they, these sinners, will be ashamed of the terebinths used for idolatrous purposes, or of the powerful individuals that you, the people, coveted, and you will be disgraced because of the gardens, used for foreign rituals, or because of the pleasures that you chose. The idea that the world of sin is based on luxuries and worthless matters appears in several places in this book (see, e.g., 5:11–12, 22:13).
For you will be like a terebinth whose leaves are withered. The terebinth is a large, splendid tree which blossoms impressively; however, when it is bare in the winter, having shed its leaves, it looks wretched. This image is repeated elsewhere in the book of Isaiah (see 34:4, 40:7, 64:5). And you will be like a garden that has no water, all of whose growths wither away.
The prophet uses another analogy for the wicked and their deeds: The tough stalks of flax will be tow, thin chaff that falls off the stalks of combed flax. Some make bulbs from this chaff, whose only practical use is for burning. And its maker, the one who works the flax, will be a spark; and since tow is highly flammable, the two of them, the tough stalks and tow, will burn together, and none extinguishes them. In fact, both the tough stalks and the tow catch fire easily, but the phrase “the tough will be tow” further alludes to the subjugation of the hard and powerful.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 02
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 02 somebodyThis second prophecy is introduced in a similar manner to the first (1:1): The matter that Isaiah son of Amotz envisioned concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
It shall be at the end of days that the mountain of the House of the Lord will be established at the top of the mountains and will be elevated above the other hills. The mountain will be raised to further heights in the future, as can be inferred from other prophecies, and all the nations will stream to it. The mountain of the House of the Lord will be the center not only of Judah and Jerusalem, but of the entire world.
Many peoples will go and say: Let us go and ascend to the mountain of the Lord, to the House of the God of Jacob, and He will instruct us of His ways and we will walk in His paths. Not only will the nations seek to visit the House of God, to look at the magnificent Temple, but they will travel there to accept the Torah upon themselves. For at that time, from Zion will come forth Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. The word of God and the Torah of Israel will not be a matter for a small people alone, as many nations will be drawn to Zion.
Since the nations will come to hear the Torah that emerges from Jerusalem, he, Israel, headed by its king or leader, will adjudicate between the nations and will rebuke many peoples. When Israel has mediated and brought peace between nations, there will be no need for wars, and therefore they will beat the metal of their swords to be refashioned into plowshares, and their spears, generally made of a long wooden pole with a sharp metal edge, will be turned into pruning hooks, smaller implements, after the dangerous heads of the spears have been removed. In sum, nation will not lift sword against nation, and they will not learn war any more.
The prophet addresses the nation of Israel: House of Jacob, go and let us walk by the light of the Lord. We are occupied with matters that distract us from that which truly matters.
For you Israelite renegades forsook your people, the house of Jacob, and their ways; because they, the renegades’ practices, are infused with disciplines, customs, values, and perceptions from the East, and with soothsayers, who deal with various forms of fortune-telling and astrology, like the Philistines, who were apparently renowned for such occupations. And, in general, they content themselves with the children of foreigners. They are satisfied with these preoccupations of foreign peoples. Here the prophet is not accusing the house of Jacob of specific sins, such as idolatry, but of broad spiritual and cultural assimilation. Foreign culture has inundated the land.
Its, the house of Jacob’s, land has become filled with silver and gold, and there is no limit to its treasures; its land became filled with horses, and there is no limit to its chariots. The amassing of a multitude of horses, which is prohibited by the Torah, alludes to King Solomon, who collected them in great numbers. Their dealings with money and horses, and their trade and training, never end.
In addition, its land has become filled with idols; they bow to the work of their hands, to that, the images, which their fingers made.
Ultimately, a person bowed under duress, and a man, symbolizing the people, was forcibly debased; You, God, should not elevate them by forgiving them. The end of days described here does not come about due to war or some external catastrophe, but through God’s revelation and the awakening of human understanding, which lead to shame and awe.
Isaiah addresses the debased man: Go into the crevices of the rock and hide in the furrows of dust, for fear of the approach of the Lord and from the grandeur of His majesty.
The lofty eyes of a person will be debased and the pompous haughtiness of men will be brought down, and the Lord alone will be exalted on that day. When God reveals Himself, all other forms of greatness dissipate.
For it is a day for the Lord of hosts, on which He will reveal Himself, judge sinners, and stand against everyone proud and haughty, and against everyone elevated or lowered. Apparently, even the lowly will be included in the reproof.
The Lord will also stand against all the cedars of the Lebanon that are high and elevated, and against all the oaks of the Bashan, mighty trees that symbolize the powerful people of the world who will stand trial before God.
The Lord will also stand against all the high mountains and against all the elevated hills. Even on the figurative level, this is not referring to people. Rather, all the greatness of nature will shrink before the revelation of God: Massive trees will become small shrubs, and mountains will shrivel up. This description may suit an alternate interpretation of the phrase “and against everyone elevated or lowered” (verse 12), meaning that the exalted will become lowered.
The Lord will stand against every tall tower and against every fortified wall. All such symbols of power will be like mere toys.
And the Lord will also stand against all the large ships of Tarshish, used for long journeys to the edge of the Mediterranean Sea and beyond, and against all precious objects, expensive trinkets and pretty decorations. All these will lose their importance.
The prophet reiterates: The loftiness of humanity will be bowed and the haughtiness of men will be debased, and the Lord alone will be exalted on that day,
and as a result, the false, man-made gods will entirely pass away. They will lose their influence and be destroyed.
They, people, will come into caves in the rocks and into tunnels in the dirt, as stated above: Go into the rock and hide in the dust (verse 10), out of fear of the Lord and the glory of His majesty, upon His arising to dominate [la’arotz] the land. The word la’arotz derives from the root ayin-reish-tzadi, which means rule and government, as does the word aritz.
On that day, humanity will cast away its false gods of silver and its false gods of gold that they made for one to prostrate himself, to the moles and to the bats. All the gold and silver treasures and idols will be thrown away for moles to bury in the ground and for bats to carry to their caves,
come go into the crevices of the rocks and into the cracks of the crags. This expression, which appears several times in the book of Isaiah and only once elsewhere in the Bible, refers to the spaces between the protrusions of larger rocks. They will hide out of fear of the Lord and the glory of His majesty, upon His arising to dominate the land.
Consequently, you should desist from, give up on, humanity, who has breath in his nostrils and is mortal, for how is he accounted? Although at present man seems to be the lord of creation, who controls everything and does whatever he wants, when the glory of God is revealed at the end of days, the various objects of idolization will be diminished and all the things people once considered important and worthy will be abandoned and seen as insignificant, including man himself. Then only the glory of God will remain, when He comes to rule the world.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 03
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 03 somebodyFor behold, the Lord, Lord of hosts, is removing from Jerusalem and from Judah support and stanchion, anything upon which to rely, such as every support of bread, and every support of water. There will not be enough bread and water. People will not necessarily die of starvation, but they will have no assurance that even their most basic needs will be met.
God is also removing the communal leaders of Israel, every valiant one, man of war, judge and prophet, diviner, one who knows or claims to know the future, and every elder, heads of congregations,
leader of fifty, which is an official military position, and esteemed one, person of status, counselor, subtle scholar, one who understands profound and esoteric matters, and insightful expositor, one who can explain ideas calmly and precisely. These various leaders form the basis of a functioning society, despite the fact that they do not necessarily fulfill executive roles. All these will be lost from the people.
Instead of a social structure where those who are worthy hold leadership positions, I will put children as their princes. Youngsters will take over the government. When the government is unstable, it is often fresh youths who take over. And pranksters will govern them. Those youngsters will subject everyone to their shenanigans; in the best case scenario, they will be mischievous rulers.
The people will be oppressed, each man by another and each man by his neighbor. People will push each other out of the way, or they will subjugate one another; the lad will domineer over the elder, and the base over the honorable. This is not a description of complete anarchy, but of a government that cannot govern. The rulers will be a random group of people who hold positions of leadership even though they are not suited for it.
For in addition, a man will take hold of his brother of his father’s house, someone he knows and upon whom he relies, such as the eldest brother of his father’s house, to whom he will say: You have attire; you are wearing fine clothes, a uniform that signifies that you have a certain status, so be our ruler, and this debacle [makhshela] shall be under your hand. Undertake to remedy the failings of this country, city, or neighborhood. It is possible that the prophet is mocking the people by using the word makhshela instead of memshala, government.
He, that person, will, on that day, take an oath, or raise his voice, saying: I will not be a ruler because I am unable, and in my house, there is neither bread nor attire. Since I have nothing, I cannot hold a governmental post and care for the people. This refusal is not because of poverty alone, but also due to low self-esteem. One who does not own anything, and feels bereft of wisdom and knowledge, does not believe in his ability to fulfill important roles, and therefore he refuses the offer: You will not place me as a ruler of the people. Do not appoint me a communal official. In other words, even when society has people worthy of positions of authority, those worthy ones evade accepting such responsibility.
For Jerusalem stumbled and Judah fell, because their speech and their actions are against the Lord. All their deeds and statements with regard to God are designed only to defy the eyes of His glory, to anger Him.
The expression on their faces speaks against them. One can see from their countenances that they are indifferent to the possibility of improvement, and they recount their sin like Sodom, without dissembling. They are not ashamed of their transgressions. In an orderly society, people will at the very least attempt to deny or conceal their sins. By contrast, in a place of evildoing such as Sodom, they were not afraid of speaking openly of their wickedness. Woe to their soul, for they wrought evil for themselves through their deeds. In this unstable situation, when evil is performed without embarrassment or concern, the people lose all sense of their strength, faith, and destiny.
In sum, say of the righteous that they are good, for they will eat the fruit of their actions. The righteous are nourished by the consequences of their deeds.
Woe to the wicked man that he is evil, for the restitution of his hands will be done to him.
In this situation, people are dragged along and find no leadership. My people, its oppressors, oppressive leaders, are infantile [me’olel]. Alternatively, this means that they are no better than children, olelim. And women, who generally stand to the side, govern them. My people, your leaders [me’asherekha], who are supposed to straighten [m’yasherim] your paths and instruct you, instead mislead you, and the way of your paths they have corrupted and destroyed.
The Lord is poised to dispute, and stands to judge peoples. God has appeared in order to judge the entire world.
The Lord will enter into judgment with the elders of His people and its princes, to whom He will say the following: You devoured the entire vineyard; you did not give from it the designated gifts for the poor and the Levites. Furthermore, the plunder of the poor is in your houses.
What have you, that you oppress My people Israel, and grind the face of the poor into the ground – the utterance of the Lord, God of hosts.
Alongside the prophet’s criticism of the ruling authorities, he harshly reproves the behavior of private individuals and families. Here he castigates the young women. The Lord said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, as they try to appear tall. Similar to the modern style of wearing high heels, these women seek to make themselves seem taller by walking in a particular manner, and they walk with outstretched necks and red and blue painted eyes, and they wink at people. Their eyes look in all directions and survey their surroundings, as though they are saying to all: Look at us. This is not a depiction of licentiousness, but of a superficial society, in which the women are focused on displays of fashion and compete among themselves as to who can wear finer clothing and impress people more. And instead of normal steps, they walk with a mincing gait, with small, dancing steps, as women do in many places in order to arouse men, and they strut their feet by moving them about in various ways.
Since these girls pride themselves on their pretty hair, the Lord will afflict the head of the daughters of Zion with scabs, skin diseases that damage the scalp as well as the hair, and the Lord will bare their private parts. The end result of these fashion processions and displays of beauty will be nakedness, bareness, emptiness, and loss.
On that day of their punishment, the Lord will remove the splendor of the anklets, the bonnets, cloths or decorations worn over the hair, and the crescents, perhaps earrings or other ornaments in the shape of a half-moon. Elsewhere it is stated that crescents were placed on the necks of camels of the kings of Midyan.
The necklaces [netifot],alternatively golden vessels in which nataf, stacte, a type of perfume, is placed, and the bracelets, or rings, and the veils, scarf-like coverings,
and the hats, and the armlets [vehatza’adot], which encompass the entire arm, like large rings. Some maintain that these are ornaments for the feet, as tza’ad means step. And the sashes, threads for tying the hair, or ties of sorts, and the lingerie, similar to modern bras. Some explain that these are not bras, but receptacles for fragrant perfumes. And the amulets, ornaments containing amulets and incantations,
the rings and the nose-rings,
the robes, the shawls, garments with which women would wrap themselves. According to one opinion, these shawls were small cloths for covering the head, and the kerchiefs, and the purses,
and the small hand mirrors,or belts, the linens, the turbans, and the decorative scarves.
Ultimately, nothing will remain of these feminine ornaments:It will be that instead of perfume there will be rot, and instead of a belt, a wound, or a blow. According to the Septuagint, this means a rope. And instead of curls, or styled hair, there will be baldness, and instead of an ornamented belt a sackcloth belt, for these will be what they deserve [ki] instead of beauty. Alternatively, this last phrase means: And a burn [keviya] instead of beauty.
And on a different note, your dead, Zion, will fall by the sword, and your mighty, the strength of your warriors, will fail in war.
The dwellers of its gates, of Zion, will lament and mourn, and it will be emptied [nikkata]. This also alludes to the idea that the city will be cleansed, from the word nikkayon, of sin when it is emptied, similar to the images of cleanliness in 4:4. And then Zion will sit on the ground. Sitting on the ground is an expression of the humiliation over, or the mourning for, the bleak state of Judah and Jerusalem upon the collapse of their splendor.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 04
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 04 somebodyAfter the terrible downfall, few men will remain, as most will have been killed in war or by disease. Consequently, at that time, seven women, feeling lonely and vulnerable, will surround and grasp one man on that day, saying: We will eat our bread and we will wear our own clothing. We do not ask for anything from you, neither food nor clothing; just let us be called by your name. They will be prepared to forego entitlements typically due to wives, consenting to marriage under any conditions, just to maintain a reputation as married and respectable, that there will be some man in their lives. Relieve, or conceal, our disgrace. Remove from us the dishonor of such a lonely existence, which has a disgraceful past and offers no future.
The prophet now provides a prophecy of comfort for the remnant of Israel: On that day, the seedling of the Lord, the hope and salvation that God sprouts, will come into magnificence and glory, and the produce of the land, all that grows from the ground, will come into pride and splendor for the refugees of Israel.
It will be that it will be said of the remaining in Zion and the remnant in Jerusalem after its wicked have perished: Holy, for everyone who is written for life in Jerusalem. The reason they are called holy is that God will purify the world at that stage.
The prophet illustrates the above idea with a poetic, albeit harsh, metaphor: When the Lord will have washed away the excrement of the daughters of Zion, an image which has connotations of fatherhood, that God will wash away Israel’s dirt like a father taking care of his young children, and will have rinsed the blood of murder and crime in Jerusalem from its midst, with the spirit of judgment He will wash away the pollution of iniquity from Jerusalem, and with the spirit of eradication. A spirit of evaluative judgment will not suffice; it will also be necessary to eradicate the evil through severe punishments.
The Lord will create a cloud by day, as there was over the Tabernacle in the wilderness, and smoke and a glow of fire by night, just as the Divine Presence appeared to Israel in the wilderness in a pillar of fire. The glory of God will once again be revealed in Jerusalem, similar to when it appeared in the midst of the Israelite camp after the exodus from Egypt, but this time over the entire area of Mount Zion, the Temple Mount, and over all its environs [mikra’eha], the places near Zion, or the places where the nobles, the distinguished [keru’ei] of the congregation, would gather; for over all, honor will cover. The entire honor of Jerusalem will be covered and enwrapped in a canopy of cloud and fire, so that its greatness and importance will be evident to all.
These clouds will shield Jerusalem and it will be a shelter for shade by day from the heat, and for protection and refuge from storm and from rain. This shelter, which is the canopy of the previous verse, will protect Jerusalem by day and night, not only from attackers, but also from adverse weather.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 05
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 05 somebodyLet me sing now about, or in honor of, my love, a song of my beloved concerning his vineyard. The beloved one is God, an expression of His closeness to man. My love had a vineyard in a fertile corner. Alternatively, this means a fertile mountaintop. Either way, the earth was high quality, although it seems that the vineyard was not particularly large.
The beloved performed all the necessary labors for his vineyard: He dug and tilled it, to rid it of large stones, he cleared it of those stones, and he planted it with a choice vine. Generally, a vineyard is not started by sowing grape seeds, but by planting a branch of a vine. And he built a tower in its midst, a guard post to guard the vineyard from looters, and he also hewed a winepress in it, for the production of wine. When all the work was completed and the preparations of the vineyard finished, he hoped to produce good grapes in the vineyard, but instead it produced debased ones.
The beloved, God, addresses the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah, who are represented in the parable by the vineyard itself: And now, inhabitant of Jerusalem and man of Judah, adjudicate, please, between Me and My disappointing vineyard.
What more is there to do for My vineyard, that I did not yet do in it? After all, I planted it in a choice location and I took care of it properly. It should have produced excellent fruit. Why, when I hoped to produce grapes, did it produce inedible ones?
And now, let Me please tell you what I am doing to My vineyard. You will witness My actions. Since the vineyard does not respond to good treatment, I will neglect it. I will remove its barrier and it will be for pasture, as beasts will enter the vineyard, and damage the vines and eat the fruit. I will breach its fence and it will be for trampling, by the feet of people or animals.
I will render it waste, an area of wild growth: It will not be pruned, a vineyard requires pruning every year for it to grow properly and produce fruit, and it will not be hoed. I will stop taking care of it, and consequently thorn and thistle will rise in it, and I will command the clouds not to pour rain upon it. The beloved, the owner of the vineyard, is not depicted as human in all regards. Rather, He has the power to ensure that no rain will fall on His vineyard.
The verses do not delve into all the details of the parable of the vineyard, but they do enough to illustrate the great disappointment of the beloved in the work of His hands. The prophet now clarifies the basic meaning of the parable. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are the plant of His delight; He hoped for justice [mishpat] from it, but behold, corruption [mispah·] and falsification; likewise, He hoped for righteousness [tzedaka], but behold, He hears only outcry [tze’aka]. Note the strong alliteration in these inverse parallels.
The prophet continues to reprove the inhabitants of Judah for their greed and lust: Woe! Those who join house to house, who would draw field close to field until there is no room. You build grand neighborhoods and fill them with houses, so that you all live in close quarters. Likewise, your fields are adjacent to one another in the best areas, you who are settled by yourselves in the midst of the land. You feel that you alone are worthy of living in the land, as though there is no room for anyone else among your fields and houses, and you act accordingly.
In my ears, I have heard, as it were, the Lord of hosts say: If many houses will not be for desolation. This is an oath, meaning that the houses will be desolate. And the great and excellent houses will be without inhabitant. The prophet describes an avaricious society, steeped in the pursuit of property and status. People are crowded because each one tries to snatch the best place for himself. He informs them that regardless of all their efforts, their end will be desolation and emptiness.
For ten sections of vineyard will yield one flask, a measurement of liquid volume. In other words, a large area of land will produce a relatively minuscule amount of wine. And an area of land fit for sowing a homer of wheat seed will only yield an ephah.
The prophet’s criticism of the people becomes even more scathing: Woe! Those who rise early in the morning, not for any positive pursuit or to study Torah, but rather, to pursue intoxicating drink. They awake from their sleep in order to start drinking early and to seek alcoholic beverages. They are also those who tarry late; wine inflames them. They are only interested in wine, both when they go to bed and when they arise.
Harp and lyre, drum and flute and wine are their banquets. They hold drinking parties with musical accompaniment, but they will not regard the work of the Lord and they did not see the work of His hands, as they care for nothing apart from their revelries, which are at the center of their lives.
Therefore, My people is exiled for lack of knowledge. Eventually, this lustful, covetous people will go into exile, because they are not occupied with the knowledge of God or any useful intellectual pursuit. And its honorable, wealthy men are to be victims of famine, and its multitude is to be parched with thirst.
Therefore, the netherworld has broadened itself. Hell and all forces of darkness and ruin no longer remain confined within their normal boundaries; rather, they are growing and widening. And the netherworld has opened its mouth without measure. In ordinary times, a certain number of people descend to the netherworld, whereas now the extent of the destruction keeps expanding until it swallows everything. This is an unusually forceful image. And down to the netherworld will go its magnificence, of the land or the city, its multitudes of inhabitants and its commotion, and those who rejoice in it, those who once made merry there.
People will bow, a man will be humbled, people will be bent over and humiliated, and the eyes of the haughty will be humbled when they see the surrounding ruin.
But the Lord of hosts will be elevated over all through His imposition of justice, and the Holy God will be sanctified through His righteousness [tzedaka] and strength. The term tzedaka, righteousness, does not refer to charitable giving, as it often does in rabbinic Hebrew. Rather, it is a quality of God, to whom righteousness and power belong. This is the common meaning of the term in Isaiah and elsewhere in the Bible.
When the netherworld rises and destroys the country, its houses and commotion will disappear, and the sheep will graze in the formerly bustling, merry city, as though they are in their pasture, and strangers will eat that which they find in the ruins of the houses of the rich and succulent.
Woe! Those who pull iniquity with cords of the pointlessness of pursuing fleeting pleasures. Such people do not sin unwittingly. They are greedy and lack conscience and a sense of responsibility. The prophet metaphorically depicts them as tying their iniquity with cords, with which they drag it along so that they can continue transgressing. And they draw their sin as with the thick rope of a wagon. Alternatively, their sin thickens and drags them like strong ropes pulling a wagon.
Who say, in cynical mockery: Let Him hurry, let Him hasten His action, so that we will see it. We are waiting to see when this prophecy will finally happen, and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel approach and be realized, and then we will know it. They are apathetic and do not believe that the prophecy will come to pass.
Woe! Those who say of evil that it is good, and of good that it is evil; they render darkness into light and light into darkness; they render bitter into sweet and sweet into bitter. They construct a society and culture based on an ideology of reversal of values, of corruption and evil, in which deeds are performed improperly and unnaturally. Instead of good-quality grapes, a society that holds firm to fundamental values, the grapes are sour; society cannot rightly distinguish between good and evil, light and darkness, and bitter and sweet.
Woe! Those who are wise in their own eyes, and who are immensely clever in their own view; in their own opinions, they consider themselves to be illustrious intellectuals.
Woe! The valiant to drink wine, their might is expressed in their ability to imbibe wine, and through being capable men to mix intoxicating drink properly.
Alongside their material ambitions and enthusiasm for cuisine, in the social realm these are people who vindicate the wicked following a bribe they have received, and remove the innocence of the righteous from him. The upright suffer from the obtuseness of such authority figures.
Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes straw and as a flame destroys chaff and the husks of produce, so will their root will be as rot, and their blossom, that which should have blossomed and grown, will rise and vanish as dust, for they spurned the Torah of the Lord of hosts and scorned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
Therefore this entire country will be punished, as the wrath of the Lord was enflamed against His people, and He outstretched His hand against it and smote it, and the mountains quaked from that strike. Their corpses were thrown like refuse in the middle of the streets of the city. Nevertheless, His wrath is not withdrawn and His hand remains outstretched to punish them further.
The next punishment will come from a distant place: He will raise a standard, a banner, to the nations to gather from afar, and will whistle to him, the enemy, from the ends of the earth, and behold, he will come quickly and speedily, with ease and alacrity.
None are weary or stumbling among him; he does not slumber or sleep, and the belt on his waist is not opened and the lace of his shoes is not severed. The enemy army will be organized and professional.
Furthermore, it will be an active army, whose arrows are sharpened and all his bows drawn and ready. Even the hooves of his horses are accounted an enemy, as the horses are trained to kick and crush people. This ability renders their hooves an enemy in their own right. And his wheels of his war chariots will be fast and strong, capable of trampling, and inflicting harm like a storm.
He has a roar like a lion; he roars like young lions; he will roar and seize prey and let it escape [yaflit]. Alternatively, yaflit means that he will eject. Even if something or someone is ejected from the lion’s mouth, that is a chance occurrence, but generally there is no rescuer, nothing will escape its clutches.
He will roar against it on that day like the roar of the sea. The enemy will wash away everything like the waves of the sea. One will look to the land and behold, darkness, distress, and the light darkened in its skies [arifeha]. Arifeha is similar to aravot, which is a name for heaven. Alternatively, arifeha means “its clouds,” like arafel, “fog.”
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 06
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 06 somebodyIn the year of the death of King Uziyahu, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and exalted, and His mantle’s hem filled the Sanctuary. Isaiah may have seen God’s Presence residing in the Temple, or possibly the Sanctuary appeared in the vision as part of the background, with the divine throne rising above it.
Seraphim were standing above Him to serve Him, each seraph had six wings; with two wings it would cover its face so it would not be able to see, with two wings it would cover its legs so that they would not be seen, and with two wings it would fly to perform its mission.
And this one seraph called to that other one, and the latter said after him: Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; that which fills the entire world is His glory. Each one called out in a manner unique to him, and all of them joined together in harmony.
The doorposts of the Sanctuary’s entrance moved and shook at the voice of the caller and the house filled with smoke, representing the Divine Presence,
and when I saw this, I said: Woe is me, for I am silenced, or: I am doomed, for I am a man of impure lips and I live in the midst of a people of impure lips, and I am unworthy to see visions of God; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. As a prophet, Isaiah was keenly aware of his own imperfection and felt unworthy to speak of God or to speak in His name, all the more so to experience such an explicit vision of Him.
One of the seraphim attending God in the Temple flew to me, and in his hand there was a coal; he took it from upon the altar in the Temple Courtyard with tongs.
He touched it, the coal, to my mouth, and he said: Behold, this has touched your lips, and by its extreme heat, it has purified you: Your iniquity is removed and your sin atoned.
I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom will I send, and who will go to speak the words of the prophecy to the people for us? I said: Here I am, ready for the mission. Send me.
He said: Go, tell this people: You may be able to hear a message, but it does not matter because you do not understand it; perhaps you can see a sight, but it does not matter because you do not comprehend its meaning. Rather, the people were warned so that they would recall the warning sometime later.
Speak, and bloat the heart of this people, so that it will be imperceptive to nuances; encumber its ears, so that it will not absorb the message; and stop up its eyes so that it will not see correctly, lest it see with its eyes and hear with its ears, and then its heart will understand, and then, in turn, it will repent and be healed. It is necessary to ensure that the prophecy will not have any effect on them, lest they all be spiritually healed.
I said: Until when must I warn them of the terrible future without anyone heeding my words, my Lord? He answered: Until the cities are devastated without remaining inhabitant, houses will lie empty without a person, and the land itself will be devastated to desolation,
and the Lord will banish man from his abode, and the forsaken will be many in the midst of the land.
And after all of this, there will still be a tenth of the population remaining in it, the land, who will be willing to listen. Some interpret this statement as a prophecy concerning the situation in Judah during the days of King Hizkiyahu, when Sennacherib conquered all the cities of Judah except Jerusalem, and the majority of the Judean population was wiped out. And it, the remainder of the population, shall continue to be subject to elimination, like the mighty terebinth and like the leafy oak,when their leaves fall in the autumn and only their bare trunk remains. The prophecy concludes on an encouraging note: The holy descendants will be its trunk. The people who will ultimately survive will be holy. They will have endured everything that was necessary, and they will not fall into decline again.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 07
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 07 somebodyIt was in the days of Ahaz, son of Yotam, son of Uziyahu, king of Judah, by which time Isaiah had already been a prophet for years, since his career began during Uziyahu’s reign, that Retzin king of Aram, and Pekah son of Remalyahu, the last powerful king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem in war against it, but he could not conquer it. Pekah sought to overturn the Davidic dynasty in Judah and allied himself with Israel’s traditional enemy, Aram.
It was told to the house of David, the Judean royal family, saying: Aram has allied [naha] with Ephraim. This was an unusual and threatening turn of events, for even without the addition of the large Aramean army, the Kingdom of Israel, which was larger than the Kingdom of Judah in both size and population, could itself muster an army greater than Judah’s. Therefore, when the king of Judah heard this, his heart and his people’s heart trembled, like the trembling of the trees of the forest from the wind.
The Lord said to Isaiah: Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and She’ar Yashuv your son. This She’ar Yashuv, whose name literally means “a remnant will return,” was probably Isaiah’s actual son, and not one of his disciples. Go to the end of the channel of the upper pool, on the path of the launderer’s [koves] field.
Say to him: Take care and be calm in the knowledge that you are safe; do not fear, and let your heart not be faint from the threat of these two smoldering butts of wooden firebrands used to stoke the fire, from the enflamed wrath of Retzin and the armies of Aram, and Pekah the son of Remalyahu. They may appear to you as flaming torches, but they are no more than stubs whose flame is about to go out and whose smoke is harmless.
Because Aram plotted evil against you, along with Ephraim and the son of Remalyahu, saying:
Let us go up against Judah, sunder it, and breach it for ourselves. We will crown a king in its midst, the son of Tave’al.Pekah attempted to depose the Davidic dynasty, something which had not been attempted for many generations, and to this end, he made a pact with Aram, the perpetual enemy of Israel.
So said the Lord God: It, their plot, will not stand and it will not be. You should not fear them or their plans, as they are out of touch with reality.
The prophet describes the future without regard to results of the current war: For at the head of the kingdom of Aram is Damascus and at the head of Damascus is King Retzin, and in sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken, no longer being a people, and Damascus will no longer hold any power.
And at the head of Ephraim is the city of Samaria, and at the head of Samaria is Pekah the son of Remalyahu. Isaiah addressed the people, saying: If you do not have faith in this prophecy, it is because you yourselves are not faithful,nd you make yourselves untrustworthy.
The Lord continued speaking to Ahaz, by means of Isaiah, saying:
Request a miraculous sign for yourself from the Lord your God in order to prove the truth of this prophecy. Deepen your request, or raise it above by asking for something truly unpredictable and unlikely.
Ahaz said: I will not ask and I will not try the Lord.
He, Isaiah, said: Hear now, house of David: Is it not enough for you to weary people, that you weary my God as well? Ahaz refused to ask for a sign, in the manner of one who does not wish to burden his friend. Isaiah therefore responded mockingly: You act like a well-mannered person who does not wish to burden God; do not be afraid do so.
Therefore, since you will not ask for a sign, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the young woman [alma], the prophet’s wife, will conceive and bear a son, and she will symbolically call his name Imanuel, which means “God is with us,” the plural indicating that the child represents the entire Kingdom of Judah.
He will eat butter and honey, to teach him to spurn the bad and choose the good, having reached an age when he can differentiate between them. Very young children put everything they can into their mouths, and only when they are somewhat older do they learn to discriminate. The description of these specific foods may indicate that the child will grow up surrounded by opulence (see verse 22).
For before the newborn child will be able to grow and begin to eat of the land’s goodness and know to spurn the bad and choose the good, the land that you abhor will be abandoned due to its two kings.
Moreover, while the kings of Israel and Aram appear at the moment to be mighty and intimidating, a far greater threat looms in the near future. The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house days of trouble that have not come since the day of the secession of Ephraim and the other northern tribes from the Kingdom of Judah: the arrival of the king of Assyria and his hordes. This time, however, Ephraim’s kingdom will be overcome.
It shall be on that day that the Lord will whistle for the fly that is at the edge of the rivers of Egypt, which possibly alludes to a certain division of the Egyptian army, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.The armies of these great empires will be summoned to the Land of Israel.
They will all come and alight in the partially desolate ravines and in the crevices in the rocks, and on all the thorns and on all the wild bushes. They will fill the entire land.
Despite the fact that the Assyrians will arrive with a mighty army, on that day the Lord will shave with the great razor, or with a rented razor, which was kept extremely sharp by its owners, those people from across the Euphrates River, together with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the legs, and it will also remove the beard. The king of Assyria will depart from the land shorn of those who accompanied him, as his forces will be completely decimated.
It shall be on that day, the situation will not appear to be one of prosperity: each man will maintain a young cow and two sheep, but no other possessions.
Nevertheless, it will be that from the abundance of milk production, he will eat butter, even though butter production requires large quantities of milk, since the butterfat is separated from the rest of the milk. For everyone who remains in the midst of the land will eat butter and honey and enjoy the bounty.
It shall be on that day, every place where there had been a thousand vines worth a thousand silver pieces will be transformed into a place for the thorn and for the thistle.
Armed with arrows and with a bow one will come there, as the entire land will become thorn and thistle and he will need to protect himself from all of the wild animals that will inhabit the deserted areas.
And yet in all the hills that are hoed with a hoe, the fear of thorn and thistle will not come there. Vines are usually cultivated in the plains or on low hills, where it is possible to plow. Higher, steeper rocky hills cannot be plowed and their soil needs to be tilled with a hoe. Consequently, thorns do not grow there, and therefore it, the steep rocky land, will be a pasture for oxen and a range for sheep.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 08
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 08 somebodyThe Lord said to me: Take for yourself a large scroll, and write a cryptic inscription on it with a common stylus used to engrave stone or metals or, a scribe’s pen. Alternatively, the prophet was told to write very clearly on a broad surface: To hasten spoils; quicken loot. Spoils will be taken hastily, and loot will be taken quickly and with ease.
I had trustworthy witnesses testify for me: Uriya the priest and Zekharyahu son of Yeverekhyahu. They were apparently the witnesses to Isaiah’s marriage. Alternatively, this is a continuation of God’s instruction, namely that He calls upon these men to sign on the writing of the previous verse. Although the midrashim identify these witnesses with men who lived in later generations, Uriya the priest being Uriya the prophet mentioned in the book of Jeremiah, and Zekharyahu being Zechariah the prophet of the early Second Temple period, according to the plain meaning of the text, this seems unlikely.
I intimately approached the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. The Lord said to me: Call his name Maher Shalal Hash Baz, which means “hasten spoils, quicken loot.” Like his brother Imanuel (7:14), this child was named in anticipation of a future event. According to Rashi, however, this is the same child, and the mother was to name him Imanuel, while Isaiah was to give him this name.
For before the child knows to call: My father and my mother, which are usually among a child’s first words, he, the looter, will carry away and present the wealth of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria before the king of Assyria, fulfilling the prophecy encoded in the child’s name.
Isaiah returns to address the threat posed by the alliance between Aram and the Kingdom of Israel: The Lord continued speaking to me again concerning political matters, saying:
Because this people spurned the waters of the Shilo’ah that flow slowly, symbolizing the calm and patience that were characteristic of the kings of Judah, and they rejoice with Retzin and with the son of Remalyahu, desiring their reign,
therefore, behold, instead of allowing them to be flooded by the small rivers of Amana and Parpar that flow near Damascus, symbolizing the rule of Retzin, the Lord is raising the mighty and abundant waters of the Tigris River upon them, symbolizing the king of Assyria and all his glory, and it will rise over all its figurative channels and flow over all its banks.
He, the Assyrian king, will traverse also through Judah, surge and pass through; he, his floodwaters will reach the people’s neck.Having likened the Assyrian king’s armies to the floodwaters of the Tigris, the prophet now likens them to a predatory bird: His wingspan will be the full breadth of your land, Imanuel. Isaiah turns to his young son, whose name symbolizes hope, saying: The Assyrian army will spread throughout the breadth of the land.
Tremble and founder, peoples, like an unstable building, and be dismayed; listen, all distant lands. Gird yourselves with valor and be dismayed, gird yourselves and be dismayed. Even if you endeavor to be brave, you will break down in fear, as for the first time you will be confronted with a threat far greater than one posed by local raiders: The conquering forces of an empire. Your resistance will be futile.
Take counsel and it will be negated; speak a matter and it will not stand, as God is with us [ki imanu El]. The prophet alludes to a further implication of the first child’s name, Imanuel: By the time he grows up, the land will be free from its enemies and perhaps he will see better days.
For so said the Lord to me with a strong hand, with harsh words, and unlike other divine messages received until then. According to a tradition of the Sages, Isaiah was of royal birth and was close to the royal court, and had political influence. The verse here therefore presents an exceptional prohibition: God spoke harshly, admonishing me to not walk in the path of this people and get involved in their politics, saying:
Do not say: Conspiracy, about anything that this people say is a conspiracy. Do not endorse any organized attempt among the people to rebel against the king. It is possible that this prophecy refers to Reztin and Pekah’s attempts to topple the leadership of Judah and to set others on its throne. And do not fear what it is that they fear, and do not deem it powerful. Stay out of their petty politics.
Rather, the Lord of hosts, Him you shall sanctify and He you shall revere, and He provides you with power, causing you to be fearsome in the eyes of others.
He will be a Sanctuary and a refuge for you, and conversely, He will be a striking stone and a rocky obstruction for the two houses of Israel, the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, to trip over. He will be a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The relationship with God can go both ways.
Many will stumble over them, over the snare and trap. They will fall and be broken, and they will be trapped and captured.
A prophet is not meant to concern himself with insignificant politics but with God’s Temple. He is therefore commanded: Bind up the testimony and protect it; seal the words of the Torah and your prophecies in the hearts of My disciples.
The prophet responds to the command to guard the Torah: I will wait for the Lord, who currently conceals His face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope for Him.
Behold, I and the children with symbolic names whom the Lord gave me, Imanuel, She’ar Yashuv, and Maher Shalal Hash Baz, are to become signs and wonders in Israel, from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion and who brings the prophecy to fulfillment. As each child comes of age, another prophetic milestone will be reached.
And when they will say to you: If you wish to know the future, seek the mediums and the oracles who claim to be able to speak to the dead, and who chirp and coo, speaking in unnatural ways to convey the impression that they are in contact with another plane, then shouldn’t a chosen people seek their true and living God? Instead, you set out, on behalf of the living, to seek the dead! The inhabitants of Judah heard their enemies’ threats, but did not seek comfort and solace from the prophets, because they did not trust them, and instead turned to sorcerers, which exacerbated their distress.
The prophet takes an oath: By the Torah and by the testimony! Surely, they will talk of this matter of heeding the counsel of the mediums, a meaningless notion that has no dawning and arises only from a vague and unclear perception of reality.
The prophet continues to describe the future events in the land of Judah: The troubled and the hungry will pass through it, and it shall be, when he is hungry, he will become angry, and he will curse his king and his false gods for not fulfilling his requests. Faith in false gods depends on results. When a person turns to them and they naturally are no help, he will then turn to Above.
If instead of looking heavenward he will look to the land, and behold, trouble and darkness, the weariness of distress, and he will be driven into blackness. He will find that the land is entirely a place of suffering, distress, and darkness.
For there is no weariness for he, the enemy, who distresses it, the land. The first time the Assyrian conqueror invaded, he was lenient to the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the territories he managed to subdue, but in the latter invasion he dealt severely to the way of the sea, the coastal route from the north of Syria to Egypt known as the Via Maris, to the land beyond the Jordan, and to the district of the nations.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 09
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 09 somebodyThe people that walk in darkness have seen a great light; inhabitants of the land of the shadow of death, light shone upon them.
You elevated the nation; You increased its joy. Success and fortune do not always bring greater joy, but in this case, they rejoiced before You like during the harvest celebration. In contrast to the time of sowing, which is accompanied by worry and uncertainty, the harvest of the crop is accompanied by joy and song. The harvest is like when they, the nation, would revel in their division of the spoils of war.
For those who were to Judah as the yoke of its burden and the bar on its shoulder, treating Judah as a beast of burden, and those who are like the rod that oppresses it, You have broken them like You broke the enemy on the day of Gideon’s victory over Midyan.
For every boot [se’on] stamps noisily, and a person’s upper garment is rolled, covered, in the blood of war, and it will become a conflagration, fuel for a fire. The victors will burn all their battle gear that will be unfit for further use.
For a child is born to us, a son is given to us, and the authority will be placed on his shoulders. This may refer to yet another auspiciously named son who would be born to Isaiah, or it may refer to a son who would be born to the royal family. Alternatively, this prophecy may apply to the distant future. He will call his name a long string of honorific titles befitting a great leader and hero: Wondrous Advisor, Mighty One, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His task will be to make potent the authority of his office and for there to be unending peace when a new king sits on the throne of David and in his kingdom, to establish it, the kingdom, and to support it with justice and with righteousness from now and forever; the zealotry of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this, as He will exact revenge from those who demean Zion.
This is a prophecy that was more pertinent to Isaiah’s era: The Lord sent a word of prophecy in Jacob, and it was received and became known in Israel.
The entire people will know, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say with pride and with arrogance of heart:
Structures made of bricks have fallen and yet we will build new houses with hewn stone; sycamores, which were relatively cheap, have been felled and we will replace them with cedars.
The Lord elevated and strengthened the adversaries of Retzin over him, and He will rouse his, Retzin’s, enemies against him. Alternatively, this latter phrase means that God will rouse Israel’s enemies against Israel. The Kingdom of Israel relied on Retzin’s aid to stand up to its enemies, but Retzin would be occupied with his own enemies and unable to send aid to Israel.
Aram came from the north-east, and the Philistines came from the west, and they consumed Israel with each mouth. Nevertheless, His wrath is not withdrawn, and His hand is still outstretched to smite them. The calamities and defeats have not ended.
But the people of Israel did not respond appropriately to what befell them: They did not return to the One who smites them, and they did not seek the Lord of hosts. They should have considered that these were not chance occurrences, but acts of divine providence, and that it was God who smote them so that they should repent.
The Lord eliminated both the head, the leaders, and the tail, the common people, compared to the treetop and bulrush, respectively, from Israel. They will all perish in one day.
The prophet explains the metaphors: The elder and esteemed, he is the head, and a prophet teaching falsehood, he is the tail. Both the sages, the leaders of the people, and the false prophets will perish.
The leaders of this people, who are supposed to guide them on the right and true path, mislead, and those whom they lead are confused and corrupted.
Therefore, the Lord will not rejoice over their young men; rather, He will punish them, and He will not pity their orphans and their widows, as it is all hypocrisy and evildoing, and every mouth speaks depravity. The calamities that will befall Israel and Judah will come as punishment for their sins. Nevertheless, His wrath is not withdrawn and His hand is still outstretched, as the people do not take these matters to heart.
For wickedness burns like a destructive fire: It first consumes thorn and thistle, but subsequently it ignites the thickets of the forest, and ultimately they will all be burned and rise in a column of smoke.
In the anger of the Lord of hosts, the land is displaced, the people are as the fuel of fire; no one will have compassion for his brother.
One snatches and devours people on the right, and still he is hungry; one eats on the left, but even when the people smite each other left and right and devour each other, they are still not sated. Ultimately, each man will eat the flesh of his own arm.
Concerning the political situation, Manasseh is against Ephraim and Ephraim against Manasseh; together, they are against Judah. Even before the king of Assyria invaded the land, it was mired in strife and internal battles. The kingdom of Samaria was swiftly falling into decline, and Judah was punished together with it. People felt that their actions were improper but they continued in their ways. Nevertheless, His wrath is not withdrawn and His hand is still outstretched. God has not finished reckoning with them.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 10
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 10 somebodyWoe! The engravers of evil inscriptions and writers who write suffering. Laws and statues were often engraved on stone tablets which could endure for a long period of time. The prophet laments the fact that the laws and statutes engraved and recorded in other ways perpetuated crimes and iniquities.
These laws served to divert the destitute from equity, and to rob the poor of My people of their justice. Theft, robbery, and exploitation were performed not by forcefully taking others’ property, but by means of legislation that sanctioned despicable actions. Widows would be their spoils, and they would plunder orphans. The neediest ended up losing the most due the corrupt system of laws.
And what will you do on the day of reckoning, when God will reckon with you for your sins, and when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your glory, your property or your lives? You act out of the assumption that there is no judge and that no judgment will be meted out. What will you do when the time of judgment arrives?
You can only kneel under the yoke of the prisoners who will rule over you, and they, your lives, will fall beneath the slain. Nevertheless, His wrath is not withdrawn and His hand is still outstretched. Despite suffering punishment after punishment, they continue on their evil path, and therefore their punishment will also continue.
God addresses the enemy: Woe! Assyria is the rod of My wrath, and My fury is a staff in their hand. God administers judgment through the actions of Assyria’s king.
Against a hypocritical and lying nation, I will send him, the king of Assyria, and against the people of My wrath I will command him, to plunder spoils and to take loot, and to set them to be tread upon like the mire of the streets.
However, he, the king of Assyria, does not imagine so and his heart does not think so, that he is God’s emissary to punish the sinners, for it is in his heart to destroy, and to eliminate not a few nations. He believes he engages in warfare for the sake of his own greatness.
For he, the king of Assyria, says: Are not all my princes together, kings? Each prince was sent to a different district, where he ruled with the authority of a local king.
Is Kalno, elsewhere called Kalne, not like Karkemish,a city in northern Syria that was conquered by the Assyrians? Is Hamat, in the northernmost region of the Land of Israel, not like Arpad, another city in northern Syria that was conquered by the Assyrians? Is Samaria not like Damascus, which had already been conquered?
For my hand has reached the kingdoms of the gods and their idols are more numerous and greater than those of Jerusalem and greater than Samaria’s. Assyria conquered one kingdom after another and the gods of each one did not avail them. A similar boast was made by the emissary of the king of Assyria (36:13–20).
Will it not be the case that just as I did to Samaria and its gods, so I will do to Jerusalem and its effigies? The Assyrian king does not refer to the One God of Israel and assumes that the inhabitants of Jerusalem are also idol worshippers, even if in private and only partially.
God responds: It will be that when the Lord implements His entire work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem by punishing the inhabitants of Jerusalem for their transgressions, I will reckon with the fruit of the arrogance of the heart of the king of Assyria and the splendor of his haughty eyes, and he will be punished for his arrogant perception of himself as the world’s overlord.
For he, the king of Assyria, said: I have succeeded in all this with the strength of my hand and with my wisdom, as I have been clever; I have removed the borders of the peoples and plundered their treasures, and I have taken down mighty inhabitants.
My hand has found the riches of the peoples like a nest, and like gathering abandoned eggs, I gathered the entire world. The Assyrians easily conquered numerous cities, collecting conquests as though they were eggs clustered in a nest or abandoned, and there was no one mother bird showing her objection by flapping a wing, or opening a mouth, or chirping. No one could stand against the Assyrian juggernaut.
The prophet chastises Assyria: Does the axe boast over he who chops with it? Does the saw exalt itself over he who wields it? It is as though a rod would wield itself and those who lift it; as though a staff would lift itself like it was not wood. Assyria is but a tool in God’s hands, yet its king ascribes all of his success to himself.
Therefore, the Lord, Lord of hosts, will send leanness among his fattened ones, and instead of his glory, a burning will ignite like the burning of fire.
And the Light of Israel, its God, shall be a fire and his Holy One will be a flame, and it will burn and consume his, the Assyrian king’s, thorn and thistle, all that he has, very quickly and in one day.
The glory of his forest and his farmland, from soul to flesh, will be annihilated, and it shall be as if it was consumed by a worm.
The remaining trees of his forest will be numbered, and they will be so few that even a child will be able to record them.
The prophecy contains a modicum of consolation: It shall be on that day that the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer continue to rely on their attacker and place their trust in the superpower that oppresses them, but they will rely upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
A remnant will return [she’ar yashuv], the remnant of Jacob, to God the Mighty [El Gibor]. This prophecy once again references the portentous names of the prophet’s sons (see 7:3, 9:5).
For even if your people, Israel, will be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of it will return [she’ar yashuv], as annihilation is decreed for them, and the bulk of the people will be swept away in justice. Alternatively, the verse may mean not that a remnant will return, but that even the remnant of Israel will perish, as the prophet states elsewhere (see 6:13).
For annihilation that is decreed, the Lord, God of hosts, enacts in the midst of the entire land.
Therefore, so said the Lord, God of hosts: Do not fear Assyria, My people that inhabits Zion; with the rod he, Assyria, will strike you, and he will raise his staff against you to assault you, in the manner of Egypt. Assyria was striking Judah as the Egyptians had. Alternatively, the verse may be rendered: He will raise his staff against you on the way to Egypt. The Assyrians were en route to attack Egypt, but on their way they passed through the Land of Israel and attacked Judah.
For in a very little while, the time of My fury against you will cease, and then My wrath will be turned against the Assyrians for their depravity and their immoral actions.
The Lord of hosts will goad him with a whip, as at the smiting of Midyan at the rock of Orev when Gideon fought them; His staff is over the sea, like it had been set over the Red Sea following the Exodus, and He will bear him in the manner of Egypt. God will agitate Assyria and destroy its might, as He did to Egypt.
It shall be on that day, that his burden will depart from upon your shoulder, Judah, and his yoke will be removed from upon your neck; and the yoke will be damaged from the fat of those on whom it had rested, in contrary to the natural way, where the fat of the neck is damaged by the yoke.
Before Sennacherib sent his army to Jerusalem he first had them subdue the surrounding cities. The prophet describes the towns north of Jerusalem taken easily by the Assyrian king: He came to Ayat; he passed through Migron. At Mikhmashe deposits his baggage.
They passed over [averu] the pass [ma’bara]. Alternately, this is the name of a place, Ma’bara, and the previous verb, averu, is a play on words. Geva, south of Mikhmas, is a lodging place where they stayed. Ramatrembled before the Assyrians; Givat Shaul fled.
Raise your voice in warning, daughter of Galim. Listen, Layish; poor Anatot!The inhabitants of these places fled from the Assyrians.
Madmenah wandered [nadeda] away. Once again, the prophet utilizes alliteration, relating the place’s name with its misfortune. The inhabitants of Gevim gathered their flocks and fled to safety. The exact locations of these towns are unknown to us.
Even today he, the king of Assyria, will come and stand at Nov; having conquered all these cities, he will wave his hand at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
Behold, the Master, the Lord of hosts, will lop off the boughs with a saw, and those of elevated stature will be felled, and the lofty will be lowered.
The thickets of the forest will be cut with iron, and the Lebanon will fall by a mighty one.The entire forest, which represents the might of the Assyrians, will swiftly be trampled and destroyed.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 11
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 11 somebodyA branch will emerge from the trunk of Yishai, and a shoot will grow from its roots. This description relates to a tree such as a date palm, whose branches and shoots are used to propagate new trees. Israel’s redeemer will belong to the house of David, but he will not necessarily be a direct descendant of the monarch who reigned in Isaiah’s time.
He will be a remarkable man, as the spirit of the Lord will rest upon him, with the following qualities: A spirit of wisdom and understanding, intellectual ability, a spirit of counsel and valor, more practical virtues, like leadership and the courage to face his enemies; a spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord, the proper attitude toward worldly matters.
He will be infused [vaharih]· with the fear of the Lord. The word vahariĥo can mean he will smell. Some explain that by virtue of his fear of God, he will be able to metaphorically smell whether one is innocent or guilty; that is, to intuit the truth. Not by the sight of his eyes will he judge, and not by the hearing of his ears will he decide; he will not require testimony or deliberation, as he will immediately know with whom lies the truth.
He will provide justice for the impoverished and downtrodden, and with probity will guide the meek of the land. Nevertheless, he will smite the land with the rod of his mouth. Should it become necessary to impose punishment or wage war, he will be able to smite the land with his mouth alone, and with only the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. He will need no weapons; the strength of his spirit will suffice.
Justice will be the belt of his waist, and faith the belt of his loins. A belt was typically one of the royal garments. Metaphorically, the Messiah will gird himself with justice and faith, and they will be the source of his strength.
The Messianic Era will be characterized by universal peace and tranquility: The wolf will reside with the sheep, and the leopard will lie down with the kid; calf, young lion, and fatling, a large and fattened bull, will be together. Predators will live peacefully alongside their prey, and even a small lad will be able to lead them, as the handling of lions and leopards will require no more competence than the tending of sheep.
Cow and bear will graze alongside one another; together their young, the calves and the cubs, will lie down. A lion will cease to prey on other animals, and like the ox, will eat straw and grass.
A nursing child will play on the hole of a venomous cobra, and on the lair of a viper the weanling will extend his hand, because in messianic times, these snakes will cease to be dangerous.
They will not cause harm and they will not destroy throughout My sacred mountain, for the earth will be filled with knowledge of the Lord, as the water covers the floor of the sea. Just as water covers the seabed and fills its depressions and hollows, so too, the knowledge of God will fill the world and all its creatures. This will effect dramatic change in the world, which will be expressed as perfect harmony.
It shall be on that day: The one who will descend from the familial root of Yishai, which stands as a banner of the peoples, to him will nations appeal. The nations will seek him out on their own and obey him; he will not have to impose his views on them (see 42:4, 51:5). And his resting place will be glorious.
It shall be on that day that the Lord will continue, setting His mighty hand a second time to acquire for Himself the remnant of His people, by gathering together those that will remain from Assyria, from Egypt, from Patros, from Kush, from Elam, from Shinar, and from Hamat, and from the islands of the sea.The people of Israel will be gathered from the four corners of the earth.
He will raise a banner for the nations, and He will gather the outcasts of Israel. The nations will acknowledge the raising of the redeemer’s banner, which will be a call for the ingathering of Israel from among the nations. He will assemble the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
The jealousy of those who fight against Ephraim will cease and the enemies and persecutors of Judah, from within and without, will be eliminated. Ephraim will not envy Judah and Judah will not persecute Ephraim. The discord that prevailed between the kingdoms of Judah and Israel for so long will ultimately transform into friendship.
Ephraim and Judah will defeat their common enemies together: They will fly shoulder to shoulder to fight against their common enemy, the Philistines, to the west. Such cooperation was rare between the two kingdoms. Together they will plunder the people of the East. Edom and Moav will be in their power, to do with them as they please; and they will impose their discipline over the children of Amon.
Moreover, the Lord will destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and He will wave His hand over the river, the Euphrates, with the power and might of His wind. He will strike the river so that it will split into seven streams, and this will effectively dry it up so that it will be passable in shoes, that is, on foot.
There will be a highway for the remnant of His people that will remain from Assyria, as there was for Israel on the day of its ascent from the land of Egypt. Just as Israel’s path out of Egypt was smooth and free of all hindrances, so will be the path taken by the redeemed of Israel when they return from the lands to which Assyria has exiled them.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 12
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 12 somebodyYou will say on that day, the day of the Redemption: I thank You, Lord, although You were angry with me and You poured Your wrath upon me in the past. Now, let Your wrath subside, and may You comfort me. Alternatively, on that day, Israel will thank God that He was angry with them, as they will recognize that even their suffering throughout the generations was for the good.
Here is the God of my salvation, and therefore I will trust and will not fear, as my strength and song [zimerat] is God the Lord; alternatively, strength and the pruning away [zemira] of evil are God’s, and He has been my salvation. Almost identical and equally unclear verses appears in Exodus (15:2) and in Psalms (118:14).
You will draw water with gladness from the springs of salvation. Whether the reference here is to material blessing and prosperity, or to knowledge of God and His Torah, salvation will reach the returnees like flowing water, and they will rejoice at this.
You will say on that day: Thank the Lord, proclaim His name, announce among all the peoples His actions; declare that His name is exalted and strengthened in the world.
Sing to the Lord, as He has performed grandeur. His actions demonstrate His strength and greatness over all, and this is known in the entire land.
Shout and sing, inhabitant of Zion, as the Holy One of Israel is great in your midst. God is coming to you, and His glory and praise will become enhanced through you.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 13
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 13 somebodyThe prophecy [masa] of Babylon that Isaiah son of Amotz envisioned. The term masa, literally “burden,” expresses the seriousness with which the prophet related to his prophecy.
Hoist a banner or some other sign on a steep and pointed mountain; raise a voice to them, the Babylonians. Wave a hand, and have them enter through the entrances of the nobles. The prophet employs an ironic scenario of invitation and reception: Prepare for their arrival, as they are soon to stand at your gates. Perhaps you have not invited them willingly, nor will they come on particularly friendly terms, but they are nevertheless approaching.
I have commanded My consecrated ones, the Babylonians, whom I appointed for this task; I have also called My mighty ones for the purpose of pouring out My anger, and I called to the revelers who rejoice in My grandeur, the grandeur that they acquired because of Me.
The sound of a horde is on the mountains, resembling a great number of people that will arrive here; the din of kingdoms of the nations, gathering. The Lord of hosts commands an army in war. Although the kingdom of Assyria was known and recognized as a great military power, the Babylonian forces that will arrive after them will be even stronger and better organized.
Other nations will join them: They will come from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, the Lord and the weapons of His fury. These nations that will come from distant lands are the manifestation of God’s fury, and they are coming to destroy the entire earth.
Wail, all you conquered nations, as the day of the Lord is near; like depredation from the awesome power of the Almighty it will come.
Therefore, all hands will slacken when the enemy arrives, and every mortal heart will melt.
They will all panic; pangs and throes will seize them; they will tremble like a woman in childbirth. Each man will wonder to his neighbor: Their faces, of these enemies, are faces of flames.
Behold, the day of the Lord is coming; it is cruel, with anger and enflamed wrath. It will render the earth desolation, and will destroy its sinners from upon it, the land.
For the stars of the heavens and their constellations, their light will not glow; the sun will be darkened at its rising, and the moon will not shine its light. Darkness is another image for the terrifying and all-encompassing war that is approaching.
I will reckon with the world all its evil that it has performed, and upon the wicked I will reckon their iniquity; and thereby I will eliminate the pride of the criminals and I will humble the arrogance of the powerful.
I will make man more valuable than fine gold, and people more than the pure gold of Ofir. After the wicked are punished, those who remain will be exceedingly precious. The true spirit of man comes to the fore during difficult times of war and crisis. When the world stands on the brink of collapse, man has an exceedingly significant role to play.
Therefore, I will agitate the heavens, and the earth will quake from its place because of the anger of the Lord of hosts and the day of His enflamed wrath.
He, each person, shall be like a pursued gazelle, and as scattered sheep with no gatherer; each man will turn to his people and each man will flee to his land. Foreign armies will be recruited for the war effort; when they are defeated, the foreigners will flee to their respective lands.
Anyone found will be stabbed, and anyone who joins them, or who is gathered into the city, will fall by the sword.
Their babies will be cleaved before their eyes; their houses will be plundered, and their wives will be raped.
The prophet’s vision continues farther into the future: Behold, I will rouse Media against them. When Babylon was at its height, they made use of Median auxiliaries. Many years later, the army of Persia and Media would conquer Babylon. They, the Medes, were said to be soldiers who do not appreciate silver and do not desire gold. The Medes were originally savage nomads who could not be bribed.
And bows will cleave youths, and they will not have mercy on the fruit of the womb. Their eye will not pity children.
And Babylon, the magnificent of kingdoms, the splendor of the pride of the Chaldeans, and for some years considered the capital of the world, will ultimately be like God’s upheaval of Sodom and Gomorrah. The glory of Babylon will not last forever; it will eventually be completely destroyed.
It will be unsettled forever, and none will dwell in it from generation to generation; Babylon will be left in so desolate a state that no Arabian will pitch tent there, and shepherds will not have flocks lie there for fear of death. The prophet foresees both Babylon’s ascent to world domination, and its ultimate downfall and total destruction.
But desert beasts [tziyyim] will lie there. Some commentaries explain that the word tzi refers specifically to the mongoose. And their houses will be full of night birds, and ostriches will live there, and scops owls will dance there.
Wildcats [iyyim] will howl in their mansions; some identify the iy with the golden jackal, known in Egyptian as an ow. And jackals will howl in the halls of delight; its, Babylon’s, time is near to come, and its days will not be prolonged. Indeed, the Babylonian Empire lasted for only about seventy years before its rapid and total collapse.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 14
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 14 somebodyThe fall of Babylon will free the exiled members of Israel living there; some of these exiles will return to their homeland: For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and He will place them on their land; the stranger will accompany them, and they will be appended to the house of Jacob.
The peoples will take them, Israel, and bring them to their place. Nations will help Israel return to their land. The house of Israel will inherit them, other nations that have settled on the land of the Lord, as slaves and as maidservants. Then, after returning to inhabit their land, they, Israel, will be the captors of their former captors, and they will subjugate their erstwhile oppressors and render them servants and second-class citizens.
It shall be on the day that the Lord gives you relief from your pain and from your trembling and from the hard work with which you were made to work, then it will be possible to summarize the period of your suffering, and you will then be able to sing a new song.
You will then deliver this parable about the king of Babylon, and you will say: How has the oppressor ceased, how has the yoke of the golden kingdom ceased?
The Lord broke the staff of the wicked, the rod of the rulers. The staff or rod fills a double role: It is a club which strikes and punishes the people, and also the scepter of royal authority.
It is the king’s rod that smites peoples in ire, an incessant blow; it subjugates nations in wrath, who are pursued without relief. It is as though the king cannot rest. He pursues war and is thus afflicted by constant warfare.
Now, at his death, the entire earth rests, and is tranquil; they all broke out into song.
Also junipers rejoice over you, over your death, as well as cedars of Lebanon, as though saying: Since you lie down, the woodcutter does not come against us. The king of Babylon felled many large trees in order to build extravagant palaces and to besiege cities. Thus, even the trees rejoice over his death.
At the same time, the netherworld from below trembles for you in anticipation of your arrival; ghosts are roused for you, all the prominent ones of the earth who were prominent in their lifetimes; they are raised from their thrones in the netherworld, all the kings of the nations.
All of them would respond and would say to you: You too, the great king who ruled by force, who was treated as an eternal and immovable force of nature, have been weakened like us? You have become likened to us! You are also dead!
Your pride is brought down to the netherworld, the strains of your lyres. The melodies that were always played before you have been silenced. Now, after once gloriously presiding over the entire world, you lie still in the ground and beneath you are spread maggots, and your cover is worms.
The prophet now addresses the king himself: How have you fallen from the heavens, shining morning star [heilel ben shah]·? This refers to the planet Venus, which is the brightest star in the early morning sky. Some explain that heilel ben shaĥar is actually the name of a Babylonian general. In any case, the prophet asks: You once shone like a bright star; how have you been felled to the ground, you, who were once controller of nations?
You said in your heart while you were still alive: I will ascend to the heavens; above the stars of God I will elevate my throne, and I will sit on the mountain of meeting at the ends of the North where the sun does not shine, a place that you believe is fit for a gathering of the gods.
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.
However, despite your desire to rise to the heavens, to the netherworld you will be lowered, to the depths of the pit, where you will be buried.
Those who see you will peer at you, will scrutinize you, and say: Is this the corpse of the man who caused the entire earth to tremble, who caused kingdoms to quake?
Is this the king who rendered the world like a wilderness through his wars, and destroyed its cities? Is this the king who did not release his prisoners homeward?
All the kings of the nations are dead, but they all lie in honor, each in his own house, as they did not generate such opposition, even after their deaths.
But you were cast from your grave like a detested shoot that is uprooted because it does not grow properly, dressed in the tattered clothing of corpses stabbed with a sword, those lowered to the stones of a pit like a trampled carcass. Your fate will be like those who fall in battle and are left on the battlefield, and whose bodies are tossed into unmarked graves. Unlike the kings of the other nations, who die peacefully in their beds and are honorably interred, you will not be buried in a magnificent grave.
You will not join with them, the other kings, in burial, because you destroyed your land; you killed your people. Therefore, the descendants of evildoers, your descendants, will never be mentioned or remembered.
They will say: Prepare a slaughter for his sons, kill them for the iniquity of their fathers; may they, the sons, not rise and inherit the earth and fill the face of the earth with destruction or enemies.
I will rise against them – the utterance of the Lord of hosts. I will eliminate from Babylon name and remnant, or relative, and son, or descendant, and grandson – the utterance of the Lord.
I will render it, Babylon, a possession of the fish owl and pools of water; I will sweep it with the broom of destruction– the utterance of the Lord of hosts. Babylonia shall be utterly destroyed; nothing will remain of it except destroyed cities, swamps, and desolation.
The Lord of hosts took an oath, saying: Surely, as I have imagined, so it will be; just as I devised, so it will stand.
My plan will be realized: To break Assyria in My land, and on My mountains, I will crush him. His, the Assyrian king’s, yoke will be removed from upon them, My land and mountains, and his, Israel’s, burden will be removed from upon his shoulder.
This is the plan that is devised against the entire earth, and this is the hand that is outstretched over all the nations. The hand of God, which rules over the entire world, will not allow this injustice to continue.
For the Lord of hosts has devised, and who will revoke? His outstretched hand – who will turn it back?
Like the prophecy above (6:1), but unlike many other prophecies, this prophecy is dated: In the year of the death of King Ahaz, there was this prophecy. The Philistines, who were dealt a severe blow by King Ahaz, celebrated his death. The prophet therefore says to them:
Do not rejoice, all of you, Philistia, because the rod of he who beat you, King Ahaz, is broken; the king has died. For from the root of the snake will emerge an adder, far more dangerous than a typical snake, and its offspring will be a flying, venomous, serpent.In place of the dead King Ahaz, there will arise a king who will strike the Philistines even harder.
Even the firstborn of the impoverished of Israel, the poorest of the people, will graze and be sustained in tranquility, and even the indigent will lie in security, and at the same time I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant he will slay. The Philistines will suffer severe famine and be beaten to the ground, and whoever survives will be slain by the king.
Wail, until the gate of your city shakes; cry out, city. Philistia, all of you is melted; all of Philistia will eventually be destroyed. For the smoke of war comes from the North, and there is no straggler in his ranks; the enemy’s entire army will gather together to attack you.
What, then, will the messengers of the nation pronounce? For the Lord has established Zion, and within it will be sheltered the poor of His people. The poor of Israel will find shelter in the rebuilt Jerusalem, as their enemies, the Philistines, will have been dealt a decisive blow.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 15
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 15 somebodyA prophecy of Moav: For on the night that Ar, one of the major cities of Moav, was plundered, it was smitten and obliterated; for on the night that Kir, another important city of Moav, was plundered, it was obliterated. The collapse of these two cities caused the inhabitants of Moav to feel as if their entire land had been destroyed.
He, a man of Moav, went up to the house of the king, or to a Moavite temple, and to the shrines of Divon, to weep; for Nevo and for Medeva, Moav wails, as these cities were destroyed. Therefore, on all his heads is baldness; every beard is sparse. The profound mourning of Moav was expressed through the prevalent practice of removing the hair of one’s head and one’s beard as an act of mourning. Israel is prohibited from practicing this behavior.
In its, Moav’s, streets they donned sackcloth; those who donned sackcloth assembled on their rooftops and in their plazas; all are wailing and overcome with weeping.
Heshbon and Elaleh cry out. Elaleh was another Moavite city. Their voice is heard until Yahatz, yet another Moavite city mentioned in the Torah. Therefore the soldiers of Moav will shout out with a wail of grief and sorrow and not a battle cry. His soul will shout out [yar’a] in bitterness for him. Yar’a is a combination of teruah, “shouting” and ra’ah, “evil.”
My heart will cry for Moav, its refugees reach until Tzo’ar;alternatively: The city’s bolts were broken until Tzo’ar and Eglat Shelishiya, apparently the name of another place. For those who flee the war via the ascent of Luhit, they will ascend it with weeping, for they will raise an outcry of ruin on the way of Horonayim.
For the Waters of Nimrim, the name of either a spring or a stream, will be desolate; for hay has withered, vegetation ceased, there was no greenery.
Therefore, he, the enemy, did more than what has been stated; alternatively: Moav did more than what has been stated, and they, the enemy despoilers, will carry away their property to the ravine of the willows,where they will destroy it.
For the outcry of pain over the defeat has circled the borders of Moav; its wailing reaches until Eglayim and its wailing reaches to Be’er Eilim. The locations of Eglayim and Be’er Eilim are unknown.
For the waters of the Dimon River are filled with blood, as I will wreak more blood upon Dimon. The people will flee from city to city; they will die by the sword and of starvation, and many a lion will be for chasing the refugees of Moav and to the remnant of the land. At the time, lions were common in the lower Jordan Valley.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 16
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 16 somebodyMoav will require assistance, and to that end will turn to the government on Mount Zion: Send a flock, or send a gift, for the ruler of the land, from Sela Midbara, a place in Moav, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.
It shall be that like a wandering bird driven from a nest, so will be the daughters of Moav when they flee, arriving at the fords of the Arnon Stream.
The prophet presents the people of Moav addressing their land: Provide counsel; execute justice; set your shadow like night during noon. This is a metaphor for one who seeks the cover of night when he feels most exposed. Hide outcasts; do not reveal the wanderer. Make sure that the wandering exiles are not discovered. While the land of Moav is not flat, it lacks high mountains where its people can hide.
Let my outcasts reside with you, Moav; be a cover for them, the refugees, from before the plunderer. Some commentaries explain the phrase “Let my outcasts reside with you,” as an appeal addressed by the prophet to Moav that it should offer refuge to Israel when they flee the Assyrians. Others interpret the phrase as a request on the part of an emissary of Moav that Zion should offer refuge to those fleeing from Moav. For it, all of Moav’s wealth, is no more, sucked dry; succulence is eliminated by the enemy. The trampling animals, the herds of sheep, have ceased from the land.
Ultimately, a stable and proper government and judiciary will be established in the house of David: A royal throne will be established with grace, and he will sit upon it in truth, with loyalty and integrity, in the tent of David, adjudicating and seeking justice, and prompt to act with righteousness.
In contrast to the fate of Zion, Moav will be destroyed: We heard of the pride of Moav, very proud: his haughtiness, his pride, and his anger toward surrounding nations. The Moavites portrayed themselves as exceedingly important; however, not so are his pretensions [lo khen baddav]: their accomplishments did not match their immense pride. Alternatively, the arrogant words that Moav fabricated [badda] were incorrect [lo khen].
Therefore, following the overwhelming defeat of the proud Moavites, the surviving members of Moav will wail for Moav; they will all wail. For the foundations of the great city of Kir Hareset you will yearn, even lament with words of sorrow over the destroyed city.
For the fields of Heshbon are ravaged, the vine of the city of Sivma, the nobles of nations beat its branches which reached to Yazer, which wandered in the wilderness; its offshoots spread, crossing the sea.
Therefore, I will weep with the weeping of Yazer, vine of Sivma; I will soak you with my tears, Heshbon and Elaleh, for upon your summer fruits and your harvest, the hurrah has fallen off. The typical joy and celebration of the summer and the harvest have been suspended. Alternatively, the verse refers to the celebratory cries of Moav’s conquerors.
Joy and happiness will be taken away from the farmland, and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, no cheer; the treader will not tread wine from grapes in the winepresses; I have stopped the joyous shouts of hurrah.
Therefore, my innards will moan for Moav like a harp, and my insides for Kir Heres, the Kir Hareset mentioned above in verse 7. The prophet commiserates with Moav over its pitiful losses and downfall.
It, this disaster, will be when it is seen that Moav has wearied of worshipping its deities on the shrine, or has wearied of waging war, and comes to his temple to pray, but is unable. Overcome by hopelessness and despair, the Moavites will lose the ability to organize worship, and they will not be able to recover from their plight.
This is the matter that the Lord spoke with regard to Moav in time past, in an earlier prophecy.
But now the Lord has spoken a new prophecy, saying: In another three years, like the years of a hired laborer, the honor of Moav will be demeaned in the whole great tumult, and will remain miniscule, of no importance. Just as a hired laborer does not work beyond a previously agreed-upon time, so too, the honor of Moav will be demeaned in exactly three years.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 17
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 17 somebodyA prophecy of Damascus: Behold, Damascus is removed from being a city and it will be a heap of ruins.
Abandoned are the cities of Aroer to the east of the Jordan River; they will be for flocks, and they, those flocks, will lie therein and none will threaten them, as the cities will be emptied of their inhabitants and left as pastureland.
The Kingdom of Israel in the North will collapse: The fortress will cease from Ephraim and the kingdom will cease from Damascus, and the status of the remnant of Aram will fall to the lowest possible level, and it will be like the glory of the children of Israel at this time, nonexistent – the utterance of the Lord of hosts.
It will be on that day, when this prophecy is fulfilled, that the glory of Jacob will diminish, and the corpulence of his flesh will grow lean. Israel is described here as an individual who will grow lean and lose his strength, his resources, and his influence. So shall be the diminished figure of Ephraim:
It will be like when the harvester grasps the standing grain and, with his arm, holds and reaps the stalks, taking hold of only a small quantity of grain. Alternatively, the harvest is used here as a metaphor for the destruction wrought by the enemy. It shall be like when one collects ears in the Valley of Refaim, perhaps an infertile area. Accordingly, not only will the manner of harvesting yield small quantities, the fields themselves will not issue plentiful crops. Alternatively, the Valley of Refaim was a fertile area that yielded an abundance of crops, and the verse refers to the enemy’s actions, not the poverty of Israel.
Gleanings will remain of it, in Jacob, like the beating of an olive tree, where only two or three berries remain on the treetop, four or five on the branches of a flourishing tree – the utterance of the Lord, God of Israel. If even four or five olives remain on the branch, it will be considered a flourishing tree. Aside from the literal meaning of the verse, these branches symbolize the general poverty and degradation that will befall the people.
On that day, when these tragedies will occur, a man will turn to his Maker, and his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.
And he will not turn to the altars, his handiwork, whether they were erected for the service of the God of Israel, like the golden calves in Beit El and Dan, or they were meant for the worship of other gods, and that which his fingers made he will not see, the sacred trees and the sun pillars. In their dire situation, Israel will cease to rely on that which they had previously relied upon, and had taken pride in.
On that day, his fortified cities will be like the abandoned forest and the treetop that they, the land’s former inhabitants, abandoned due to the children of Israel. Just as the previous inhabitants of the land fled and left behind destruction when Israel’s conquest of the land began, so will the land of Ephraim remain, and it will be a desolation.
All this shall befall you for you have forgotten the God of your salvation, instead seeking your salvation from man, and you did not remember the Rock of your fortification. Therefore, your fortified cities will be abandoned, and your efforts will be met with failure. You will plant pleasant saplings, but judging from the results, it will be as if a wild and useless branch you will sow. Such branches are elsewhere referred to as surim.
On the day of your planting you will make it flourish, and in a similar manner, in the morning immediately after the sowing you will make your seed blossom; your plantings will yield their fruit too quickly, causing the produce to be of inferior quality. The harvest will be lost on a day of trouble [nah]·; according to some commentaries, the day of naĥala refers to the day on which the crop is gathered. And all that shall remain is terrible pain.
Woe, the uproar [hamon] of many peoples; alternatively, the large assembly of many peoples, who come from all directions to conquer the land, like the roar [kahamot] of the seas will they roar [yehemayun], and the din [sha’on] of nations will thunder [yisha’un] like the din [sha’on] of a surging current of great waters. Here, the prophet once again employs alliteration for effect, in this case to emphasize the great noise created by the nations.
Nations will thunder like the din of torrential water, but He, God, will admonish them, the threatening armies, and they will flee to a distance. They will be pursued like the chaff of mountains which is swept great distances before the wind, and like tumbleweed before the storm. The prophet depicts a scene of utter desolation.
At evening time and behold, everyone is gripped with terror at the approaching enemy, but it is not yet morning, and they, the enemies, are not. This is the portion of our attackers and the lot of our plunderers.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 18
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 18 somebodyWoe! The land of the shadow of wings, a land with wings that form a shadow, or: The land with wings that make a sound. The significance of this image is unclear, but since the coming verses indicate that this prophecy relates to a nation of seafarers, perhaps the wings are the sails of the boats. It is a land which is beyond the rivers of Kush, the great rivers of Egypt.
This land belongs to a nation that sends emissaries by sea, messengers who travel in ships and in light papyrusvessels on the water. Perhaps this nation resided near the sources of the Nile. In any case, the senders give the following instruction to the seamen: Go, swift messengers, to a nation that has been dragged and plucked, to a people who has undergone awful experiences, from its inception onward, a nation of laws and regulations, and which has suffered defeat, that rivers divide [bazu] its land. Many commentaries explain that this verse compares the plundering invaders [bozezim] to rivers flowing through the raided country.
These emissaries will come from the ends of the earth to announce forthcoming events: All inhabitants of the world and dwellers of the earth: When a banner is raised on the top of the mountains, so that it can be observed from a great distance, you will see; and with the sounding of the shofar you will hear.
For so the Lord said to me: I will be calm, and I will look alone, quietly on My abode, observing the unfolding events, which are like clear light during the heat that comes after rain, or like a dew cloud in the heat of harvest. Heat and light together with clouds and rain during the harvest period are unusual phenomena, signifying a reversal that brings about repair.
For before harvest arrives, when the blossoming is over, and the bud becomes a ripening grape, as it develops in anticipation of the ripening of the fruit, before the growth is complete, He will cut off the thin branches with pruning hooks, and remove and lop off the long, thick branches. In other words, a great slaughter will occur quickly.
The verse turns from metaphor to a concrete description of impending events. They, the numerous dead, will be left together for the raptors of the mountains, and for the animals of the earth, which will eat the corpses. And the raptor will summer upon them, and all the animals of the earth will winter upon them. There will be so many corpses that birds of prey will be able to eat from them for an entire summer, and animals throughout the winter.
At that time, a present will be brought to the Lord of hosts from a people dragged and plucked, from a people awful from its inception onward, a nation of laws and defeat, that rivers divide its land. Those nations that were cleansed by suffering, that had maintained a framework of laws, and that had experienced appalling downfalls, will then come to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, which they will know is Mount Zion, and there they will bring their gifts to the Lord.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 19
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 19 somebodyA prophecy of Egypt: Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud, and is coming quickly to Egypt, as the events described in this prophecy will occur in the near future. The gods of Egypt will tremble from His presence, and the heart of Egypt will melt within it.
On the political level, I will provoke Egypt against Egypt, and each man will fight against his brother and each man against his neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.
Furthermore, the spirit of Egypt will be broken [novka] within it. Rav Yosef Caspi, understands the word novka to be related to the word bokek, meaning broken. Alternatively, Egypt will be emptied of its wisdom or that its goals and plans will be stymied. And I will thwart its counsel, so that it will not come to pass. They, the Egyptians, will seek the gods, the ghosts, or the magical forces that communicate through murmurs, the mediums, and the oracles, but they will receive no counsel from them.
I will deliver, or constrict and bring, the Egyptians into the hand of a harsh master [adonim]. This word appears here in the honorific plural form, masters, even though one master is meant. And a strong foreign king will rule over them – the utterance of the Master, the Lord of hosts.
Water will disappear from the sea of Egypt, and the river will desiccate and become dry.
The rivers will be abandoned, or will decrease; the streams of Egypt will be diminished and desiccated; the reeds and bulrushes that grow around them will also wither.
All that which is on the river and on the bank of the river will disintegrate and be drained, and all the vegetation that is sown near the Nile will dry out, be blown away, and be no more.
As a result of the drying out of the river, the fish will disappear. The fishermen will lament their loss, and all who cast a rod in the river will mourn; spreaders of large nets on the surface of the water will be miserable.
The workers of the combed flax, which will no longer grow, and the weavers of linen, who make types of cloth used, among other things, for fishermen’s nets, will be ashamed.
Its, Egypt’s, foundations will be crushed, with all those who make dams and pools to store water that provide life, meaning for people’s livelihoods. Alternatively, this means standing pools, or pools containing living creatures. Some explain the verse as a play on words: All who are currently makers of dams and pools for the soul [agmei nefesh] will become depressed souls [agumei nefesh], which is spelled and pronounced similarly.
The princes of Tzo’an, the capital of Egypt, are mere fools, while the wise of the counselors of Pharaoh give him senseless and illogical counsel; how can you say to Pharaoh to say about himself: I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings? Pharaoh did not represent himself merely as a king, but a kind of god who was, among other things, the god of wisdom. This notion of the god-king was accepted by the Egyptians.
If in fact Pharaoh and his counselors are so wise, where are they, then, your wise men? Let them tell you now; and let them know what the Lord of hosts devised for the future of Egypt.
The princes of Tzo’an became fools and they have no solutions. The princes of Nof, another major Egyptian city, were beguiled and distracted; instead of helping Egypt, they led Egypt astray, by misleading the cornerstone of her tribes, the officers appointed over the tribes of Egypt.
All this has come about because the Lord poured in its midst a spirit of confusion, delusions, and they, the aforementioned officials, led Egypt astray in all its actions. The wisdom that Egypt ascribes to itself will disappear, and instead the Egyptians will repeatedly fall victim to their previous mistakes, as a drunk staggers and wallows in his own vomit.
Egypt will not have any action that it can perform, head and tail, a properly and viably planned action with a clear beginning and end. The Egyptians will be unable to distinguish between treetop and reed, between important matters and trivial ones.
On that day, the warriors of Egypt will be like women, terrified by the ongoing catastrophe, and trembling and fearing from the wave of the hand of the Lord of hosts that He waves over it.
The land of Judah will become a terror for Egypt. Judah, which in Isaiah’s time was a small state, will threaten Egypt in the future. Anyone who mentions it, the name of Judah, to himself, will fear, because of the ominous devising of the Lord of hosts that He devises against it, Egypt.
On that day, when Egypt will collapse, many changes will occur there: There will be five cities in the land of Egypt speaking the language of Canaan and taking oaths to the Lord of hosts. The inhabitants of those cities will speak Hebrew and believe in the God of Israel, because there the Israelites will be the rulers and those who set the cultural tone; some will even settle in those cities. Of one of those places it will be said: The city of destruction [heres].thers explain that this means the city of the sun, ĥeres. Indeed, there was a city in Egypt known by this name.
On that day, there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a monument to the Lord at its border.
And it, referring either to the structure mentioned in the previous verse or the matter stated below, will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt, as they will cry out to the Lord due to oppressors, and He will send them a savior and a leader [rav], a great person, or one who will fight [yariv] on their behalf, and he will deliver them.
The Lord will become known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the Lord on that day; they will worship Him with a feast offering and a meal offering, and will take a vow to the Lord and fulfill it.
The Lord will afflict Egypt; He will keep afflicting and healing them. The purpose of the repeated strikes is to correct their behaviors, not to destroy them. They will return to the Lord, and He will acquiesce to them and heal them.
On that day, there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt and Egypt into Assyria, and Egypt will serve the Lord together with Assyria.
On that day, after the Assyrians conquer Egypt, and after Assyria and Egypt have both accepted upon themselves the yoke of the kingdom of God, Israel will be a triad with Egypt and with Assyria. Together they will form an alliance of three forces, which will be a blessing in the midst of the land
that the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying: Blessed is My people Egypt, Assyria is the work of My hands, and My inheritance is Israel. In that new world order, peace will reign among these three kingdoms.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 20
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 20 somebodyThe content of this next prophecy is similar to that of the previous one. In the year of the arrival of the tartan, the title of the Assyrian commander-in-chief, tartanu in Assyrian, to the city of Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, he waged war against Ashdod and captured it. Although the date of this prophecy cannot be established with certainty, it comes from the early period of Isaiah’s career, as when the Assyrian army returned in the days of King Hizkiya, it was headed by Sennacherib.
At that time, the Lord spoke by means of Isaiah son of Amotz, saying: Go and loosen and remove the sackcloth from around your waist, and remove your shoe from upon your foot. He did so, walking relatively naked, without the upper garment of sackcloth that he had been wearing, and barefoot.
The chapter turns to the content of the prophecy. The Lord said: Just as My servant Isaiah went naked and barefoot for three years, as a sign and a wonder for Egypt and for Kush,
so will the king of Assyria lead the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Kush, youths and elders, naked and barefoot and bared of buttocks, so that the nakedness of Egypt will be visible to all. The Assyrians will overcome Egypt, whose inhabitants will be taken captive and left bereft of protection or dignity.
They, those Israelites who sought to rely on Egypt and Kush, will be disheartened and ashamed; their gaze was to Kush and their splendor was from Egypt.
The inhabitant of this island, the Land of Israel, will say on that day: Behold, this is where we looked. Alternatively, this is what happened to those in whom we set our hopes, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria. Now that Egypt and Kush have been conquered by the Assyrians, how will we escape?
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 21
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 21 somebodyA prophecy of the western wilderness: Like massive, daunting storms sweeping in the flat and exposed South, it is coming from the wilderness, from a terrible land. The verse does not refer to rainstorms, as these are uncommon in desert regions, but rather, to windstorms and sandstorms. The prophet uses these sandstorms as a metaphor for the mighty enemy coming from afar. It is difficult to identify the actual events and time period to which this prophecy relates, or the identity of the enemy.
The prophet declares: A harsh vision was told to me: The traitor betrays and the plunderer plunders. This is a terrible and dangerous combination: An enemy that resembles a gang of bandits without, and traitors within. In such a situation, nobody can be trusted. Go up, Elam, to war; besiege, Media. All its present sighing, I have ended. The quantity and frequency of new calamities will render irrelevant Babylon’s previous sighing. Alternatively, Babylon’s sighs will not be heard because no one will have sympathy for its plight. It could also mean that Babylon’s troubles will provide relief to her enemies, who will no longer sigh due to Babylon’s oppression.
The invaded nation declares: Therefore, my loins are filled with trembling; pains have overcome me, like the pains of a woman in childbirth, psychosomatic symptoms caused by great anxiety. I am twisted from hearing; I am frightened from seeing the unfolding events.
My heart is bewildered, my mind unsettled; terror has frightened me. The evening of my desire, the desirable night, he has made for me into anxiety. The threat of enemy attack has ruined my drinking parties.
When it is the time to set the table for a banquet, set the lookout to watch from a tower, to see whether the enemy is approaching. Even at the party itself, the worries do not abate: Eat, drink; but when called upon, arise, princes; anoint, smooth, a shield. Even while preparing for balls and celebrations, the residents remain very tense, in fear of the impending danger, and they actively prepare for war.
For so the Lord said to me: Go, post the lookout at the top of the wall or the tower; that which he sees, he will tell.
He will see a chariot, a pair of horsemen, a donkey chariot, or a camel chariot. The sentry must watch all of the regular movements of vehicles on the roads, whether these are drawn by horses or other animals. The danger of the approaching enemy is real, and therefore everything must be observed closely, in case their men are scouting the place, spying, or preparing for an advance. He will listen very attentively. The sentry must be on the lookout for the distant steps of the enemy, as the time, manner, and direction of his approach are all unknown.
A lion will call, roar: On the lookout, Lord, I stand continually during the day, and I stand on my watch every night. The speaker could be the person in charge of the sentry, or, more likely, the prophet himself.
The prophet describes what he saw next in his vision: Behold, it comes, a chariot with a man inside and a pair of horses. This chariot was sent to convey a message; it would not be a war chariot, as these typically contained two or three men. And he spoke aloud and said: Fallen, fallen is Babylon, and all the idols of its gods are smashed on the ground.
It, Babylon, is My threshing floor and it is like the mere corner of My grain pile. Babylon has become a wasteland. That which I heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I told you. The prophet fills the role of the sentry, who sees and reports on all these events from afar.
This verse begins another vision: A prophecy of Duma, the name of one of the sons of Ishmael, whose descendants dwelled in the wilderness surrounding the land of Canaan: To me, the prophet, one calls from Seir, in the South: Sentry, what of the night? Sentry, what of the night? People who went to sleep inquire: What happened during the night? Upon awaking, they ask the sentry for news. As in the previous prophecy, where the prophet served as a sentry who receives reports of shocking political events, here too he stands watch in a place dominated by fear of the future. In this case, however, he will announce that the approaching threat has yet to arrive.
The sentry said: The morning comes, and also night; if you ask, ask; come again. In other words, there is nothing new yet; if you wish, you may return and ask a second time. The verbs in this verse are all Aramaic.
A prophecy of Arabia, which is probably a general name for the nomadic peoples or tribes living in the East: In the forest in Arabia you will stay the night, caravans of Dedanites, tribes who inhabit the southern wilderness.
Bring water to the thirsty. You can rest in a relatively tranquil spot, in the woods, as the war is being fought elsewhere. However, refugees fleeing from the battle will come to you asking for water. The inhabitants of the land of Tema, far to the southeast of the Land of Israel, greeted the wanderer with his bread. Alternatively, this can be understood as a command: Give bread to the wanderers.
For they, the refugees, wandered due to swords: Due to the drawn sword, or the sharpened swords, due to the bent bow, and due to the weight of war.
For so said the Lord to me: In another year, measured precisely to the day like the years of a hired laborer, all the glory of Kedar will end. The tribes of Kedar will suffer a terrible downfall.
And the few remaining archers, the valiant of the children of Kedar, will diminish. The army of Kedar will decrease, as the Lord, God of Israel, who determines the fate of all the nations of the world, has spoken.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 22
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 22 somebodyA prophecy of the Valley of Vision, a symbolic name for Jerusalem, which was a place of inspiration for visions, including ominous ones: What, indeed, is with you, that you all went up to the roofs, to spot approaching enemies? Alternatively, perhaps the prophet was criticizing those who ascended to the roofs in order to enjoy parties there, as there is usually more open space on roofs than inside houses.
It is a boisterous city full of revelry, a merry, tumultuous town, bustling with excitement. Up to this point, your slain are not victims of the sword, and not dead from war; previous incidents of tragic deaths in Jerusalem had not been caused by external enemies. It is possible that this expression alludes to the destructive results of debauchery and drunkenness.
All of your military officers wandered together, seeking to flee from the city; from the bow they were bound, as though they were tied up and unable to shoot with their bows. All those found among you were bound together, as if they had been handed over to the enemy, while the military officers, who were charged with leading the defense of the people, fled to a great distance to seek refuge (see also 23:7, 59:14).
Therefore I said: Turn from me; I will weep bitterly. Do not rush to comfort me over the tragic depredation of the daughter of my people.
For it is a day of panic, rout, and confusion, from the Lord, God of hosts, in the Valley of Vision. Over the course of the past few centuries, Jerusalem had been besieged on only a few rare occasions, and was therefore not accustomed to preparations for military conflict, and would be gripped with panic, chaos, and bewilderment as the enemy surrounded the city, undermining its walls [m’karkar kir], or making noise like that of falling walls, and turning to the mountain [v’shoa el hahar] in order to prepare for the attack.
The mighty Assyrian army incorporated other, smaller forces, including that of Elam, whose warriors were mainly archers who carried the quiver, among chariots of men and horsemen. And Kir, the name of a northern nation, bore a shield. Alternatively, this means: Kir built a siege wall opposite the city.
Your choicest valleys, a reference to Jerusalem, were filled with chariots, and the horsemen directed themselves to the city’s gate in preparation for battle.
He uncovered the proverbial screen of the Kingdom of Judah which had concealed its vulnerability. After many years during which Judah did not have to test its military capabilities, the time had arrived when they needed to be exposed and examined. And you looked on that day to inspect and assess the arms of the House of the Forest, the main weapons depot, elsewhere known as “The House of the Forest of Lebanon.”
Those of you who examined the walls saw that the breaches in the walls of the City of David were many, and you also collected the water of the lower pool to bring it into the city.
You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you demolished some of the houses in order to use their stones to fortify the wall and fill in the breaches you had found.
You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. Like other cities, Jerusalem was protected by a double wall in some sections. You performed all these preparations for the siege, but despite the flurry of activity to fortify the city, you did not look to its Maker, and you did not look to its Fashioner in the distant past.
The Lord, God of hosts, called, on that day, for weeping, for lamentation, for making a bald patch, and for donning sackcloth, all expressions of mourning. A great danger hung over Jerusalem, and it appeared that the end of the kingdom was approaching.
And behold, the people’s reaction was the opposite of what was necessary: Gladness and joy in the city, and killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, and eating meat and drinking wine. The prevailing attitude in these dire circumstances was: Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die!
Thus says the Lord of hosts: This matter was revealed in my ears. This iniquity of your apathy and obtuseness shall not be atoned for until you die, said the Lord, God of hosts.
So said the Lord God of hosts: Go, come to this official, to Shevna, who is over the house. This title refers to a position that also existed under other kings of Judah and Israel. He was not only in charge of all the requirements of the king’s household, but also over the various other government officials; he functioned as a kind of prime minister. In the medieval Carolingian Empire there was a similar title: The most powerful person in the state was called the majordomus, head of the house.
Say to him: What do you have here and whom do you have here, that you have hewn a grave here for yourself? Amongst his other dealings, Shevna had exerted efforts to prepare a burial place that would fit his exalted status. The prophet elaborates: He who hews his grave on high, he who carves in rock to make an abode for himself. By selecting a grand burial spot for himself, Shevna was signaling that although he was not the king, he was actually the one who wielded power in the kingdom.
Behold, the Lord will hurl you violently, and He will wrap you up, like a mourner or a leper.
For He will wind you, wrap you up, and roll you like a toy ball kicked away (see also 29:3) to an expansive land, the great kingdom of Assyria. There you will die, and there your chariots of glory will be thrown down, as they are the shame of your master’s house.
I will expel you from your current position, and from your lofty status will you fall and meet disaster.
It will be on that day that I will call upon My servant Elyakim son of Hilkiyahu, to take over your position. Later on, Elyakim is mentioned with the title: Who is over the house (36:3), indicating that he did indeed replace Shevna.
I will clothe him with your tunic and gird him with your sash, as your ceremonial garments will be transferred to him, and I will deliver your government into his hand, and he will be a father, a guide and head of the community, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. As opposed to you, he will be faithful and dedicated to the people, and he will not betray them by seeking his own personal benefit.
I will place the key of the house of David on his shoulder, as ministers in charge of the king’s house would typically carry large keys as a symbol of their authority. In general, keys and locks in those times were far bigger than they are today. He will open and no one will close; he will close and no one will open. He will be exclusively responsible for the matters of government.
I will affix him as a peg in a secure place, where it will hold strong, and he will become a throne of honor for the house of his father. His family will take pride in him.
Continuing with the image of a peg affixed securely in the wall: They will hang upon him all the honor of the house of his father, the sons and the daughters, as he will be like a father to the house of Judah, and all the small vessels, from the earthenware cups or mugs to all the earthenware flasks, or musical instruments. Everyone will rely on Elyakim, the secure peg, and even small matters will depend on him.
However, even Shevna’s replacement, who will feel secure in his role, will eventually fall. On that day – the utterance of the Lord of hosts – the peg that is affixed in a secure place will give way. It will be severed and it will fall, and the burden that was on it, all the earthenware vessels that were hung upon the peg, will be entirely eliminated, for the Lord has spoken.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 23
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 23 somebodyA prophecy of Tyre: Wail, ships of Tarshish, which traded with Tyre, for it, Tyre, is sacked, no longer a house of ships. As a result of the capture and plunder of Tyre, it will cease to function as a port city for ships or anyone carrying or seeking merchandise to enter. From the land of Kitim it was revealed [nigla] to them. The raiding invader appeared from the land of the Kitim to attack the inhabitants of Tyre. Or: Tyre’s catastrophic fall became known due to ships from the land of Kitim. Another interpretation is: The residents of Tyre were to be exiled [niglu] via the land of Kitim (see verse 12).
Be silent, you island dwellers. Tyre was originally located on an island, although at a later point a causeway was built connecting it to the mainland. Be silent, even though the merchants of Sidon, a port city nearby and subordinate to Tyre also known for its seafarers, had previously filled you with people and wealth.
The seed, grain of Shihor, a branch of the Nile, was transported to Tyre through much water, via the sea.The harvest of the Nile of Egypt was its, Tyre’s, produce, and it, Tyre, was the market of nations.
Be ashamed, Sidon, as the sea has said, the stronghold of the sea, saying in rebuke: I have not gone into labor and suffered birth pangs, and I did not give birth; I did not raise young men or bring up virgins. In this image, the sea denies the children it fostered, those who derived all their strength from it. Tyre and Sidon will be emptied as though they never existed. According to most commentaries, the term “stronghold of the sea” refers to Tyre, as the sea is speaking in Tyre’s name.
When the report reaches Egypt, they will tremble at the arrival of the report of Tyre, which had both natural defenses and man-made fortifications. Egypt will become frightened when Tyre is conquered, as it will realize that there will be nothing to prevent the northern enemy from continuing its advance toward their land.
Move to Tarshish. Wail, inhabitants of the island, over its destruction.
Is this for you, jovial one, whose antiquity is from ancient days? Tyre, who had been full of life for as long as anyone could remember, whose legs, those of all her inhabitants, will lead her afar to reside? The exiled residents will be forced to wander far from Tyre, as refugees.
Who devised this against Tyre, the city glorified with wealth and honor, whose merchants are princes, her peddlers, the eminent of the land? Due to Tyre’s wealth and its preference to remain neutral in military conflicts, no one thought it would ever fall.
The Lord of hosts devised it, to profane the pride of all the magnificent and humiliate them, to demean all the eminent of the land.
You can pass through your land like the river, daughter of Tarshish, because there is no wharf, or barrier to protect the port city anymore. It is defenseless and entirely exposed.
He, God, stretched out His hand over the sea; He provoked the kingdoms to come against it; the Lord commanded concerning Canaan, to destroy its strongholds. Canaan can also mean merchant. Here Tyre is called Canaan not only because it was a commercial city, but also because its inhabitants were from Canaanite extraction.
He said: You will not continue to rejoice anymore; oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon, a symbolic name for the city. Similar expressions are used in reference to other areas, such as “Virgin daughter of Zion,” referring to Jerusalem, “Daughter of Babylon,” “Daughter of the Chaldeans” (47:1), and “Daughter of Egypt.” Arise, Sidon, and let your inhabitants wander and cross the sea to Kitim and other distant coasts. There too, there will be no rest for you, as the enemy will continue to pursue you there.
Behold, the land of the Chaldeans, the Babylonians who will destroy Tyre, this people that was not a significant nation until this time, as Babylon had been dominated by Assyria until recently and would only now begin to become a world power. Assyria, it, Babylon, rendered wastelands. They, the Babylonians, have established towers against it, Tyre, and undermined its palaces, and ultimately they rendered it a ruin.
The prophet returns to his opening statement: Wail, ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is sacked. The great port city in which you placed your trust has been plundered and is lost.
It shall be on that day that Tyre will be forgotten and forsaken for a period of seventy years, like the days of one king. The kingdom of Babylonia, in all its glory, would last for only seventy years, after which time Tyre would begin to recover. Nevertheless, at the end of seventy years, it will be for Tyre like the song of the harlot. Tyre will have to go around begging for sustenance, like a harlot who goes around singing in order to attract solicitors of her service. The prophet mocks the miserable, forgotten Tyre.
Take a harp, circle the city, forgotten harlot; play well, sing much, so that you will be remembered.
It shall be that at the end of seventy years the Lord will remember Tyre and she will return for her harlot’s fee [le’etnana], a derisive reference to Tyre’s profits from commerce. The prophet uses this reference as a play on words instead of the expected term: “will return to its strength [le’eitana].” She will whore with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth once again. After it will have been forgotten, Tyre will again be established as a commercial city.
Ultimately, though, there will come a time when all of her merchandise and her fee will be sacred to the Lord. It will not be stored and will not be accumulated in treasuries or warehouses, for her merchandise will be for those who dwell before the Lord. The righteous and the upright, and those who study His Torah will be the ones to benefit from Tyre’s wealth. It will provide them with food to eat to satiation and for acquiring fine garments for them to wear. The Sages homiletically interpret this phrase as referring to those who preserve the secrets of Torah, as if covering them with garments, or to those who reveal its hidden messages that had previously been covered.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 24
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 24 somebodyBehold, the Lord empties the earth (see commentary on 19:3) and crushes it; He will skew its face, the face of the earth, and scatter its inhabitants, who will flee in fear.
All people will share the same fate, with no distinction between individuals of different social strata: As with the simple people, so it will be with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master; as with the maidservant, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor.
The land will empty, collapse, and be plundered, for the Lord has spoken this matter.
The land is desolate, withered; it is broken [umlala], or crushed, from lemolel, which means to crush an object with one’s fingers. Alternatively this means the inhabitants of the land are miserable. Withered is the world; and correspondingly, broken, or crushed, are the lofty people of the land.
The earth is corrupted because of its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statute, and breached an eternal covenant with God.
Therefore, a curse consumed the land, and its inhabitants bore their guilt. Alternately, they were astonished. Therefore, the inhabitants of the land are seared and shriveled, and few people remain there.
The new wine is desolate and the vine is broken; therefore all the joyous of heart, the wine drinkers, sigh. Or: The wine and vines are low in quality as a result of the prevailing sadness. If people are too upset to drink they neglect cultivating vines, leaving them desolate.
The gladness of drums has ceased, the din of the jovial has ended, the gladness of the harp has ceased.
They will not drink wine with song. Even when they drink, it will not be in a state of happiness, but in order to drown their sorrows. Intoxicating drink will be bitter for its drinkers.
Broken is the city of emptiness; every house is closed to entry.
There is a cry heard for the lack of wine in the streets; all joy is negated, the gladness of the land has been expelled.
Desolation remains in the city, and the gate is stricken with devastation. The language of the prophet treats desolation and destruction like anthropomorphic agents, forces of evil that roam the earth, destroying everything they encounter.
For so it, Israel, will be left in the midst of the land, among the peoples, like the few olives remaining after the beating of an olive tree to harvest its fruit, like leftover grapes when the harvest has ended.
Despite the desolation of the earth, they, the survivors, will raise their voice, they will sing; at the revelation of the Lord’s majesty, they will revel from the islands of the sea, or alternatively, from the lands of the west. Another explanation is that the song of the survivors will be even greater than that of the children of Israel after they passed through the Red Sea.
Therefore, honor the Lord with the lighting of large, ceremonial fires; on the distant islands of the sea honor the name of the Lord, God of Israel, who performed all these actions. However, the mainland will be desolate.
The prophet reiterates his previous statement in brief form: From the edge of the earth we heard songs: Give magnificence to the righteous of the world, God; alternatively, the righteous survivors. But I say: My secret [razi] is for me, my secret is for me. The details of how these events will transpire are a secret. Some say razi means: My gauntness, and the prophet is crying that he is wasting away. Woe is me; the betrayers betrayed, and they betrayed the betrayal of the betrayers. Everyone will betray each other, and even the betrayers will betray one another, leading to widespread distrust and a cycle of societal breakdown and corruption.
Terror, a pit, and a trap are upon you, inhabitant of the land. The world will become full of obstacles and pitfalls.
It shall be that the one who flees from the sound of the cries of those experiencing terror will fall into the pit, and the one who comes up from the pit will be ensnared in the trap, for windows on high, through which troubles flow into the world, have opened, and the foundations of the earth quake.
The land is undermined and shaken, the land has crumbled, the land has collapsed. Nothing will remain stable, as even the terra firma will give way under people’s feet.
The land will totter like a drunk and sway like a watchman’s hut in the wind; its transgression will weigh it down, and it will fall and will not rise again.
The judgment will visit all of creation within heaven and earth: It will be on that day that the Lord will reckon with the host of the heavens in the heavens and with the kings of the earth on the earth.
They, the kings of the earth, will be gathered in a gathering like a prisoner in a dungeon, and they will be imprisoned in prison, and after many days they will have their reckoning. This will not be an isolated event, but a continuous state of instability.
Even the heavenly lights will dim: The moon will be disgraced and the sun will be ashamed, for all other kingdoms will disappear, but the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, the only remaining refuge, and there, glory shall be placed before His elders.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 25
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 25 somebodyIn response to the divine reckoning with the whole world and God’s revealing His glory in Zion, the prophet offers a song of thanks: You are my Lord God; I will exalt You; I will give thanks to Your name, for You performed wonders; distant counsels, prophecies that You declared long ago and in which I always believed, have been fulfilled.
For You made a city into a heap, a fortified city, a ruin, as described in the previous chapter. You made a palace of strangers out of a city You destroyed; it will never be rebuilt.
Therefore, since everyone saw how You destroyed entire cities and fortresses, a mighty people will honor You, after witnessing Your power in action; a city of powerful nations will fear You.
For in addition to destroying the stronghold of the wicked, You have also been a stronghold, a haven, for the poor, a stronghold for the destitute in his distress, refuge from the torrent, and shade from the heat, as the fury of the powerful is like a torrent upon a wall, threatening to knock it down. You protected the poor from this deluge of troubles.
Like heat in a wasteland, the desert which dries and withers all, so You will subdue the din of strangers; like heat dissipated in the shade of a cloud, so too He will respond with the pruning, overcoming, of the powerful. Alternatively, God will respond to the song of the powerful.
The prophet continues to describe the wonders of the redemption: The Lord of hosts will make for all the peoples on this mountain, Mount Zion (24:23), a feast of fats, a feast of lees, a feast with rich foods and old wine, fats with marrow, refined lees. Some have understood the juxtaposition of fats to lees as a description of the nations’ downfall: They imagine that they are coming to Zion to conquer it, to feast on fats, but God will ensure that they are defeated and only feast on lees. Others understand the reference to lees as indicative of high-quality wine which will be consumed with rich foods by all seekers of truth due to the outporing of blessing from God’s revelation in Zion.
He, God, will eliminate on this mountain the surface of the veil that veils all the peoples, and the mask that is woven over all nations. The covering and the mask represent God’s presence being hidden from His creatures by His allowing the existence of evil, suffering, and destruction in the world. The redemption is characterized by a global revolution, the elimination of all forms of evil.
He will eliminate death, which threatens all, forever, and the Lord God will wipe tears from all faces. And in addition to physical pain, the psychological aspects of suffering will be eliminated as well: He will remove the disgrace of His people from upon the entire earth, for the Lord has spoken.
He, Israel, will say on that day: Behold, this is our God, who has now revealed Himself to us; we have always hoped for Him and anticipated that He will save us. This is the Lord; we have hoped for Him for some time. Let us exult and rejoice in His salvation.
The prophet adds a comment with regard to Moav: For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain, Mount Zion, and Moav will be trampled under it, its neighbor Israel, as straw is trampled into mortar in the process of brickmaking. This will be the fate of the Moavites.
He, God, will spread His hands in its, Moav’s, midst, as the swimmer spreads out his hands their full length to swim, and He will lower its pride with His forearms, as a swimmer with his stroke pushes aside anything in range.
The prophet addresses Moav: He will reduce the supposedly dependable fortification of your towering walls, lowering it, reaching the ground, to dust. Israel’s future salvation will transform the entire world, and its minor enemies will be eradicated, but not through war. After God’s revelation on earth, nothing will remain of the honor of these enemies.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 26
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 26 somebodyThe prophet returns to the song of the future redemption. On that day of the redemption, this song will be sung in the land of Judah: Ours is a mighty city; He will place salvation in walls and rampart. Alternatively, the salvation that God will bring to the city will provide protection like the walls and rampart.
The prophet addresses the redeemed city of Jerusalem: Prayer and praise to God will be recited in your midst. Therefore, open your gates, and a righteous nation, the keeper of unwavering faith in God, will enter.
This nation possesses a will of reliance in You; You will guard peace, its peace, for it is trusting in You.
Trust in the Lord forever, for God the Lord is an everlasting rock.He is the source of all and the strength of all.
For on the one hand, He bowed the dwellers on high. He will lower the exalted, large, and glorious city, lower it to the ground, bring it to dust.
A foot will trample it, this lowered city: the feet of the poor, the feet of the impoverished. The poor, oppressed by the upper class which lived in the lofty quarters of the city, will step on its houses and ruins.
On the other hand, the proper path for the righteous is uprightness; You will level straight the course of the righteous.
Like the righteous, even we, in the path of Your judgments, Lord, we hoped for You to lead us along the path of Your justice. The desire of the people’s soul is for Your name and for Your appellation.
The prophet says about himself: With my soul (see, e.g., 44:20), I desired You at night, even at those times not dedicated to prayer, Torah, or toil. While my spirit is within me, as long as I live, I will seek You, for when Your judgments, Your reward and punishment, are revealed on the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn of the righteousness, justice, and truth with which You govern the world.
Conversely, will the wicked, who did not learn righteousness, who in the land of the upright will perform evil and will not see the majesty of the Lord, receive grace?
Lord, Your hand is raised to perform Your lofty actions, but they, the wicked, do not see it; they will see Israel’s success and as a result will be ashamed at the sight of the zealousness You display for the people. Even the fire of Your enemies, which they themselves kindled, will consume them.
Lord, You will establish peace for us, for indeed, You have performed all our actions for us. You are behind all our actions.
Lord our God, masters besides You have dominated us. We have not always lived under Your sole authority, as we submitted to other nations, politically and even spiritually. But ultimately, it is You alone whose name we invoke; only You are our haven.
The masters who once dominated us are already considered dead, and they will not live again; they are disembodied spirits [refa’im], or: They are terminally weak [rafim], and they will not rise again. Therefore, You reckoned and destroyed them, and You eradicated all memory of them.
You added to the nation of Israel, Lord, and the more You added to the nation, the more You are honored; You expanded the borders of Your people’s land, the land in which Your glory is revealed, to all the ends of the earth.
Lord, they, Your people, invoked You in times of trouble, pouring out their hearts in silent prayer when Your rebuke was upon them.
Like a pregnant woman approaching childbirth trembles and cries out in her pangs, so were we before You, Lord.
We conceived, we were in pain, but it was as though we gave birth to wind rather than a viable child. Salvations were not realized in the land, and if only salvations will transpire, the inhabitants of the world will not fall.
Your dead, the dead of Your nation Israel, will live; my corpses will rise. Awaken and sing, dwellers of the dust, for the dew of light, or the dew of the fields, is Your dew, which will cause the dead to arise at the end of days, and You will cause the spirits, those who lack physical or spiritual vitality, to fall to the earth. You will destroy the existing world of evil and build a new world.
In the meantime, until that great day arrives, go, my people, enter your chambers and close your door after you; hide for a brief moment, daughter of Zion, until fury will pass.
For behold, the Lord emerges from His place, reveals Himself, in order to reckon the iniquity of the inhabitants of the earth against them; the earth will reveal its blood, and it will no longer conceal its slain. The murdered and their blood will no longer be covered by the earth, and the murderers will be punished. In this period of chaos, God’s nation must hide.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 27
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 27 somebodyOn that day, the Great Day of Judgment, the Lord will reckon, judge and punish, with His harsh, great, and powerful sword against leviathan the bar-serpent and leviathan the twisted serpent. The leviathan serpent is described as a bar, as in the bar of a door or the bar joining the part of a wall together. This description refers to its strength, its shape, or its central role. And He will kill the great serpent that is in the sea.
The prophet returns to the song of praise that will be recited when God reveals Himself in the land at the time of the redemption: On that day, sing about it: A vineyard of wine. Vineyards and vines are common metaphors for Israel in the Bible.
I, the Lord, guard it; every moment I water it, lest it lack anything, or lest the enemy harm it; night and day, I guard it.
I have no fury at the vineyard, and therefore I will cultivate and protect it tirelessly, and I will not allow thorns and weeds, which represent Israel’s internal and external enemies, to ruin it. If anyone were to set against Me, My vine, which is identified with me, thorn and thistle in war, by attacking it, I would trample upon the enemy in it, on the battlefield, and ignite it altogether. After the forces of evil were likened to the primordial leviathan, here they are depicted through a far more prosaic metaphor: They are likened to thorns in a vineyard that are trampled and then burned.
The vine declares: Then He will reinforce my stronghold, and He will make peace for me, peace He will make for me.
In days to come, after the thorns have been eliminated, the vine of Jacob will take root; Israel will bud and blossom, and the face of the earth will be filled with produce from the good vineyard.
When God destroyed the thorns, the vine itself was damaged. However, did He strike it, the vine, like the strike of its strikers, the enemies? Was it, the vine, killed like the killing of its killers? The fate of the vine cannot be likened to that of the thorns.
In measure, in sending him, the enemy of Israel, away, You contend with him. He roared with his harsh wind on the day of the strong east wind, the Day of Judgment. God did not harm the vine of Israel in order to destroy it, but to repair it.
Therefore, with this the iniquity of Jacob will be atoned, and this is the consequence of removal of his sin: In his rendering all the altar stones of idol worship like shattered limestone, through this purification process, the sacred trees used in idolatrous rites and the idolatrous sunstones will not stand.
For the fortified evil city is to remain alone, without protection or security. Likewise, the habitation will be abandoned and forsaken like the wilderness; there, in deserted areas, the calf will graze on the weeds that will grow wild, and there it will lie undisturbed and consume its branches from the bushes that will grow unchecked.
When its, the deserted place’s, boughs wither, they will break; women will come and kindle it. This symbolizes the destruction of evil: Once its moisture, representing its hidden, redeemable element, has been extracted, that which remains will break and be destroyed. For it, Israel, is not a people of understanding, as they do not return to God of their own initiative. Therefore, its Maker will not be merciful to it, and its Fashioner will not show it grace. Israel will be smitten mercilessly until the world is fully cleansed.
The prophecy ends with another agricultural metaphor, the beating of olive trees to cause the fruit to fall: It will be on that day that the Lord will thrash His olives, a process that sometimes causes the smaller branches to break. God will do so in the entire area, from the torrent of the river in the East, presumably the river known as Shatt al-Arab, formed by the confluence of the Euphrates and the Tigris, which has a very strong current, until the stream of Egyptin the West. And then you will be gathered one by one, like the remaining individual olives, children of Israel.
It will be on that day that a great shofar will be sounded as a sign of victory, as well as a call to gather and return home; and the Israelites lost and assimilated among the nations in the land of Assyria, the land beyond the torrent of the river mentioned in the previous verse, and the outcasts of Israel in the land of Egypt, the land beyond the stream mentioned above, will come to their land. God will stir the world, and His people will awaken and return, and they will prostrate themselves to the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 28
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 28 somebodyWoe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, a disparaging reference to the leadership of the Kingdom of Israel, and to the wilting flower,the crown, of his magnificent splendor. Woe to the crown that is on a head that is a valley of oils [gei shemanim], stunned with wine. The head upon which the crown is placed is used only for being annointed in oil for pleasure and for getting drunk with wine. Alternatively, gei shemanim means a valley of drunkards, or the reference is to a fertile region called Shemanim Valley.
Behold, it, a day, is coming that is strong and mighty for the Lord, like a torrent of hail, a storm of destruction, as a torrent of mighty flowing waters; it places it, Ephraim’s crown of pride, on the earth by hand, in a violent manner. The terrifying storm and torrent will shake up, and perhaps even purify, the drunken, dazed nation.
The crown of pride on the heads of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trampled underfoot,
and the wilting flower of his magnificent splendor that is on a head that is a valley of oils will be noticeable like an early ripened fig before the summer fig harvest; when the observer sees it, while it is still in his hand he will swallow it, without waiting to bring it home. Similarly, Ephraim’s ornaments will be swallowed in a moment.
Instead of the disintegrating decorations with which the drunkards of Ephraim adorn themselves, on that day, the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory and a diadem of splendor for the remnant of His people, the Kingdom of Judah,
and God will not only glorify and honor the people with His presence, He will also be a spirit of judgment for one who sits in judgment and valor for those who return war to the gate.
However, the culture of drinking and decadence has spread to Judah as well. These too erred with wine and strayed with intoxicating drink. Priest and prophet erred with intoxicating drink, they were befuddled by wine; they were confused by intoxicating drink, they erred by not recognizing what was in their sight, they distorted justice. Jerusalem was in the hands of a gang of dazed drunkards.
For all tables are full of vomit, excrement, with no room for anything else. It is not a celebration, but a feast of drunkards who have lost control of their bodily functions.
Since the adults are ignorant hedonists, to whom will one teach knowledge? And who can understand a lesson? Who can be taught? Those so young they have just been weaned from milk, detached from breasts?
For when one tries to teach Torah and knowledge to the people, it is viewed by them as simply command by command, command by command; line by restrictive line, line by line; a bit here, a bit there. The Torah is perceived by the people as a collection of meaningless restrictions and minute details, irrelevant to sophisticated adults.
The prophet’s speech is foreign to them, and subject to their ridicule: For with garbled language and with a different tongue, one, the prophet, will speak to this people,
saying to them: This is the respite, the means of achieving tranquility: Give rest to the weary, allow the weak and destitute to live in dignity; and this is the relief. The Torah provides guidelines on how to create a fair and stable society. But they, the people, were unwilling to hear the message of this prophecy.
The word of the Lord will be, will remain, for them a meaningless collection, command by command, command by command, line by line, line by line, a bit here, a bit there, so that they will go and falter backward in their blindness and be broken, and they will be tripped and captured.
Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, men of mockery, rulers of this people that is in Jerusalem:
Because when people asked you why you are not concerned about your future, you said in jest, or expressed through your conduct: We established a covenant with death, and with the netherworld we made a pact, and therefore we are unafraid of dying. When the scourging whip will pass through to wreak havoc, it will not come to us, as we have found our shelter in deceit, and with falsehood we have concealed ourselves. This reliance on deceit and trickery is either the people’s actual strategy or the prophet’s interpretation of their behavior. Either way, they do not consider the consequences of their actions or the day of death. They live in denial, with drink and debauchery, ignoring any rebuke.
Therefore, so said the Lord God: At present the city is based on deceit and everything within is unstable and false, but it will be rebuilt as a steadfast center of truth. Behold, I am laying a foundation in Zion, a stone, a trial stone used for testing precious metals; the mark that the metal leaves on the stone indicates its type and quality. This is a metaphor for a place where people’s characters are assessed. Zion will be a precious cornerstone of a sturdy foundation, where the faithful will not hurry, as they rely on God.
I will place justice as the line and righteousness as the plummet. Justice and righteousness will be the standard for everything, and hail will sweep away the shelter of falsehood, and water will flood the concealed place where people thought they could hide.
The prophet addresses the people’s lack of concern for the future: Your covenant with death will be annulled, and your pact with the netherworld will not stand; when the scourging whip will pass, you will be crushed by it.
Each time it passes, it will take you, for each and every morning it will pass; alternatively: For it will pass through quickly. The calamity will come by day and by night, and your understanding the message will be sheer horror.
For the bedding, the security that you imagined is too short for stretching out as a shelter, and the cover with which you seek to protect yourselves is too narrow for taking shelter beneath it.
For as He did in David’s miraculous battle at Mount Peratzim, the Lord will rise to fight for you; as in the Valley of Givon, where God performed a miracle for Joshua, He will become angry; He will arise to perform His action, but for you, strange and incomprehensible is His action, and when He arises to perform His labor, foreign is His labor in your eyes.
And now, do not behave foolishly, lest your bonds, or your suffering, from which you cannot escape, be strengthened. You may be laughing now, but the calamity that you are determined to ignore or from which you seek to hide will indeed occur, for I have heard utter annihilation is decreed from the Lord, God of hosts, against the entire land.
The prophet introduces a parable: Listen and hear my voice; listen and hear my statement.
Will the plower plow to sow, will he open and harrow his ground all day? Does a farmer merely plow his field, to prepare it for sowing, without actually sowing it?
Isn’t it that once he has plowed the field and smoothed its surface, he plants the field accordingly: He scatters black cumin, casts cumin seeds, and places wheat, einkorn,and marked barley,and spelt as its border?
He, God, will instruct him, the farmer, in the procedure; his God teaches him the proper order of his work. Grain farming requires a specific sequence of actions: The ground must first be plowed, and only then sown. These also must be performed in accordance with precise instructions.
For black cumin is not threshed with a threshing board, because it is too delicate, nor is a cart wheel, sometimes used to thresh wheat or barley, turned on cumin, because that would destroy the cumin; for black cumin is beaten with a staff and cumin with a rod.
To have bread, grains must eventually be ground into flour, as one may not thresh it forever. Even if he pounds it with the wheel of his wagon and his fast horses, he will not grind it properly.
This too emerged from before the Lord of hosts: He is wonderful in counsel, great in His understanding. The prophet denounces the idea that the world is just a collection of coincidences, governed by random interests and deceptions. He illustrates his point with agricultural imagery. Just as no farmer who wants a productive field would disregard the practices of agriculture, so too, no one can avoid obeying the laws of God as transmitted by the prophet. Isaiah tells his audience that if they repudiate God’s order in the world or the laws of the Torah, their achievements will be lost.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 29
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 29 somebodyWoe, Ariel, Ariel, Jerusalem, the city where David encamped. Add year to passing year, and festivals will come around. Eventually, the time will come for God to afflict Jerusalem.
I will afflict Ariel; there will be mourning and lamentation, and as a result of its distress, it, Jerusalem, will truly be for Me like its name Ariel indicates, a place of strength and the Divine Presence.
The prophet describes the entire process of punishment and purification: I will encamp an army camp like a ring, alternatively, in a row, around you. I will besiege you with a fortification and I will set siege works against you.
You, once-glorious Jerusalem, will be lowered; you will speak from the ground, and from the dust will your statement be bowed. Your voice will be low, like the voice of a dead person brought by a medium from under the ground, and from the dust your speech will chirp.
After the humbling siege, the horde of your foes, those who would scatter you, or who are foreign to you, will be like fine dust, and the horde of the powerful will be like passing chaff in the wind. It, the disappearance of the enemies, will be sudden.
From before the Lord of hosts you will be visited favorably, with thunder, an earthquake, a great noise, a storm, a tempest, and the flame of a consuming fire. A great commotion will scatter all of Jerusalem’s enemies.
It will be like a dream, a frightening vision of the night: The horde of all the nations mustering to war against Ariel, and all who muster against it, who seek to conquer it, who stalk it, and who afflict it. All of these will disappear like a dream.
It will be that just as the hungry will dream and, behold, he eats, but he awakens and his soul is empty, and just as the thirsty dreams and, behold, he drinks, but he awakens and, behold, he is weary and his soul thirsts as before, so will be the horde of all the nations that muster against Mount Zion. They will suddenly seem like nothing more than a bad dream.
Hesitate and wonder; turn about and about in order to see. Alternatively, this means: Blind yourselves, and be blind. The events confused the people, as they were drunk, but not from wine; they staggered, but not from intoxicating drink.
For the Lord poured upon you a spirit of deep sleep, bleariness and lack of lucidity, and He closed your eyes; He covered the prophets and your leaders, the seers.
The appearance of all this became for you like the unknowable and inaccessible words of a sealed scroll that they would give to a literate person, saying: Please read this, and he says: I cannot, as it is sealed, and I am not permitted to break the seal. The people would be plagued by confusion and doubt.
The scroll is given to an illiterate, saying: Please read this, and he says: I am illiterate. Even if the scroll were unsealed I would be unable to read it. The events that will transpire will puzzle both those who can understand history and those who cannot.
The Lord said: Since this people approached Me in apparent prayer, and yet only with its mouth and with its lips it honored Me, but it distanced its heart from Me, their reverence of Me has become a commandment of men learned by rote. The people come to the Temple and recite prayers, but only as a superficial ritual, as a social norm, or as part of a duty imposed by the government, acting as though the commandments of God were merely given by men.
Therefore, behold, I will continue to bewilder this people, which will astonish them, bewilderment upon bewilderment; and the wisdom of its wise will be lost, and the understanding of its understanding ones will be concealed. Just as the people observe God’s commandments only superficially, God will grant them only superficial understanding of the events that will occur. Even the wise and prudent among them will not grasp their meaning.
The prophet rebukes those who employ artifice to do evil: Woe, those who hide from the Lord, as it were, in the depths in order to conceal a schemethey are hatching. Their actions are in the dark, and they say: Who sees us and who knows of us? Just as no person sees us or knows our actions, God does not see us either.
On the contrary, your assumption is the opposite of the truth. Will the potter be considered like clay? Do you think a potter is comparable to the material he uses to create the vessel? Do the laws that limit the material apply to its creator as well? Furthermore, will the product say of its maker: He did not make me, or the craft say of its craftsman: He did not understand? A person cannot hide anything from his Creator, nor deny His presence. This fundamental idea is expressed in several places in the Bible.
Is it not that in a very little while Lebanon, which was heavily forested, will be transformed into farmland, an easily accessible region of fields and vineyards, and the farmland will be a place regarded as a forest (see 32:15)? There will be great changes in the status and capacities of various creations, for better or for worse.
On that day, the day of the redemption, the deaf will hear the words of a scroll, and from blackness and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. Human restrictions will be removed, and people will develop new capabilities. This is meant either literally or as a metaphor for the revelation of the truth.
The destitute will increase joy in the Lord, in the end of days, and the indigent among men will be happy in the Holy One of Israel,
for the powerful aggressor is no more, and the evil scoffer, who seeks to cause harm with plots and ruses, will cease; all who actively and excitedly pursue evil will be eliminated:
Those who cause people to sin through speech, those who entrap one who rebukes at the city gate, where people would gather for commercial, political, or judicial reasons, and where the leaders and prophets would issue declarations, execute judgment, and reprimand people, and those who subvert the righteous with emptiness. All these people will be eliminated, and nothing will remain from those evil and deceitful individuals.
Therefore, so says the Lord to the house of Jacob that redeemed Abraham. Were it not for Jacob’s family, Abraham’s legacy would have been forgotten. Alternatively, God is referred to here as the one who redeemed Abraham, specifically from Ur of the Chaldeans and in the War of the Kings. Not now, at the time of the redemption, will Jacob be ashamed, and not now will his face pale in embarrassment,
for upon his seeing his children, My handiwork, in his midst, they will sanctify My name, rather than worshipping Me superficially as before; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and they will venerate the God of Israel.
Those of straying spirit who have not yet found a path to God will learn understanding, and the grumblers, who are never satisfied, will learn a lesson and no longer complain.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 30
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 30 somebodyWoe, wayward sons – the utterance of the Lord – who wish to act upon counsel, but not from Me, and who cast an image, but not My spirit, so that they may add sin upon sin. It is likely that the prophet is not referring to the making of actual idols but to the fashioning of plans and the establishment of patterns that are not in accordance with the will of God.
The prophet explains his intent in greater detail: Those people who go down to Egypt for political negotiations, but did not consult with Me; they do so in order to seek strength in the stronghold of Pharaoh, drawing a sense of security from him, and to take shelter in the shadow of Egypt. However, Egypt’s assurances will ultimately disappoint.
Therefore, the stronghold of Pharaoh will become your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt, your humiliation.
For its princes, those of the king of Judah, were at Tzo’an, the capital city of Egypt (see commentary on 19:11), and its messengers, those of Judah, will reach Hanes, a major city in ancient Egypt.
All the deeds of the Kingdom of Judah cause shame, or are rotten and foul-smelling, over their reliance on a people, on Egypt; it will not avail them, neither for aid nor for avail, but for shame and also for disgrace. The support of Egypt is too unsubstantial to be relied upon. Some explain: Accordingly, they shall be ashamed of having approached Egypt.
The prophet metaphorically describes the entreaty to Egypt as a dangerous journey to Egyptian cities: The expedition of beasts, animals who bear their burdens as they march, south. In a land of trouble and distress, whence come a roaring lion and lion cub, a viper and a flying serpent (see 14:29), they bear their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures they load on the humps of camels, on a people, the Egyptians, who are of no avail. They bring their riches to trade them with Egypt, or to bring them as a gift to the Egyptians, or to live among the Egyptians.
Egypt will help with futility and nothingness; therefore, I called this: Arrogance, ineffectuality is what they are. Do not depend upon them as they are useless.
God continues to reprove His rebellious children, instructing the prophet: Now come, write it, your prophecy, on a tablet with them, so that it will remain with them, and inscribe it in a scroll, and it will be for the final day forever and ever.
For it is a defiant people, deceitful children who disavow God, children who refused to hear the Torah of the Lord,
people who say to the seers: Do not see; and to the prophets they say: Do not prophesy to us truths of reproof. If you wish to speak and prophesy, then speak to us smooth talk, popular messages, not ideas that are unacceptable to the public; prophesy delusions. Your predictions with regard to the future should be only joyful and amusing.
The people further state: Move from the way, deviate from the path, remove from before us the Holy One of Israel. Do not speak in the name of God; let us run our own matters as we see fit. The phrase “Holy One of Israel” as a reference to God is characteristic of the book of Isaiah.
Therefore, so says the Holy One of Israel: Because of your despising this thing, My words, and you relied on exploitation and corruption and leaned upon them,
therefore, this iniquity will be for you like a fallen breach exposed in a lofty wall, whose break will come suddenly. This breach is constantly widening, until the eventual collapse of the wall. The resulting damage will correspond to the height of the wall.
He will break it like the break of the potter’s jug, an earthenware vessel used mainly for storing wine (see commentary on 22:24). Shattered, He will not spare it, and there will not be found among its fragments an earthenware shard to rake coals from the fire or to draw water from a cistern, a small hole. The pieces will be so small that they will not be useful for any purpose.
For so said the Lord God, Holy One of Israel: With repose and pleasantness you will be saved. Your salvation will come through restraint; with quiet and with confidence will be your might, but you were unwilling to accept that path.
You said: No, rather, we will flee on a horse. Therefore, you will flee. And you said: On the swift horses or camels we will ride. Therefore, it is not you who will be swift. Rather, your pursuers will be swift.
One thousand of your men will flee from the provocation of one of the enemies, from the provocation of five you will flee, until you will eventually remain as a lone pole on a mountaintop and as a banner on a hill.
As you are not interested in God’s salvation, therefore, the Lord will wait; He will not hurry to be gracious to you, and therefore, He will be aloof from having compassion upon you, for the Lord is God of justice; happy are all who wait for Him.
The prophet offers words of comfort for the inhabitants of Jerusalem: For a people will live in Zion, in Jerusalem; you will weep no more there. He, God, will show grace to you at the sound of your crying out; upon His hearing your cry, He will answer you. However, His salvation will not arrive immediately and in full; it will initially appear in a gradual, limited manner.
The Lord will give you sparse bread and scant water, but your Teacher will no longer be concealed, and your eyes will see your Teacher, as He will reveal Himself before all. Some explain that “teacher” here is not a reference to God but to the Messiah (see 11:4), to the prophet himself, or to King Hizkiyahu. Alternatively, morekha, translated here as “your teacher,” means “your early rains” [yoreh].
At that time, your ears will attentively hear a word from behind you, an instruction, saying: This is the way, walk in it, when, whether, you go right, and when, whether, you go left. Not everything will be revealed at once. At first, you will not see anything, and this command will come from behind you. Nevertheless, you will receive an explicit instruction with regard to the proper path.
You will defile, reject, the plating of your silver idols and the adornment of your cast golden images, the idols and their appurtenances; you shall cast them out, or scatter them, like a menstruant, or like sickness and pain. You will cast the idols from you as one throws away dirt and repulsive objects. You will say to it, each image: Get out.
He will then give rain for your seeds, with which you will sow the ground, and bread of the produce of the ground, and it, the bread, will be rich and fat. This is an allusion to the promise in Deuteronomy (11:14): “I will provide the rain of your land at its appointed time, the early rain and the late rain, and you will gather your grain, and your wine, and your oil.” Your livestock will graze on that day on a broad plain.
The oxen and the young donkeys that work the land will eat enriched fodder, a mixture that includes cereals and legumes, that was winnowed of chaff with the shovel and the winnowing fork, both winnowing implements.
There will be freshets and streams of water on every lofty mountain and on every high hill, so it shall be on a day of great slaughter, with the fall of the towers. The towers, the supposed security of Israel, will collapse. The walls will be smashed and many people will be killed. Nevertheless, springs and water streams will flow everywhere. From the destruction of the old, a new, redeemed world will sprout.
At that time, the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, seven times its current strength, like the light of the seven days, the great light that shone in the first days of Creation, before the sun and moon were created. This light, which is greater than the light of the sun, will shine on the day of the redemption, on the day of the Lord’s bandaging of the break of His people, and He will heal the wound of His blow.
The prophet continues with his twin depictions of the future revelation, involving both retribution and redemption: Behold, the name of the Lord comes to reveal Himself from afar, His wrath is burning, and its burden is weighty, due to people’s transgressions. His lips are full of fury, and His tongue is like a consuming fire;
at that stage, His breath is like a surging stream; it reaches to the neck, to shake the nations with an illusory sieve. There will be no need for a genuine instrument for sifting them. And an unreal rein will be on the jaws of peoples. Even a rein that is not in working order will be enough to prevent them from rebellion. Some commentaries explain that an illusory sieve is one that holds nothing back, that all the nations will pass through it and be destroyed, while an unreal rein leads the people on the path to their annihilation.
The song will be for you, Israel, like the night of the consecration of the festival, as the songs of Passover night, when all of Israel would gather around the paschal lamb with songs and praise. And there will be universal, heartfelt joy like one going with the flute at the head of a celebratory procession to come to the mountain of the Lord, to the rock of Israel.
Alongside the joy, God will reveal His anger as well: The Lord will sound the glory of His voice, and He will display the descent of His arm, with furious wrath and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, a torrent, and hailstones.
For from the voice of the Lord, Assyria will be broken; He will strike them with the rod.
It shall be that any passage of the staff to an established place that the Lord will set upon, He will make war on them with drums and harps and with wars of shaking. The revelation of God will be accompanied by song and musical instruments on the one hand, and storms and rage on the other. Alternatively, God’s revelation is metaphorically described in the verse as an inferno, such as the place in Jerusalem where humans would be burned to the sound of drums in the background. Accordingly, the verse is saying that when God places His staff upon Assyria, while the Assyrians are passed through the inferno, this will be accompanied by drums and harps.
For an inferno is arranged from yesterday; it, too, is prepared for the king. This inferno is prepared for all, even the king. He deepened and widened its conflagration, with much fire and wood; the breath and spirit of the Lord, like a stream of sulfur, is burning within it.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 31
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 31 somebodyThe prophet returns to his condemnations of the political courting of Egypt: Woe! Those who go down to Egypt for military and political help; they rely on horses. The horses of Egypt were reputed to be of excellent quality, and the Egyptian government maintained a kind of monopoly over the breeding and trade of horses. And woe to those who trust in the chariots of Egypt because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very mighty, and they did not turn to the Holy One of Israel, and they did not seek the Lord. Their political preoccupations have distracted them from turning to God and heeding His word.
In contrast to their cleverness and stratagems, the prophet proclaims: He, the Holy One of Israel, too, is wise; therefore, they will be unable to trick Him or oppose Him, and He may bring the evil that He threatened against them, and He has not retracted His words of warning, but He will rise up when He chooses against the house of evildoers and against the help, the helpers, of performers of iniquity.
In contrast, Egypt is man and not God and their horses flesh and not spirit. Their forces are only material; therefore, if the Lord will outstretch His hand to strike them, or turn His hand away from them, the helper will stumble, the helped will fall, and all of them will perish together. The Egyptians are not strong enough to hold themselves up and certainly not to serve as a support for others.
For so said the Lord to me: Just as the lion or young lion will roar over its prey, although a multitude of shepherds will be called against it, to make a loud noise from a safe distance in order to scare it away, it, the lion, will not be disheartened from their voice, and it will not respond and surrender to their commotion; so the Lord of hosts will descend to make war against the army of Assyria at Mount Zion, to protect it, and upon its hill, and no one shall protest.
The prophet uses another metaphor from the animal kingdom: Like birds flying over their nests to guard their young, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem, defending and delivering, passing over other places and rescuing. Alternatively, delivering and having mercy on Jerusalem.
Since it is only God who provides reliable protection, the prophet exhorts: Repent for that which you have profoundly strayed, for the evil acts that have become ingrained in you, children of Israel.
For indeed on that day when God will reveal Himself in His might, each will spurn the gods of his silver and the gods of his gold that your hands made for you. The making of such idols is a sin.
As for your fear of Assyria, your efforts to receive Egypt’s help shall change nothing, as Assyria will ultimately fall by the sword that is not of man, and a sword, which is not of a person, will devour him; he, Assyria, will flee from the chasing sword, and his young men will be captured and become indentured.
Its rock, the strength of Assyria, will pass and vanish in terror, and its princes will be disheartened and frightened by the banner of war – the utterance of the Lord – for whom there is a fire burning in Zion and a furnace for Him in the place of the Temple in Jerusalem. He holds in His hand the essence of fire and flame, with which He will protect His city and His house.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 32
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 32 somebodyThe prophet describes the fitting behavior for leadership and the good that will result from such behavior. He also describes the inevitable political and social downfall if the leaders’ flaws are not amended: Behold, for a king will reign with righteousness, and of princes it will be said: They will govern with justice.
He, the king who reigns in righteousness, will be a man who is like a hiding place from the wind and a shelter from the torrent. All people will feel safe and secure in his fair leadership. The prophet conveys the same idea with different metaphors: He will be like streams in an arid place, like the shadow of a heavy rock in a parched land. The worthy king and princes are compared to reliable, vital sources of protection.
When protection and relief are provided, people will be able to perceive the truth with their senses: The eyes of those who see will not be diverted from perceiving matters properly, and the ears of those who hear will listen to the word of God.
Even the heart of the impulsive, the impatient and restless, who are unable to study, will discern in order to know the truth, and the tongue of the inarticulate will be swift to speak clearly.
The knave [naval] will no longer be called generous. Naval often refers to a person who is ungenerous. Naval the Carmelite is described “as is his name is, so is he,” as he begrudged paying his debts. And of the miser it will not be said that he is magnanimous,
for ultimately the knave will speak words of knavery, and his heart will do evil to engage in flattery and to speak aberrantly, about the Lord, to empty the souls of the hungry and to take away the drinks of the thirsty. The knave appropriates the property of the poor without considerations of integrity and morality.
The miser, his instruments and activities are evil; he devises plots to harm the poor with false statements, and to afflict the indigent, when the indigent speaks justly and airs his rightful claims.
But in contrast, the truly generous counsels generosity and acts of kindness; and on generosity he will also stand, as he lives in accordance with his ideals. He is not satisfied merely with his reputation as a charitable individual.
From his description of the ideal state of affairs, the prophet turns to the present, unstable reality, which calls for lamentation and eulogy: Stand, complacent women, without any worries, and hear my voice; trusting daughters, listen to what I say. The world is calm at present, but there will come a time when your security will be undermined.
Days upon years, one year after another, trusting women will tremble and shake; as the grape harvest has perished, the harvest of fruit and produce will not come to your homes.
Tremble, complacent women; shudder, trusting women, as hard times are coming; disrobe and bare yourselves, and place a belt upon your waist as a sign of mourning, or because you are going into exile with nothing.
They, those women, should beat on breasts, as was the custom at a time of lamentation, over the destruction of pleasant fields, over a fruitful vine which is no longer,
over the land of my people where thorn bushes (see 27:4) will rise, also over all the houses of amusement, the former celebrations of the jovial city.
For a palace is forsaken, the city’s multitude has deserted, citadel, or stronghold, and watchtower (see 23:13) have become caves forever, a playground of wild asses, a pasture of flocks. Wild beasts shall wander in the ruins of the abandoned buildings.
Ultimately, things will get better: Until a spirit will be poured upon us from on high, to fix all that is damaged, and then the wilderness will become fertile land, a place for pasture and plantings, and fertile land will be counted as forest, as many thick trees will sprout there. Those abandoned, desolate places will once again be filled.
Then justice will dwell even in the wilderness, and righteousness will abide in farmland. Justice and righteousness will be found everywhere.
The act of righteousness will be performed in a state of peace and serenity, and the effect of righteousness will be quiet and security, without great effort or toil, forever. All those who require help will have the assurance that they will receive it.
My people will abide in a peaceful abode, in secure dwellings and in tranquil resting places.
When hail will fall on the forest, and into the plain, the city will be lowered; the hail and rain will be so hard that they will wash away the earth, until the ground is lowered.
Even then, happy are you who sit securely and lead your lives in peace, as you will continue to sow upon all types of water, despite all the dangers. You are those who send forth the foot of the ox and the donkey to plow and work the land.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 33
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 33 somebodyThe prophet turns to the enemy: Woe, pillager, but you were not pillaged. You appear as a powerful force that can harm others and is invulnerable to any attack. And he is a traitor to others, but they did not betray him. You corrupt people should not suppose that you will not remain immune from harm forever. When you have finished pillaging, you will be pillaged; and when you have concluded betraying, they will betray you.
After mentioning the enemy, the prophet recites a short prayer for salvation: Lord, be gracious to us, we have longed for You; be their arm, Israel’s strength, every morning, even our salvation in a time of trouble.
From the sound of the tumult that You sounded in the past, peoples have wandered, have been forced to migrate; from Your exaltedness, nations are dispersed, and sent into exile.
The prophet returns to his descriptions of the downfall of the enemy: Your spoils that you captured from others will be gathered to be destroyed like the gathering of the locust that devastates crops; it crashes like the cascading [mashak] of pools [gevim]. The sound of water flowing until emptying out into pools is like the noise of the enemy’s property being gathered into one spot. Alternatively, mashak gevim means the sound of locusts.
The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high; He filled Zion with justice and righteousness.
Before describing the destruction, the prophet reminds those who dwell in Zion: The faithfulness of your times, your faith at all times, will be the strength of salvation, a permanent source of strength through which you will be saved; as shall be your wisdom and knowledge; fear of the Lord, that is His storehouse, or a storehouse of strength. In other words, like a storehouse preserves produce, the fear of God preserves your strength, salvation, and knowledge.
The prophet depicts the destruction and the accompanying terror: Behold, their, Israel’s, angels cry out outside, in the streets, over the troubles of Israel; the messengers of peace weep bitterly.
The highways are desolate, as wayfarers have ceased; he, the enemy, has breached the covenant that he made with Israel, he has spurned the cities, he did not regard man of any importance. The enemy has crushed everything.
Mourning, miserable is the abandoned land; Lebanon is ashamed; it, the formerly fertile land, withers, as it has lost its vibrancy and beauty; Sharon is desolate like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel have been emptied.
Then the change will take place: Now, I will arise, the Lord will say; now, I will rise up; now, I will be exalted.
As for you, the Assyrian enemy, the consequences of your plans and deeds will be vanity and emptiness. Conceive stubble, dry grass, give birth to straw; and your spirit, your thought, is itself a fire that will consume you.
The prophet further develops the fire metaphor: Peoples will be like burnings of lime. Lime is burned in a furnace, in a large fire for a long time, producing a great deal of smoke. The peoples shall also be like cut thorns ignited with fire.
Hear, distant ones, what I have done, and know, near ones, My might.
The prophet again describes the unstable situation of the transgressors of Jerusalem, while comparing their worries to the security they would enjoy if they had led worthy lives. Sinners are afraid in Zion, trembling has seized the evil [h·]. While the root ĥet-nun-peh connotes flattery in modern Hebrew, in biblical Hebrew it refers more generally to corruption, impurity, and disgrace. Since they have no true protection, these ungodly individuals fear the enemy: Who of us will reside with consuming fire? Who of us will reside with eternal conflagrations?
One who walks righteously, speaks fairly, spurns the profit of exploitations, shakes off his hands from being supported by bribery so that no trace of bribery cleaves to him, stops his ears from conspiring that will lead to bloodshed, and shuts his eyes from conceiving anything evil, this man of integrity is secure and blessed.
He will dwell on high, rocky citadels are his stronghold, fortified and protected from any possible external danger. Yet, the land shall be blessed: His bread will be given to him without delay, and his water will be assured, available and ready for him at all times.
Isaiah again depicts the cycle of terror and salvation. In the first stage, your eyes, the eyes of the residents of Jerusalem, will behold a king, of Assyria, in his beauty; they will see him from a distant land. The king is seen in his glorious majesty, and when the enemy comes near you will feel unprotected. Some commentaries explain that the reference here to a king seen in his beauty is to Hizkiyahu; after having beheld the king of Assyria in a distant land, Israel will then see its own, triumphant king Hizkiyahu in his beauty.
Your heart will consider frightening thoughts in the terror faced by the besieged city: Where is the one who counts, the one who is supposed to examine the military men and their weapons? Where is the one who weighs the money? Where is the one who counts the towers?
Ultimately, you will have no need for all those thoughts, as you will not see a daring people near you; a people whose speech is too obscure to understand, those who speak a foreign language, who are of an inarticulate tongue, or a tongue that arouses mockery and scorn, without understanding. The threat will dissipate without your having to deal with it directly. This verse is alluding to the miraculous downfall of the Assyrian army before it was able to attack Jerusalem.
Rather, look upon Zion, city of our assemblies on festivals; your eyes, which previously looked upon a foreign king, will see Jerusalem as a tranquil abode, a tent that will not be moved from place to place, or uprooted. Alternatively, this is a reference to a tent that shall not be taken down. Its stakes will not be uprooted forever, and all its ropes will not be severed. Although it is tied by stakes and cords, this tent will not move like others, but will remain prominently affixed to its spot.
Rather, there, in Jerusalem, the Lord will be mighty for us. Zion, God’s dwelling place, will be inaccessible to strangers, as though it is a place of broad rivers and streams, surrounded by water; no cruising ship will go by it, and a mighty craft will not cross over it. It will be fully protected from all hostile forces.
For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King; He will save us, as He is the source of our security.
The prophet offers a different metaphor for Jerusalem, this time as a ship in a secure port: Your ropes are abandoned, as they are not needed; they will not support the base of their mast, they cannot spread a sail. Isaiah concludes by returning to the matter with which he began his prophecy: Then, in those days, plunder and abundant spoils of the enemy, probably Sennacherib, were divided. There will be so much plunder that even the lame, who do not fight in war, will have looted loot.
A dweller of this place will not say now: I am sick, as the people who live in it, Zion, are forgiven iniquity. All their sins will be pardoned, and therefore they will have no more concerns about weaknesses and illnesses.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 34
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 34 somebodyApproach, nations, to hear, and peoples, listen; let the earth and that which fills it hear, the world and all its offspring, all the creatures of the world.
For the Lord has rage against all the nations and fury against all their host; He destroyed them, delivered them to the slaughter.
Their slain will be cast away, the stench of their corpses will rise, as they will be strewn unburied across the ground, and the mountains will melt from all their blood.
Signs will appear in the skies: All the host of the heavens will putrefy, the heavens will be rolled like a scroll which is being put away as it is crumbling, and all their host will wither like the withering of a leaf from a vine, which shrivels, and like a withered fruit from a fig tree. These signs are indications of God’s activity on earth, or a metaphor for the experiences of those dwelling on earth.
For when My sword is slaked in heaven, behold, it will now descend upon the land of Edom and upon the people of My destruction, the people whom I killed in My anger, for the rendering of judgment.
A sword for the Lord is filled with blood, gorged with fat, with the blood of fat lambs and older, male goats, with the fat of kidneys of rams. These animals symbolize the leaders of Edom. For there is a sacrifice to the Lord in Botzra, an important Edomite city, and there is a great slaughter for Him in the land of Edom.
Wild oxen, large, horned beasts, possibly buffalos, which are as large as oxen but wilder, will go down with them for the slaughter, and bulls with mighty steers. These types of cattle represent the princes or kings who will fall together with the minor leaders, the flock. And their land will be slaked with blood, and their dust will be gorged with fat. All the blood and the fat from the killing will fertilize the soil.
For it is a day of vengeance for the Lord, and a year of retribution against Edom for the dispute of Zion.
Its, the land of Edom’s, streams will turn into pitch, its dust into sulfur, and its land will become burning pitch.
Night and day, it, this fire, will not be extinguished; its smoke will rise forever; from generation to generation it, the land of Edom, will be desolate; for ever and ever, no one passes through it.
The eagle owl and the fish owl, wild birds that live only in uninhabited areas, will possess it, and the owl and the raven will dwell in it. When the land is rendered desolate after the deaths of its inhabitants, only these birds will be found there. And He shall stretch over it a measuring line of emptiness and stones of disorder. The land of Edom will be destroyed and emptied.
It may have nobles, but there is no kingdom in whose name they, the people, will be summoned, and all its princes will be nothing. The leadership of Edom will disappear. Even if they survive physically, they will lose their authority.
Its palaces will sprout thorns, nettles and thistleswill be in its fortresses, and it will be an abode of jackals, an enclosure for ostriches [benot ya’ana]. Alternatively, benot ya’ana might mean a species of nocturnal bird (see commentary on 13:21).
Desert beasts will meet wildcats [iyyim], possibly the original, onomatopoeic name for wildcats, due to the sound they make, which differs from that of domesticated cats; and one scops owl, a nocturnal bird (see 13:21), will call to another; indeed, there, the tawny owl will repose and will find rest for itself.
There, the fish owl [kippoz] will nest. This kippoz appears to be the same creature as the kippod, fish owl, mentioned in verse 11. And it will lay eggs; alternatively, it will escape. And it will hatch and brood in its shadow, in the shadow of the ruins; there, the kites, the name of a bird, will be gathered, each with another, during their migration.
Search in the book of the Lord, reflect on the Torah and learn it, and when you read it, you will realize that not one of them, these curses or prophecies written here, is missing, not one of them is lacking its mate. All of these prophecies shall come to pass, in the last detail, as it is My mouth that commanded, and it is His breath that gathered them, all these beasts.
He cast lots for them, to divide this area between those animals, and His hand divided it, the land, to them with a line, a measuring implement; forever they, the beasts, will possess it, from generation to generation they will dwell in it.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 35
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 35 somebodyIn contrast to desolate Edom, neighboring Judah will flourish: Wilderness and wasteland will be glad. The desert shall rejoice and blossom like the lily.
It, the desert, will blossom and rejoice, even with joy and song there; the glory of the Lebanon, a fertile, forested area, blessed with rainfall, will be given to it, along with the grandeur of the Carmel, a fertile agricultural area, and that of the Sharon, the coastal region. Arid areas of the land will become as green and lush as fertile areas. This description is an inverse parallel of the description of the destruction of Judah above (33:9): “Lebanon is ashamed; it withers; Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel have been emptied.” They, those who saw the desolation, will see in the flourishing of these places the glory of the Lord, the grandeur of our God.
Strengthen slackening hands, and failing knees make firm.
Say to the impetuous of heart, those who rush to conclusions and despair too easily when faced with an unfavorable reality: Be strong, do not fear; behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the retribution of God, He will come and save you. Do not be worried when you see the destruction of the surrounding nations, as God will rescue and protect you.
Then, when salvation comes, the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
Then, the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will sing. This prophecy should not necessarily be interpreted literally; rather, it is a way of saying that the redemption will bring great benefit for the land itself and for its inhabitants. For waters will break out in the wilderness and streams will break out in the desert.
The scorched land will become a pond, and the parched land will turn into springs of water; and in the formerly desolate and dry abode where jackals lie, grass, which grows in arid areas, will become reeds and bulrushes, plants that grow in areas with plenty of water.
There will be a path, in those lands that were desolate, and a way, and it will be called the way of holiness, as the impure will not cross it, since it will be for those who are traveling to the Temple; it, that highway, is for them, for those who are going to the Temple. Both wayfarers, who are not familiar with the place, and wanderers, who frequently lose their way, will not go astray, as the path will be straight and wide.
There will not be a lion there, in the formerly desert land, which will be fertile and green, pleasant and comfortable for walking, and predatory beasts will not go on it, on that path. They will not be found there. There will be no danger of any kind so that the redeemed may walk there in security.
There were Judeans who had been captured in wars and subsequently lived, willingly or not, in distant lands. The prophet therefore declares: The redeemed of the Lord will return from their land of exile, and they will come to Zion with song and everlasting joy on their heads; gladness and joy will overtake, and sorrow and sighing will flee. Alternatively, gladness and joy will overtake them and sorrow and sighing will flee. According to this reading, the emotional states of gladness and joy on the one hand and sorrow and sighing on the other hand are symbolically reified. The redemption is described as physical bounty. Formerly arid regions will become fertile and lush, the population of the land will grow, and the highways will become safer and more comfortable for passers-by. There is also spiritual flourishing: “The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the grandeur of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the Lord, the grandeur of our God.” The way of holiness will be paved in the land. Gladness and joy will be found everywhere, while sorrow and sighing will vanish.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 36
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 36 somebodyIt was in the fourteenth year of the reign of King Hizkiyahu, Sennacherib king of Assyria went up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and he seized them.
The king of Assyria sent an important minister, Rav Shakeh from Lakhish, which the king had put under siege, to Jerusalem to King Hizkiyahu with a great army. He, Rav Shakeh, stood at the conduit of the upper pool on the road of the launderer’s field, facing the city. Since in the prevailing state of war he was unable to enter the city, he established his position at a nearby point and commenced a negotiation of sorts.
As part of the welcome extended to the influential Assyrian minister, Elyakim son of Hilkiyahu, who was in charge of the household, which is a role analogous to a prime minister (see commentary on 22:15), came out to him with Shevna the scribe and Yo’ah son of Asaf the chancellor, another important office in the monarchy.
Rav Shakeh said to them: Say now to Hizkiyahu. Unlike the two previous mentions of Hizkiyahu’s name, where he is called the king, Rav Shakeh’s contempt for the king of Judah is striking. Throughout his oration, he refers to Hizkiyahu by name, without mentioning his royal title. In contrast, he refers to Sennacherib throughout as the king, or the great king, without mentioning his personal name. So said the great king, king of Assyria: What is this confidence on which you rely? How dare you oppose me?
I said to myself: It is but lip service, your comments about counsel and valor for the war. Even as you speak, it must be clear even to you that ultimately words will not suffice. Now, when matters are approaching their practical resolution, on whom did you rely that you rebelled against me? You cannot possibly believe that you can stand up to the powerful Assyrian Empire with your feeble strength.
Behold, you apparently relied on this staff of broken reed, on Egypt, which, if a man would lean on it, a broken reed, it will enter his palm and pierce it. Even a strong reed is too weak to offer real support. One who leans upon a broken reed is liable to suffer injury as well. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to everyone who relies on him. He is insufficiently powerful, and what is more, he is untrustworthy, and anyone who relies upon him will be hurt.
And if you say to me: We rely on the Lord our God, such an assertion is baseless, as is it not He whose shrines and whose altars Hizkiyahu removed? Hizkiyahu banned the offering of sacrifices in shrines throughout the realm, even those dedicated to the God of Israel. And he, Hizkiyahu, said to Judah and to Jerusalem: Before this altar alone you shall prostrate yourselves. Anyone wishing to offer a sacrifice may do so only in the Temple in Jerusalem. Since Hizkiyahu has restricted the divine service, how can he now claim to trust in God? Hizkiyahu is the ruler of a small country, and he has no chariots or horsemen.
And now, please, pledge to my master, king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you will be able to provide riders for you on them. Even if my king were to provide you with horses, you would not have enough men who know how to ride on them.
How can you reject the face of the governor, who is one of the minor servants of my master? Rav Shakeh is referring to himself here. Although he is a prominent minister in the kingdom, in relation to his king he equates himself to the lowliest of his servants. But you rely on Egypt for their chariots and for their horsemen, as you yourself have no such forces.
Rav Shakeh formulates another argument: Now, did I go up against this land to destroy it without the Lord? Do you think that I am fighting against God’s wishes? Not so. Rather, the Lord Himself said to me: Go up against this land and destroy it.
Elyakim, Shevna, and Yo’ah said to Rav Shakeh: Please speak to your servants in the language of Aram, which was not the predominant language in Assyria, but which served as the international language of diplomacy, for we understand it. Since Rav Shakeh had apparently come to engage in political negotiations, they asked him to speak in the accepted language. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah, which was spoken by the common Jews, in the ears of the people who are sitting on the city wall. They did not want the ordinary soldiers to understand the conversation, as it might have a negative effect on their morale.
But Rav Shakeh said: What do you think? Was it to your master and to you that my master, the Assyrian king, sent me to speak these matters? My statements are not directed to you or to your king, as you dwell in the royal palace in relative security, but rather to those suffering from the siege. Rather, is it not addressed to the men who are sitting on the wall, to eat their dung and to drink their urine with you? Rav Shakeh describes the fate of the people in the crude language of fighting men, arguing that he seeks to persuade those who will have nothing to eat or drink during the siege but the waste products of their own bodies. In this propaganda speech, Rav Shakeh attempts to inflict as much damage as he can upon Judah’s morale.
Rav Shakeh indeed stood and cried in a loud voice in the language of Judah, so that he would be understood by all those present, and he said: Hear the words of the great king, king of Assyria.
So said the king: Do not let Hizkiyahu entice you, as he will be unable to deliver you.
And do not let Hizkiyahu have you trust in the Lord, saying: The Lord will deliver us, and therefore this city will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
Rav Shakeh continued: Do not listen to Hizkiyahu. I am offering you a far better and more realistic alternative, for so said the king of Assyria: Reconcile with me; and come out to me in my camp; and then you will be able to continue living your lives in tranquility for a while. Each eat the fruit of his vine and each the fruit of his fig tree and each drink the water of his cistern,
until my arrival. I will take you to a land like your land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
Beware lest Hizkiyahu incite you, saying: The Lord will deliver us. Know that this argument is nonsense. Have any of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Is there such a god who is capable of saving his people from the Assyrian king?
Where are the gods of Hamat and Arpad, in northern Syria? Where are the gods of Sefarvayim, some of whose inhabitants were later exiled to the Land of Israel itself? Did they deliver Samaria from my hand? The residents of Samaria also worshipped their own gods. If they had the power, they would have saved Samaria.
Who is it among all the gods of these lands that delivered their land from my hand, that the Lord will deliver Jerusalem from my hand? Why do you rely on your king, with his promises that your God will be able to do what no other god has managed to achieve?
They, the people who had gone out to Rav Shakeh, were silent, maintaining a dignified silence, and did not answer him anything, despite the fact that they could have responded to him, as it was the king’s commandment, saying: Do not answer him. Hizkiyahu had forbidden them to enter into a dialogue with Rav Shakeh, in order to maintain the royal protocol, and also to prevent Rav Shakeh from presenting them with further practical proposals.
Elyakim son of Hilkiyahu, who was in charge of the household, and Shevna the scribe, and Yo’ah son of Asaf the chancellor came to Hizkiyahu with rent garments, bewildered and ashamed. In addition to all his threats, Rav Shakeh had not only insulted the king but had assaulted the dignity of God. He had referred to the God of Israel as yet another one of the gods of the surrounding nations. Upon hearing this blasphemy and profanation of God’s name, his listeners rent their clothes. And they told him the words of Rav Shakeh.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 37
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 37 somebodyWhen King Hizkiyahu heard Rav Shakeh’s statements, he rent his garments, covered himself with sackcloth, and came to the House of the Lord to pray.
He sent Elyakim, who was in charge of the household, Shevna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered in sackcloth as a sign of mourning and distress, to Isaiah son of Amotz the prophet.
They said to him: So said Hizkiyahu: This day is a day of trouble, dispute and punishment, and execration. The city is in great distress, for the children have come to the birthstool, but there is no strength to give birth. Our situation is analogous to that of a woman in labor, who, at the very moment when the fetus is about to emerge, is overcome by exhaustion and cannot push it out. Something must be done now, but we lack the strength to take action.
Perhaps the Lord your God will hear the words of Rav Shakeh, whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to revile the living God. Rav Shakeh did not read out a statement of his king, as Sennacherib did not dictate his message, but rather provided him with general guidelines. In his speech Rav Shakeh sought to undermine his audience’s morale with his account of the conquests of Sennacherib, one country after the next, with none able to resist. He suggested to the people that they should surrender and agree to be exiled from their land. Above all, Rav Shakeh had insulted the dignity of God, contesting with the words that the Lord your God has heard; will you offer a prayer on behalf of the remnant of the nation that survives in the city?
The servants of King Hizkiyahu came to Isaiah.
Isaiah said to them: So you shall say to your master: So said the Lord: Do not fear due to the matters that you heard, that the lads of the king of Assyria blasphemed Me, your God. The prophet disparagingly describes Rav Shakeh, a distinguished Assyrian official, as one of a mob of unruly youths.
Behold, I will place a spirit, a desire or a sense of panic, in him, the Assyrian king, and he will hear a rumor and will return to his land, and afterward I will cause him to fall by the sword in his land.
Rav Shakeh returned to his base, and he found the king of Assyria making war on Livna; for he had heard that he traveled from Lakhish. Earlier Sennacherib had laid siege against Lakhish. Now Rav Shakeh found him fighting against the important city of Livna, located in the same general area.
He, the Assyrian king, heard about Tirhaka king of Kush, a member of the Nubian dynasty that ruled at that time in Egypt, saying: He has come out to war with you. Assyria’s primary objective was to maintain control over Philistia after the revolts that had taken place there. The Nubian-Egyptian army arrived to assist Philistia against Assyria. When the Assyrian king heard that his Egyptian counterpart had set out against him, he did not want to commit his forces to the conquest of another city in a small kingdom. Instead, he abandoned his camps around Jerusalem. He heard this, and he sent messengers to deliver an additional statement to Hizkiyahu, saying:
So shall you say to Hizkiyahu king of Judah, saying: Do not let your God in whom you trust entice you, saying: Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. This is only a temporary respite.
Behold, have you heard what the kings of Assyria did to all the lands, destroying them, and you think that you alone will be delivered?
Did the gods of those nations that my fathers destroyed deliver them: Gozan, Haran, Retzef, and the children of Eden who are in Telasar?Assyria was then at its zenith. Sennacherib and the great kings who preceded him had steadily conquered more and more countries.
Where is the king of Hamat, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sefarvayim? Where are the kings of Hena and Iva? Alternatively, Hena and Ivaare not names, but rather this is an expression that means that the king of Assyria drove them off and destroyed them. Rav Shakeh is saying that the kingdom of Assyria crushes all of its enemies, and you too have no chance against them.
Hizkiyahu took the scroll from the hand of the messengers and read it. The word for letter is actually plural in the Hebrew, but the phrase “read it” is in the singular. Some suggest that the common practice was to send several copies of missives in order to insure that at least one would arrive in proper shape. Accordingly, several letters were sent, but only one was read by Hizkiyahu. However, this kind of shift from plural to singular is not unusual for the Bible. He, Hizkiyahu, went up to the House of the Lord and unfurled it, the scroll, before the Lord, with the writing facing upward.
Hizkiyahu prayed to the Lord, saying:
Lord of hosts, God of Israel, who is seated amidst the cherubs in this Temple, which Sennacherib has come to destroy, You alone are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. Since everything is in Your power, I can submit a special request before You.
Incline Your ear, Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, Lord, and see and hear all the words of Sennacherib that he sent to revile the living God.
Indeed, Lord, the kings of Assyria destroyed the nations of all the lands, and their surrounding land,
and put their gods to the fire. However, there is a reason they were able to do so, as they are not gods but the handiwork of man, wood and stone, and they destroyed them.
And now, Lord our God, save us from his, Sennacherib’s, hand, and all the kingdoms of the earth will know that You alone are the Lord.
Hizkiyahu was not a prophet, and was therefore unable to hear a response directly from God. The prophet Isaiah, for his part, did not have to hear Hizkiyahu’s prayer, as he received God’s answer to the prayer, which he conveyed to the king. Isaiah son of Amotz sent to Hizkiyahu, saying: So said the Lord, God of Israel: Because you prayed to Me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,
this is the matter that the Lord spoke with regard to him: The virgin daughter of Zion, a feminine representation of the nation or the kingdom (see 1:8), disdained you and mocked you; the daughter of Jerusalem shook her head at you in rebuke, mockery, or in a movement expressing pity. Jerusalem is not impressed by you or in awe of you.
Whom did you revile and blaspheme and against whom did you raise your voice? You lifted up your eyes on high, against God, the Holy One of Israel.
By the means of your servants you reviled my Lord and you said: With my abundance of chariots I ascended the highest mountains, and I have traveled to the ends of Lebanon, the highest mountain peaks in the region; and I have felled its tallest cedars, its choicest junipers as I have the power to do as I please; and I came to its highest edge, and to its fruitful forest, its finest section.
The prophet continues citing Sennacherib’s taunt: Likewise, I have dug and drunk water and I have dried with my feet all the rivers, the water sources, of the city that I have besieged. The repetition of the first person singular pronoun serves to emphasize Sennacherib’s megalomaniac self-perception.
The prophet cites God’s response: Have you not heard it from a distance? I made it, the world and all it contains, in ancient days, and I fashioned it; now I have brought it to the current point in history: It will be to lay waste fortified cities and transform them into sprouting mounds of overgrown vegetation, or ruinous heaps. The destruction of the fortified cities that you thought you wrought is actually the work of My hand.
Their inhabitants, the residents of these cities, are powerless, and consequently have been broken and ashamed; they have become vegetation of the field and green grass, the hay of roofs and a field before the grain begins to stand, before the stalks mature and produce grain. With reference to My decree, everyone is like weak grass that can be easily uprooted. You too, Sennacherib, are merely a pawn in My ancient plan.
I know your staying, your going, your coming, and also your provoking Me.
Because of your provoking Me with your blasphemy, and your complacency and self-confidence, or your uproar that arose in My ears, I will place My ring in your nose, just as a hook is placed in the sensitive noses of oxen and other large animals to lead them from place to place, and My bit between your lips, in the manner of a bit placed in the mouths of horses and donkeys to constrain and guide them, and I will bring you back by the way that you came, without you having accomplished what you set out to do.
The prophet directly addresses his audience, the people of Judah: This will be your sign: Eating this year, due to the siege, the aftergrowth, produce which grows by itself, and in the second year, the growth of the aftergrowth, the produce that grows from that which grew by itself in the first year; and in the third year, sow, reap, and plant vineyards and eat their fruit. The coming year and the subsequent one will indeed be hard, as the enemy has destroyed your crops, but the third year will be a standard, fruitful year.
The remnant that survives from the house of Judah will add a root below, and the roots will bear fruit above. The remnant of Judah will grow and flourish.
For a remnant will emerge from Jerusalem and survivors from Mount Zion; the zeal of the Lord of hosts, who is zealous over Jerusalem and concerned for its welfare, shall perform this.
Therefore, so said the Lord about the king of Assyria: He will not come to this city of Jerusalem, and he will not shoot an arrow there; he will not approach it with a shield, and he will not erect a ramp to lay a siege against it.
He will return by the way that he came, and he will not come to this city – the utterance of the Lord.
I will protect this city to save it, for My sake and for the sake of My servant David. This is the prophecy that Isaiah sent to King Hizkiyahu. The message is formulated as though it were addressed to the king of Assyria, but whether or not the statement will reach the ears of Sennacherib, it will serve its purpose of reassuring Hizkiyahu.
An angel of the Lord came out and smote one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians; and they, the survivors, arose early in the morning, and behold, they, the rest of the soldiers, were all dead corpses.
Sennacherib king of Assyria departed; he went and returned to his country, and he dwelt in Nineveh, his capital city, and the war ended.
He was prostrating himself in the house of Nisrokh his god, one of the Assyrian deities, and Adramelekh and Saretzer his sons smote him by the sword and killed him. They fled to the land of Ararat, where they found refuge. Ararat was under the control of the Hitite kingdom, which had not been conquered by Assyria. And Esar Hadon, his son, who had apparently not been involved in his father’s assassination, reigned in his stead.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 38
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 38 somebodyIn those days, when Sennacherib was delivering his threats or after his downfall, Hizkiyahu became deathly ill, and the prophet Isaiah son of Amotz came to him. He said to him: So said the Lord: Instruct your household, prepare a testament for your relatives, as you are dying from your current illness and you will not survive.
Rather than preparing a testament, Hizkiyahu decided to seclude himself with his God, and he turned his face to the wall, and he prayed to the Lord a short supplication.
He said: Please Lord, please remember that I walked before You truthfully and wholeheartedly and have done that which is good in Your eyes. Now I am about to die. According to some opinions, Hizkiyahu was also childless at that time, and therefore he felt that his memory and good deeds would not be perpetuated. Hizkiyahu wept a great weeping in his agitation and frustration.
The word of the Lord was again with Isaiah, saying:
Go and say to Hizkiyahu: So said the Lord, God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears; behold, I am cancelling the death sentence issued against you, and adding another fifteen years to your days, starting immediately.
God adds another good tiding: I will deliver both you and this city from the palm of the king of Assyria, and I will do so not only on this occasion, but in the future as well. Assyria will no longer pose a threat; I will protect this city.
Isaiah’s prophecy is so startling in light of Hizkiyahu’s weakness and his sense of imminent death that he adds a sign to convince Hizkiyahu that a dramatic change is about to take place: This will be the sign for you from the Lord, which will prove that the Lord will perform this matter of which He spoke:
Behold, I will bring back the shadow of the stairs that descended on the sun-stairs of Ahaz, constructed out of steps that face northward, backward ten stairs. Since the sun sets in the southwest, the shadow’s descent along the stairs was an indication that time had passed. Isaiah states that instead of continuing downward on its usual course, the shadow will return backwards, an unparalleled miracle. And indeed, the sun went back ten stairs from the stairs that it had descended. A change in the course of the sun is not a local event, but an occurrence that is evident throughout the world. When this wonder was attributed to the sign received by Hizkiyahu and his victory, the king’s honor grew throughout the world. It is possible that word of this miracle led to Babylon’s support of Hizkiyahu, as described in the next section.
The following is a hymn authored by Hizkiyahu, not composed by the prophet Isaiah: A composition [mikhtav], similar to mikhtam, hymn, psalm, of Hizkiyahu king of Judah upon his becoming ill and recovering from his illness.
I said in my heart that in the prime of my days, while I am still at the height of my powers, I will go to the gates of the netherworld, deprived of my remaining years that I should have lived.
I further said to myself: I will not see the Lord, the Lord in the land of the living, in this world, I will no longer behold a person among the rest of the inhabitants of the world.
I said: My generation, the people close to me and my peers, has departed and has been exiled from me. An entire world of relationships was uprooted due to my sickness. My life was like a shepherd’s tent, which leaves no trace after it has been folded up. I have truncated the threads of my life like a weaver. Hizkiyahu compares his life to cloth that is woven on a loom; when the weaving comes to an end, the weaver cuts the woof thread loose from the cloth. He would sever me from the fringe [dala] of threads left on the loom. Alternatively, dala is a branch; Hizkiyahu is saying that God would break him off like a branch. A third possibility is that dala refers to Hizkiyahu’s illness: God will sever his life through this illness. From day until night You, God, would end me and my life.
I imagined it, my illness, before me all night like a lion until morning, so it breaks all my bones. The nature of Hizkiyahu’s illness is unknown, but apparently he suffered severe pain. The descriptions that follow indicate that he also suffered from terrible sores. From day until night You would end me and my life.
Like a swift, or a crane,so I chirp; I moan like a dove. My pain is as powerful as a lion, while I myself feel like a bird, sighing and moaning, barely able to speak. My eyes are lifted on high. Lord, it, my illness, oppresses [oshka] me and removes me from this world. Some interpret oshka as an imperative: Take away my illness. Intervene on my behalf and save me.
How can I speak in prayer? He, God, told me that I will die, and He did it, as He has issued a decree from which there is no escape. I falter with difficulty through all my years because of the bitterness of my soul and my physical weakness. Some understand that Hizkiyahu is saying that he has always suffered from physical ailments, but this illness was the worst of all.
Nevertheless, I know that those whom the blessing of the Lord is upon them, they live, and so for all of the parts of my body upon which the life of my spirit depends; You heal me and revive me.
Behold, for together with the surprising tidings of peace and the removal of the threat over the city, it was very bitter for me, as my life appeared to be coming to an end; but You desired my soul, delivering it from destructive decay, death that destroys everything, for You cast behind Your back all my sins. Since You have cast aside my sins, I can now live again in a new world of peace.
For the netherworld does not thank You, nor death praise You. Those who have departed from this world cannot praise or extol You. Those who descend into the pit, the dead, do not await Your truth.
The living man, and the living man alone, he will have the capacity to thank You, like me, today upon my recovery. Had I died, I would have been unable to laud God. A father who merits to have children will likewise proclaim to his offspring Your truth.
The Lord is coming to save me, and we will play my tunes all the days of our lives in the House of the Lord, thereby thanking Him for His kindness and deliverance.
Isaiah said: Let them take a cake of dried figs, and spread it on the king’s rash, and he will live.
In light of the prophet’s advice with regard to the healing of his sores, Hizkiyahu said: What is the sign that I have been healed? It is that I will go up to the House of the Lord. When I feel strong enough to rise from my bed and enter the House of the Lord, my arrival in the most appropriate place for expressing gratitude will signify my complete recovery.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 39
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 39 somebodyAt that time, after the lifting of the siege laid by Sennacherib and Hizkiyahu’s recovery from his illness, Merodakh Baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent scrolls and a gift to Hizkiyahu; he had heard that he had become ill and recovered. Since Babylon was also under Assyrian rule, though not entirely subject to it, the two kingdoms, Judah and Babylon, both small at that time, had shared interests. For this reason Merodakh Baladan rejoiced together with Hizkiyahu over his successful rebellion against Sennacherib.
Hizkiyahu rejoiced over them, both the letter and the present, as they were indicative of significant diplomatic support from a distant land, beyond the borders of Aram and Assyria. And he showed them, the emissaries of the Babylonian king, his treasure house, where his special royal treasures were kept, the silver and the gold, the spices and the fine oil, his entire armory, and everything that was found in his treasuries; there was nothing that Hizkiyahu did not show them in his house and in his entire realm.
Isaiah the prophet came to King Hizkiyahu and he said to him: What did those men say and from where did they come to you? Rhetorical questions of this sort, whose answers are already known to those who ask them, are asked on several occasions in the Bible. They serve as polite introductions to a conversation. Hizkiyahu said: They came to me from a distant land, from Babylon.
He said: What did they see in your house? Hizkiyahu said: They saw everything that is in my house; there is nothing that I did not show them in my treasuries.
Isaiah said to Hizkiyahu: Hear the word of the Lord of hosts:
You apparently think that there is no connection between you and Babylon, but behold, days are coming and everything that is in your house and that which your fathers have amassed until this day will be carried to Babylon; nothing will remain, said the Lord. After Assyria collapses, Babylon will rise, and will ultimately rule over you. Furthermore, your exposure of all of your treasures to them has a symbolic meaning: You showed them the treasures that they will eventually carry off to their land.
They will take from your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget, your descendants in later generations, and they will be officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.
Hizkiyahu said to Isaiah: The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good; he further said, in explanation of his somewhat surprising reaction, that there will be peace and truth in my days. I infer from your statement that these terrible events will occur only in the lifetime of my children’s children, which means that peace will prevail in my days, at the very least.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 40
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 40 somebodyConsole, console My people, says your God. This is an exhortation to the prophets to comfort the people.
Speak consolation and reassurance to the heart of Jerusalem, and call to it, for its time is completed. Its prescribed period of suffering has ended. For its iniquity is rectified: For it has received double punishment at the hand of the Lord for all its sins. You must notify Jerusalem that the time of her pardon and reconciliation has arrived.
After the general call for consolation, further cries heralding the redemption are sounded: A voice proclaims in the wilderness:Clear the way of the Lord, level in the desert a highway for our God, a road along which He will lead those whom He is redeeming from everywhere.
Every valley will be raised and turned into a flat plain, and every mountain and hill will be lowered. The crooked and winding routes will all become straight and level, and the ridges, the mountains and hills that have narrow gorges running between them, will become a valley, easily traversed. There will be no obstacles or difficulties on the road through the wilderness that will open for those returning to Zion.
The glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see together that the mouth of the Lord has spoken. God’s glory will be revealed to all nations through the redemption of His people.
After the call for a way to be cleared in the wilderness, another voice says: Proclaim, and he, the prophet who hears the voice, says: What shall I proclaim? The voice responds: All flesh, all of mankind, is likened to fresh grass that serves as fodder for animals and does not last, and all its, mankind’s, grace and love is like a flower of the field, which blooms for a mere few weeks at most.
Over time the grass withers, the flower fades, for the breath of the Lord blows upon it. Indeed, the people, the human race on the face of the earth (see 42:5), are grass. Human life is exceedingly transient. The prophet’s intention here is not to denigrate man’s transitory existence but to emphasize the converse:
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Generations pass away, together with their acts of kindness. Only the word of God remains constant for all time.
Ascend you, herald of Zion, an allegorical figure, the feminine counterpart to the male herald, upon a high mountain. Raise your voice powerfully, herald of Jerusalem, to inform the entire city of this news. Raise it, your voice, as loud as you can, and do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah: Behold, your God has appeared.
Behold, the Lord God will come mightily and His arm will rule for Him; with the power of His arm He can rule as He pleases. Behold, His reward that He grants is with Him, and His wage, the recompense to those who serve Him, is prepared before Him. Although God will reveal Himself with threatening power, He will also bring with Him the reward that is reserved for those who perform good deeds.
Like a shepherd, He will shepherd his flock; with His arm, He will gather the young lambs, those that have difficulty keeping up with the rest of the flock and can easily become lost, and carry them in his bosom, guiding the nursing ewes, or those animals that have given birth for the first time. Likewise, will God guide His people in the manner of a good and trustworthy shepherd who cares for his flock.
Who has measured the waters of the world with His steps, or: In the hollow of His hand, or foot. And who has determined the heavens with a span, a unit of length spanning from the edge of the thumb until the edge of the pinky in an average-size hand, measuring approximately half a cubit; and gauged, with a flask, a small utensil used for measuring, the volume of the dust of the earth; and weighed mountains with a scale and hills with a balance? The Creator measures all of nature, as it were, using small tools. The creation of the world is described as if God is playing with toys.
Who can determine, measure, the spirit of the Lord? The water, the heavens, and the earth mentioned in the previous verse allude to the beginning of Creation described in Genesis (1:1–2). Likewise, the spirit of the Lord is mentioned both here and in the story of Creation. Some understand the spirit of the Lord as referring to His will. And who is the man of His counsel to whom He makes all His actions known?
The prophet asks rhetorically: With whom did He consult, granting him understanding, teaching him the path of justice and teaching him knowledge, making the way of understanding known to him? The source of God’s spirit, knowledge, and wisdom is God Himself.
Behold, nations may be regarded like a drop from a bucket after the rest has been poured out compared to the Creator, or like the powder of scales, residue of substances weighed. Behold, He will take up islands, or distant lands, like dust, which He can pick up or cast away.
As for the honor that God deserves in the form of offerings, the wood of the mountains of Lebanon is not sufficient for kindling the fire upon an altar that would serve this purpose, and its beasts, which used to exist in large numbers in the forests of Lebanon, are not sufficient for burnt offerings to God. No amount of offerings would sufficiently honor God.
All the nations are as nothing before Him; they are considered by Him as nothing and emptiness.
To whom will you liken God and to what likeness would you compare Him? It is impossible to compare the transcendent God with any living being.
Will you compare Him to an idol that is cast by a craftsman? An idol with regard to which a goldsmith will plate it, and it will have silver chains from an artisan to adorn it.
The collector of contributions will choose a tree with which to prepare an idol. He will select hard wood that will not rot, he will seek a wise craftsman to prepare an idol that will not topple. Can one compare God, Who created the entire world, to a sculpted idol, which was formed by humans?
Will you not know? Will you not hear? Were you not told from the beginning? Have you not understood who established the foundations of the earth?
It is He who sits over the circle of the earth. Its inhabitants are like grasshoppers in His eyes; it is He who spreads the heavens like a thin curtain, and stretches them around the earth like a tent, for habitation beneath it;
who renders princes into nothing; He makes judges of the land like emptiness.
Even powerful individuals who are considered a stabilizing force in society, it is as though they were not planted, as though they were not sown, as though their trunk had not taken root in the earth. Compared to God, they are like vegetation that has not taken root. Moreover, one may blow on them and they will wither, and a storm will carry them off like straw.
To whom would you liken Me that I would be equal? says the Holy One. The expression “the Holy One” is an appellation of God, which is commonly used in Isaiah.
Raise your eyes on high and see: Who created these stars that are arranged in constellations in the sky? He who brings out their host by number, calling all of them by name. From what you have heard from your ancestors, and based on your own experience, you know that the stars follow a fixed path. Each star is similar to a soldier who is called upon to perform a specific task and fulfills it precisely. All this is accomplished from abundance of might and the exertion of power, with not one star that is missing.
The infiniteness of the Creator includes His knowledge and His providence: Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel: My way is hidden from the Lord, He does not see me, and from my God my just deserts will have passed, He is oblivious to the reward or punishment that I deserve. You say: God does not watch over me, and that is why I suffer so much.
Did you not know, did you not hear, the Lord is the eternal God, Creator of everything until the ends of the earth; He neither tires nor wearies; there is no scrutinizing His understanding. It is impossible to investigate, understand, or define His wisdom.
He gives strength to the tired, and to the powerless He increases might.
The prophet now explains in detail: The youths will be tired and weary and the young men, who are in the prime of their strength, will falter. When they rely solely on their own strength, even the young and strong will tire and stumble.
But in contrast, those who long for the Lord will renew their strength; they will grow new wings like eagles, whose wing feathers regrow after their old feathers have molted. They will run and will not weary, they will walk and will not tire. Those that are connected to the source of strength will have that strength renewed. Therefore, you, the exiled nation, should not despair, as you can replenish your strength from the Creator.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 41
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 41 somebodyThe prophet addresses the distant nations in the name of God: Be silent for me and listen, distant lands of the sea, and let nations renew their strength; let them approach and then speak; together, let us approach for judgment, out of closeness rather than from fear. This is not necessarily a judgment against you, but a discussion of reality.
Who has awakened one from the Eastfor whom justice or victory is declared in his wake? The prophet refers to a specific person from an unknown time who brings salvation. He will subdue nations before him and will subjugate kings; He will set his sword like dust, his bow like windblown straw. Swords and bows are at his disposal like dust and straw. Alternatively, he will transform the enemy into dust and straw with his sword and bow.
He will pursue them, the nations and kings, passing safely. Alternatively: He will overtake those he chases; he will not need to go on a path on his feet. He does not require the use of a side path in which to hide; rather, he uses the main road. Some commentaries explain that he will pass safely on new paths. Yet another interpretation is that he will not need to retreat in the direction in which he came, or that he will not be confronted by the enemy on his way.
Who acted and accomplished it, all this? It is He who proclaimed or fixed the history of the generations from the beginning. I, the Lord, am first of all that exists, and I am here with the last, with you, I am He.
The lands of the sea, that is, the distant nations, saw all these great events, and feared; the ends of the earth trembled; they, these nations, converged and came together. All of them were attempting to defend themselves against the threat of the great king by relying on their gods.
Each would help his neighbor and would say to his brother: Be strong. Everyone worked together to fight the enemy.
The carpenter would encourage the smith; the one who smooths utensils and straightens them with a hammer would encourage the one who strikes at the anvil. Upon completion, the one who fashions the utensil is saying of the join: It is good, the fusing of the various components of the utensils was performed well; and he then strengthened it with nails, so that it would not fall apart.
The rebuke, fear, and trembling will be the lot of the other nations; but it is you, Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, descendants of Abraham who loved Me;
whom I have taken for Myself from the ends of the earth, and from its noblemen I called you, to leave the domain of these other nations; I said to you: You are My servant, I chose you and did not spurn you during the long exile;
even if the whole world will shake, do not fear, as I am with you; do not waver from your path, as I am your God under all conditions; I have made you firm; indeed, I have helped you, even supported you with My righteous right hand. God promises His nation here that He will protect them from any harm that may befall them.
Behold, all who provoke you will be ashamed and humiliated, and the men who quarrel with you will be like nothing and perish.
You will seek them, the people who contend with you, but you will not find them; the people who make war on you will disappear and be like nothing and naught.
For I am the Lord your God, supporting your right hand, who says to you: Do not fear, I help you.
Do not fear, worm of Jacob, people of Israel; I am your help – the utterance of the Lord – and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
On the contrary; despite your appearance as a fragile worm, behold, I will turn you into a sharp new threshing board with teeth; you, the threshing board, will thresh mountains, and pulverize them into small pieces, and make hills like chaff through your threshing. The nation of Israel will trample over other nations and kingdoms.
You will winnow them, the enemies, and the wind will carry them away, and the storm will scatter them. In contrast to the terror and trembling that will envelop the other nations in light of the global transformations described here, the prophet assures Israel: But you will rejoice in the Lord, you will be glorified in the Holy One of Israel.
The prophecy continues with words of faith and assurance for the afflicted exiles: The poor and indigent seek water and there is none; their tongue has been forgotten, or has fallen out from thirst. I, the Lord, will answer them; I am the God of Israel, I will not forsake them.
I will open rivers on the bare hills and springs in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pond of water, and an arid land I will turn into sources of water.
I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and pine trees in the wilderness; I will place juniper, ash, and boxwood together in the desert. These are all types of non-fruit bearing trees, most of which were utilized for construction. The desert will be transformed into a fertile region with many types of vegetation.
God will do this so that they will see, know, attend, and understand together that the hand of the Lord did this and the Holy One of Israel created it, and it will be clear to all that salvation was not brought about by man.
The prophet again addresses the other nations and their leaders: Bring forth your quarrel for judgment before Me, says the Lord. Present your demands, says the King of Jacob.
Let them, your gods and sorcerers, present and relate to us what will happen, and the first things, let them tell us what they are. Relate and we will attend and know their outcome, or inform us of future events. If you presume to have control of history, or knowledge or control of the future, then present it.
Relate that which is coming (see 21:12, 41:5, 25) in the futureand, if you are capable of doing so, we will know that you are gods; indeed, do good or evil, and we will discuss and see together.
Ultimately, behold, you, with all of your claims, are come from nothing, and your actions are for naught; abomination would choose you. Alternatively: Anyone who chooses you is choosing an abomination.
I have roused one, the redeemer, from the north, and he came; from the rising sun I will invite he who will call in My name; he will come and trample upon princes like one steps on clay to soften it in preparation for use, and like a potter treads mud.
Who of you related in advance that which has occurred or what will occur, so that we may know, and from beforehand, that we will say that he is right? Indeed, there is no one who relates; indeed, there is no one who announces; indeed, there is no one who hears your statements. You do not know anything about the future.
The first to Zion, behold, here it is. News of future events arrives first to Zion, and to Jerusalem I will provide a herald, a prophet who will prophesy the future. Only the Jewish people possess prophecy and reliable communication with God, who knows the future.
I look at all the nations, but there is no one to be a herald; and from these, other religions and philosophies, there is no counselor that I may ask them and they will give some response.
The prophet concludes: Behold, they are all nothingness, their actions naught; their cast images are wind and emptiness.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 42
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 42 somebodyBehold, My servant, the Messiah; alternatively, it refers to the nation of Israel or the prophet, I will support him; My chosen one, the one My soul desires; I placed My spirit upon him. He will not lead the nation of Israel alone, rather he will dispense justice to the nations.
He will not shout, will not raise or sound his voice in the street. He will not need to shout for all to hear his voice; his conduct will be calm and composed.
He will not, as opposed to what is usually done, break a crushed reed, and will not extinguish a flickering wick; he will ensure that the lower elements of society will not be harmed. He will dispense justice in truth.
Moreover, he himself will not weaken and will not be broken until he establishes justice in the land, and lands of the sea, distant nations, will long for his teaching. He will be known and sought out by the whole world. He will be heard everywhere without any effort on his part (see 11:10).
So said the God, the Lord, Creator of the heavens and He who unfurled them; He who spread out the earth and its progeny, the living creatures and vegetation that sustain themselves from it; He who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it, giving them life:
I, the Lord, have called you and designated you, My servant, with justice, to achieve victory and salvation; I have supported your hand and have protected you, and I have set you for a covenant, to establish a covenant of the people as the king of Israel, and as a light of nations;
to open blind eyes, to release a prisoner from confinement and dwellers in darkness from prison. In addition to being responsible for maintaining proper social order, as mentioned in the previous verses, the servant will also free the oppressed members of society from their constraints.
I am the Lord, that is My name; and I will not give My glory to another. I will not allow another to use My name exclusively or in combination with their own. Nor will I offer My praise to idols.
Behold, the first ones, prophecies, have come to pass and have been fulfilled, and the new ones, prophecies, I relate; before they burgeon I will pronounce them to you.
The prophet now offers a general description of the revelation of God during the redemption: Sing to the Lord a new song, which will develop a new perspective on a subject that is not new; His praise will be sung from the ends of the earth, by those that are the most distant and isolated, by those who go to sea, and by all that fill it, islands and their inhabitants.
Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voice in song, with courtyards inhabited by the community of Kedar; rock dwellers will sing, from mountain peaks they will shout.
They will grant glory to the Lord and will relate His praise in the islands, the distant nations.
The Lord will emerge like the valiant one, He will arouse zealotry, anger, and revenge against the evildoers, as a man of war; He will roar, even scream like soldiers in battle; He will overwhelm His enemies.
The prophet now speaks in the name of God: I have been silent forever, I have been still and have restrained Myself. Until now, My voice has not been heard, but now I will cry out like a woman in childbirth, I will gasp and pant together in pain. Likewise, the redemption will commence after extensive restraint, erupting suddenly like a volcano:
I will destroy mountains and hills and all their vegetation will I wither; I will transform rivers into islands of dry land, and I will dry out marshes. The world will change; the existing order will collapse, and new possibilities will emerge:
I will lead the blind on a way that they did not know; on paths that they did not know will I guide them. All those who struggle will discover new solutions to their problems. I will render darkness before them into light and tortuous paths into a plain. I shall change the balance of power and the nature of the world. These are the things that I have done and I did not abandon them.
The prophet adds parenthetically: They will draw back, will be deeply ashamed, those who trust in idols, who say to cast images: You are our gods. At that time, all who trusted in other gods will recoil, due to their shame at their foolishness as well as their inability to stand before the greatness of God.
Hear, the deaf, and look to see, the blind, the changes I shall implement in the world.
Who is blind, but My servant? Or deaf, like My messenger whom I send? The servant and messenger of God is reclusive, ostensibly not seeing or hearing anything, like one who is blind and deaf. Who is blind like the perfect one and blind like the servant of the Lord?
Seeing much, but you do not observe. Although he sees much, he does not contemplate what he sees. Opening ears, but he does not hear.
The Lord is desirous of him, his servant, because of his righteousness; he will make the Torah great and glorious. Despite the blindness and deafness of the servant of God, there are many other qualities concealed within him, which allow him to spread and glorify the Torah.
But it, the servant of God in its broader sense of Israel, is a people looted and despoiled; the young men, all of them, are blown away. All of Israel’s young men fled and disappeared as though the wind blew them away. And they have been trapped in prisons; they were taken as loot with no savior, they have been given as spoils of war with no one saying: Return it, the spoil.
Who among you will listen to this, will pay attention and hear the ending, of how future events unfold?
He who listens will understand: Who subjected Jacob to despoiling and Israel to the looters? Was it not the Lord who caused this, He against whom we sinned and were unwilling to walk in His ways and did not heed His Torah? God has punished the nation of Israel for its sins.
He poured upon it, the Jewish people, the fury of His wrath and the might of war, scorched it from all around, but it did not know, it did not consider that its sins caused this, burned in it but would not take it to heart.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 43
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 43 somebodyWhen the time comes, Israel will pay attention to all these matters, and will then be redeemed from exile and saved from all its suffering. And now, when that time comes, so said the Lord, your Creator, Jacob; and your Fashioner, Israel: Do not fear My anger, as I have redeemed you; I have called your name and given you prominence. In the Bible, calling a person by name is a manner of expressing or giving the person a status, an assignment, or a position. You are Mine.
Therefore, when you pass through the water I am with you, and when you pass through the rivers they will not sweep you away; when you walk into fire you will not be burned, and a flame will not blaze upon you. Even oppression and attempts to force you to give up your faith will not succeed in detaching you from Me.
For I am the Lord your God, Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave Egypt as your ransom, Kush and Seva in your stead. Other nations will atone for you by receiving punishment in your stead.
Since you were precious in My eyes, you were honored and I loved you; I will give other men in your stead and other peoples instead of, in exchange for, your life.
Fear not, as I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the East, and from the West I will gather you.
I will say to the North wind: Give, and to the South wind: Do not withhold; bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth. In biblical Hebrew, each direction is associated with a wind, to the extent that the word meaning direction, ru’aĥ, literally means wind. In this case the metaphor is reversed and God commands the directions, i.e., the winds, to assist in returning the dispersed people of Israel. This may be understood to indicate the swiftness of the return, or as an actual command, that the winds cause the ships to sail quickly.
Not only will the winds help to return Israel to its land, all of nature shall do so as well. Everything that is called by My name, and for My glory I created it, I fashioned it, truly, I made it. Since everything was created for My glory, the entire world will assist in your redemption. The early commentaries understand this verse as referring to Israel, as a continuation of the previous statement where God instructs the winds to return those who are called by His name and created for His glory.
To free a people that is blind though it has eyes, referring to Israel, which is the servant of God mentioned above, who despite having eyes does not see, and deaf though they have ears, as they do not hear.
If all the nations were to be gathered together and the peoples assembled, who among them will tell this and announce to us the first things? Who is capable of predicting your redemption, as you heard from your prophets? Let them, the nations, provide their witnesses, or proofs, and they will be vindicated; and let them, those who hear the testimony, hear it, and they will say: It is the truth that there is no one among the nations that can bring such proofs or testimony.
In contrast, you are My witnesses, who testify to My existence through the fulfillment of the prophecy of your redemption – the utterance of the Lord – and you are My servant whom I have chosen for Myself; so that you will know and trust in Me and understand that I am He; before Me no god was formed, and after Me there will not be.
I, I, am the Lord; and beside Me there is no savior.
I related, I saved, and I announced, and there was no stranger, strange god, among you who did likewise; you are My witnesses, and this is your mission in the world – the utterance of the Lord – and I am God.
Indeed, from when there was day, since the dawn of time; or alternatively: Since the time that the concept of day existed in the world. This may also refer to a specific, significant day in history, such as the day the Torah was given. I am He and there is no savior from My hand, everything is under My control; I will act and who can reverse it? No one can annul My actions, as My authority is complete and comprehensive. Therefore, as My witnesses you should attest to this, and your redemption will also be comprehensive.
So said the Lord, your Redeemer, Holy One of Israel: For your sake I sent people to Babylon in order to return Israel from there, likely referring to the army of Cyrus of Persia, who conquered Babylon. And I will bring down all their bars; I will open all of their borders, and the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, will be found on the ships [ba’oniyyot] with their song. The Babylonians will be found on the ships of the Jewish exiles, who will be rejoicing while returning from exile, in order to assist them in passing through the rivers of Babylonia. Some interpret this phrase to mean that God will bring the Chaldeans onto the ships of their pleasure cruises, but not for pleasure but rather as captives or fugitives following the conquest of Cyrus; or that their shouting will be heard from the ships. A third interpretation is that their voices will be heard crying [aniyyot]. Rashi, based on Targum Yonatan, interprets this verse as referring to the descent of the Jews into exile in Babylon.
I am the Lord, your Holy One, Creator of Israel, your King.
The prophet describes how the Jewish people will be redeemed from all over the world: So said the Lord, who makes a way in the sea and prepares a path in mighty waters,
He who forms a path in the stormy sea is also He who brings out chariots and horse to war, an army and a mighty force; it is also He who causes their downfall. Together they will lie down, not to rise, dimmed, extinguished like a flaxen wick. The mighty army’s downfall will be gradual, compared to a flaming wick that slowly dims until it goes out.
Do not remember the first things and do not contemplate the ancient. Although you have experienced numerous miracles in the past, you will not remember them.
For behold, I will perform something new and greater, in comparison to prior miracles; now it will sprout, surely you will know it. I will even make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.
The beasts of the field would honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I put water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, in order to give drink to My chosen people.
This people, I fashioned for Myself; they will relate My praise.
Until this point, the prophet has discussed the unique methods that God will use to redeem Israel. Now, he confronts Israel with a different issue: But it was not Me that you called, Jacob, for you wearied of Me, Israel. Your efforts in worshipping Me were inconsistent. Alternatively: If you are making yourself weary, you are not truly calling Me.
You did not bring Me the sheep of your burnt offerings and you did not honor Me with your offerings. Your bringing of offerings did not honor Me. In general, I have not burdened you with a meal offering and I have not wearied you with frankincense.
You did not buy a cane for Me with silver. If you purchased a fragrant cane to offer as incense in the Temple, you have not done so on My behalf, as you may have erroneously believed. And with the fat of your offerings you did not satisfy Me. I have no need for it, nor do I derive any satisfaction from it. Rather, in contrast to Me, who has not troubled you excessively, you burdened Me with your sins, you wearied Me with your iniquities. Your sins, for which you have brought a proliferation of offerings, are difficult for Me to bear.
Despite your disappointing conduct and unwelcome offerings, I, I alone, am He who expunges your transgressions for My sake, as they are difficult for Me to tolerate; and your sins I will not remember. I have the power to erase your sins entirely.
Remind Me, let us come together for judgment, arrange judgment between us; relate, you, your claims first, so that you will appear to be vindicated by offering your version of the facts.
However, you cannot claim that you have not sinned, as you know that your original ancestor, Adam, already sinned; alternatively, “your original ancestor” refers to all of your ancestors. And your advocates, who defend you and atone for you, also transgressed against Me. The leaders of the nation of Israel throughout the generations have often not conducted themselves appropriately.
Therefore, I have destroyed the Temple, and profaned the sacred princes, the priests who serve in the Temple and perform the offerings, and I gave Jacob to destruction and Israel to derisions.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 44
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 44 somebodyGod knows that according to the strict rules of justice, the people of Israel cannot be exonerated for their sins. Nevertheless, He will forgive them, and in His divine grace He will allow them to begin again with a clean slate: Now hear, Jacob, My servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen,
so said the Lord, your Maker, and may your Fashioner from the womb help you. Since before you were born as a nation, as the children of Jacob, or possibly even before that, I have watched over you and cared for you. Do not fear, Jacob, My servant, despite the fact that you sinned, and Yeshurun,another name for Israel, whom I have chosen.
Just as I will pour water upon the desiccated and liquids upon dry ground, which are immediately absorbed therein; so too, I will pour My spirit upon your descendants and My blessing upon your offspring, and it will trickle in and be absorbed by them.
They, the seed of Israel, will grow among the grass, like the grass, which grows close together quickly in large quantities, like willows that grow by streams of water, where willows flourish.
At that time, this one will say: I am the Lord’s, that one will call in the name of Jacob, and this one will write with his hand that he is connected to the Lord, and he will name himself with the name of Israel.
So said the Lord, King of Israel and its Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, the phrases used prominently in the book of Isaiah to describe God (see 33:22, 41:14, 21, 49:7, 54:5): I am first and I am last, there is no other before or after Me, and besides Me there is no God.
Given that reality, who like Me can proclaim the history of the world? Alternatively, if there is someone like Me, let him come. And he should tell it, and order it for Me since My setting, creating, of all the world’s people. If there is anyone who can do so, let them tell of that event which approaches (see commentary on 41:23), and of that which will come. No one other than Me is capable of establishing the events of the past and prophesying about the future.
Do not be afraid and do not fear the idols or the threats of their worshippers; wasn’t it from then, long ago, that I announced to you and declared, and you are My witnesses with regard to what I have told you, due to both what you have seen yourselves and the very fact that you still exist and experience a miraculous redemption: Is there a god besides Me? There is no rock I do not know. There is no power with which I am not familiar, and there is no god like Me.
Many believe in false gods, and their falseness is self-evident: Fashioners of idols, they are all emptiness and the objects of their admiration, their false gods, are of no avail; they are their witnesses, the idols and their worshippers each testify with regard to the inauthenticity of the other. They, the idols, do not see and they do not know, so that they, the makers and worshippers of idols, will be ashamed.
Who fashioned a god, or cast an idol to no avail? Who are those that fashion these idols which are not beneficial in any way?
Behold, all his colleagues who participate in the sculpting of the idol will be ashamed, and the craftsmen, they are people, those that fashion the idol are human; let them, the craftsmen, all gather, stand, be afraid, be ashamed together of their handiwork.
The prophet expresses his opinion of idolatry using a satirical example: An ironsmith with an adze, and he works with coal in order to melt the iron and cast it, and subsequently fashions it, the idol, with hammers; he wields it with his strength of arm, he fashions it with all of his strength. The prophet adds an additional derisive comment: Even hungry and having no strength; he does not drink water and he tires. The craftsman himself becomes weak due to his hard work, while purporting to fashion an idol that supposedly has the power to influence others, including its maker.
Likewise, the carpenter stretches a line upon the wood to measure it; he marks it, the contours of the figure, with dye [sered]. Others claim that sered is a carpenter’s tool, perhaps related to [sirtut], meaning sketch. If so, the sered is a drafting pencil or stylus. He then makes it with planes, and with a compass, marks it, he uses a utensil designed to mark circles for cutting; he makes it, the piece of wood, like the form of a man, like the splendor of a person, to sit in a house. When the idol is finished being made, it remains in a dignified location inside the house and is not moved elsewhere.
After describing the work of the carpenter in fashioning the idol, the prophet describes the raw materials used during the process: He cuts cedars for it and takes arbutus and oak, trees that can be used for woodworking or fuel. He exerts himself among the trees of the forest, he attempts to choose a quality tree for his work. Cedar trees were generally not planted, but were found in the forests. He plants a fir, and the rain makes it grow on its own, without additional watering.
After chopping down the tree, it will be for a person for fuel; he takes of it and is warmed; he burns it and bakes bread. He uses a portion of the wood to heat his house, another for igniting the oven, and with a third portion, he even makes a god and prostrates himself; he makes it into an idol and worships it. The prophet illustrates the various human needs for which the chopped wood provides, and one of them is the need for an idol.
Half of it he burns in fire; on half of it he eats meat, he roasts a roast upon it, and is satiated; he even warms himself and says: Ah, I am warm, I see the flame. Once he has warmed himself, he exclaims how wonderful it is to see the fire burning in front of him.
Its remainder he makes into a god; his idol, he worships it and prostrates himself and prays to it and says: Deliver me, for you are my god.
They do not know and they do not understand, for their eyes are sealed from seeing, and their hearts are also covered, from understanding.
He does not reflect in his heart and it, his heart, has no knowledge and no understanding, saying: Half of it, the tree, I burned in fire, and I even baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and ate it; the rest of it I will make into an abomination, an idol, I will worship the stock of a tree. The term “abomination” here is the language of the prophet, not that of the speaker, who fashions the idol. Now that my body has derived benefit from two parts of the tree, I will transform the remainder of the wood into a sacred image for myself, from which it is forbidden to derive benefit. To this image I will prostrate myself, and from it I will request assistance. The prophet emphasizes the absurdity of using the very same wood both for his physical needs, such as consuming meat and warming himself, and for creating a supposedly powerful idol.
He, the person described in the previous verses, is guided by ashes, items that are worth no more than ashes; a foolish heart has led him astray and he does not deliver his soul and does not say: Is there not falsehood in my right hand? It is obvious that the creation and worshipping of these idols is futile, yet people continue to do so.
Remember these, Jacob and Israel, for you are My servant. Remember your identity and your mission; I fashioned you as My servant, Israel, do not abandon Me, and I will not forsake you.
I have wiped away your transgressions like a thick cloud that is dispelled by the wind, and your sins like a cloud are dispersed. You are not fixed in a state of sin. Therefore, return to Me, for I have redeemed you.
Sing and rejoice, heavens, as the Lord has acted; shout, depths of the earth; mountains, break into song, forest and every tree in it, for all will see that the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and in Israel He is glorified.
So says the Lord, your Redeemer, Israel, and your Fashioner from the womb: I am the Lord, who made everything, who stretched the heavens alone, who spreads the earth by Myself, through My power alone;
who negates the omens of deceivers and leads diviners astray, who turns around the wise and makes their knowledge foolishness by causing them to discover eventually that their ideas are unfounded.
In the same way, it is He who confirms the word of His servant and fulfills the counsel of His messengers the prophets; who says of Jerusalem through those prophets: It will be inhabited once again, and of the cities of Judah: They will be rebuilt and I will reestablish its, Jerusalem’s, ruins;
who says to the depths, the deep waters: Desiccate, and I will dry up your rivers. God can overturn the entire natural order. Just as He can transform the wilderness into an irrigated, blossoming oasis (see 41:18), so too, He can dry up areas submerged underwater. Likewise, God will destroy the built-up city of Babylon and cause the ruined city of Jerusalem to thrive.
It is Hewho says of Cyrus: He is My shepherd, a king over My people, and he will fulfill all My desires, saying of Jerusalem: It will be built; and the Sanctuary will be established.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 45
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 45 somebodySo said the Lord with respect to His anointed king, to Cyrus, whose right hand I held, to whom I gave strength and power to subdue nations before him, I will ungird the loins of kings; kings will surrender to him. The expression “to gird one’s loins” refers to the practice of tying up one’s robes in a belt in preparation for battle. Ungirding therefore represents the cessation of fighting. I aided him to open doors of cities and countries before him, and gates will not be shut to prevent his entry.
I will go before you and I will straighten crooked paths, mountains, obstacles, or curves. All roads will be opened to you. I will smash bronze doors and sever iron bolts;
I will give you, Cyrus, treasures of darkness, buried treasures, and hidden riches of secret places, so that you will know that I am the Lord, who calls you by your name, the God of Israel. You must acknowledge that it was My mission that rendered you such a great king; without it, you would not have become the ruler of Babylon.
I do all this for the sake of Jacob, My servant, and Israel, My chosen; I have called you by your name; I have named you, though you did not know anything about Me until now.
I am the Lord and there is no other, besides Me there is no God; I will gird, strengthen, you, though you did not know Me.
I have done this so that they will know, from the rising sun and from its setting, that there is nothing besides Me; I am the Lord; and there is no other.
Who forms the light and creates darkness, makes peace and creates evil; I, the Lord, do all these. I am responsible for defeats and victories, downfalls and renewals.
I am God, who says: Rain down, heavens, from above and let the skies stream righteousness; let the earth open and bear fruit of salvation and righteousness that will sprout together. I the Lord, created it, this goodness, which will come from all directions, and from above and below. I will create something new in the heavens and earth. Some explain that this creation is Cyrus.
The prophet continues to declaim God’s greatness: Woe! He who quarrels with his Fashioner, he is merely a shard that is together among all the other shards of the earth. Will the clay say to the one who forms it, the potter: What are you doing, or can the clay criticize its maker by saying to him: Your work, it was done without hands? It looks like it was not made by someone’s hand.
Woe! He, a son, who says to a father, his father: For what do you beget? Do not have children. Or to a woman, his mother: For what are you going into labor? Do not become pregnant and do not give birth.
So said the Lord, Holy One of Israel and its Fashioner: They asked Me about that which is coming, since I know the future, and indeed I am the One who causes it to happen. Will you command Me about My sons and about the products of My hands? You cannot tell Me how to act.
I made the earth and humanity upon it; it is I; My hands stretched the heavens and commanded the creation of all their host, and as a result they were fashioned.
The prophet returns to the subject of Cyrus: I roused him with righteousness, to perform justice, and I will straighten all his ways; he will build My city and send forth My exile, allowing them to return to the Land of Israel and rebuild the Temple without a price and without a bribe, said the Lord of hosts. Major political gestures usually come at a price, but in this case the Jews were not significant enough for Cyrus to gain anything from his declaration; it was entirely of his own volition.
So said the Lord: The production of Egypt, Egyptian products, and the merchandise of Kush and the Seva’ites, who apparently were allies of Egypt (see 43:3) and who were men of stature, of large physical dimensions, all these will come over to you, Israel, and will be yours, subjugated to you. Alternatively, this refers to the subjugation of Egypt by the Persians. They will follow you, passing in chains, prostrate themselves to you and pray to you. Even the southern nations will recognize God’s greatness and honor Judah, either willingly or reluctantly. They will realize that only with you is God and there is no other; there are no other gods. Some maintain that the proclamation that there is no other god is the statement of the prophet himself rather than the other nations.
Indeed, as opposed to the false gods, which have a physical, tangible form, You are God who conceals Himself, the hidden God, God of Israel, Savior.
They will be ashamed and humiliated also, all of them; together they will proceed in humiliation, craftsmen of idols. All the craftsmen who fashion idols will be ashamed when everyone realizes that the God of Israel is the true Almighty, who has no physical form.
Israel is saved through the Lord, an eternal salvation; you will not be ashamed and will not be humiliated for all eternity.
For so said the Lord, Creator of the heavens, He is the God, Fashioner of the earth, and its Maker; He established it. In contrast to the deistic approach, God continually maintains existence. He did not create it for emptiness, but rather He formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord and there is no other.
I did not speak secretly, in a place of a land of darkness. My statements are not for the prophets alone, but for all the people to hear. I did not say to the descendants of Jacob: Seek Me for nothing. It is I, the Lord, who speaks in righteousness, who speaks fairly. I do not hide My statements from anyone; they are straightforward and true.
Gather yourselves and come, approach together, refugees of the nations; they do not know, they who carry with them the wood of their idol and pray to a god that cannot save.
Proclaim and bring near, even take counsel together: Who sounded this from ancient time, proclaimed it from then? Who predicted beforehand all these universal changes, the wars you experienced? This is likely referring to the rise of Cyrus and the fall of Babylon; an apparently stable world was suddenly destroyed and replaced by a new order. Truly, I am the Lord and is there no other god than Me, no righteous god and savior besides Me.
Therefore, turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God and there is no other. There is no other source of salvation. My divinity is independent of nationality and location; one may not turn to idols even in the most isolated corner of the earth.
I took an oath by Myself; righteousness emerged from My mouth, a matter that will not be retracted, for ultimately to Me every knee will bend, every tongue will take an oath.
Now the prophet speaks in the first person: Only in the Lord, He said to me, is justice and might found. God treats His creations with justice and strengthens them, and truth can be found only in Him. All who provoke Him and who struggle against Him in their anger will come to Him and be ashamed.
In the Lord will all the descendants of Israel be vindicated and glorified. None will be absent. Alternatively, this means that all the descendants of Israel will relate the justice of the Lord, or believe in the Lord, or be saved by the Lord.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 46
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 46 somebodyThe prophet continues with a description of the downfall of the false gods of Babylon, as opposed to the Eternal of Israel. The Babylonian god Bel kneels, and Nevo, another Babylonian god, collapses; their effigies fell from their raised platform and were destined for the beast and for the animal. These idols will be loaded upon animals either by those fleeing or by those who are plundering the temple. Some explain that they will be cast to the ground to be trampled upon by animals. Your carriers are weighed down, you are a burden for the weary animals, which will be fatigued from bearing the idols Bel and Nevo.
They collapse, kneel together; they could not salvage a burden and themselves have gone into captivity.
Hear Me, house of Jacob and all the remnant of the house of Israel, who are weighed down from birth, who are carried from the womb. From the time of your birth God watches over you and takes care of you. In contrast to the idols, whose worshippers would carry them on their animals, God bears His worshippers, Israel.
Therefore, you need not worry over the future, as until old age I am He who will carry you, and until gray hairs I will bear you; I made and I will carry; I will bear and I will rescue you from forthcoming troubles as well.
To whom will you liken and equate Me, or compare Me so that we seem alike? Unlike idols, I do not have a form that can be described.
Those idol worshippers who empty gold from a purse, they will weigh silver on a scale, and after weighing the silver they will hire a goldsmith and he will make it a god; they will worship it, even prostrate themselves.
They will carry it, the idol, on a shoulder, in contrast to God, who carries Israel. They, its worshippers, will bear it after having spent much money on fashioning it, and then they will set it in place so that it may stand; it will not move from its place; even if one will call to it, it will not answer, it will not save him from his distress.
Remember this and strengthen yourselves [hitoshashu]. Some explain this to mean: Become intelligent men, from the root ish. Take it to heart and reflect upon this, transgressors.
Remember the first things from eternity that I am God, I am God from the beginning, and there is no other God, and there is none like Me.
I am telling the outcome from the outset, and from ancient times I am announcing that which was not done. I say: My devising will stand and My every desire I will perform;
I call a bird of prey from the east, an allusion to Cyrus, who stooped upon Babylonia from the northeast, the man of My counsel, the one whose arrival I prepared from a distant land; even as I spoke, saying that I would do this, I will also bring it about; I formed it, so will I perform it.
Hear Me, you hard-hearted, stubborn ones, who are consequently far from righteousness, from the upright path, as you do not listen to My words.
I brought My righteousness near; it will not be far. I will implement My judgment in the near future. And My salvation will not be delayed; I will place in Zion salvation for My splendor, Israel.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 47
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 47 somebodyGod addresses Babylon, which will suffer comprehensive destruction: Go down and sit on the dust, virgin daughter, nation, of Babylon; sit on the ground like a maidservant or a mourner, as you are without a chair, a monarchy, daughter of Chaldeans, the Babylonians; for you will no longer be called tender and delicate.
Take a millstone and grind flour. Engage in the degrading, difficult duties of a maidservant. Reveal your braid, or your strand of hair that falls on your forehead or temples. Since this hair is generally kept covered, its exposure causes you public shame. Expose a hem of your garment, reveal a thigh, like one who wishes to walk through water, and cross rivers. Babylon is here depicted as a woman so poor that she cannot even dress appropriately, and accordingly her appearance is disgraceful.
Your nakedness will thereby be revealed; also your shame will be seen; I will take vengeance and I will not harm any person. No blood will be spilled. Alternatively, I will encounter no person, or listen to anyone.
In response to God’s statement about the destruction of Babylon, the prophet declares: Our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is His name, Holy One of Israel. He controls the battles between nations, and through the defeat of Babylon He redeems Israel.
The prophet continues to describe the fall of Babylon and the reasons for this important event from the perspective of Israel: Sit silent and come into the darkness, daughter of Chaldeans, for you will no longer be called mistress of kingdoms. You will cease to be a superpower, but will once again revert to the status of a small and neglected place.
I was angry with My people, Israel, I desecrated My inheritance and gave them into your hand. I delivered the land of Judah to your dominion, but for your part you did not show them any mercy; you set your yoke even upon the aged very heavily.
You said: Forever I will be mistress, a kingdom that reigns over others, until you did not take these words to heart, you did not remember its, God’s punishment’s end.You disregarded the historical tendency for kingdoms to rise and fall.
And now, hear this, delicate one, who sits in security, who says in her heart: It is I, and there is none like me; therefore, I will not sit as a widow and I will not know bereavement. Like a noblewoman who lives in the lap of luxury and feels that the entire world is under her control, Babylon, the capital city of an empire steeped in a rich heritage, held itself in great esteem, so to speak, and was complacent, falsely assuming that no tragedy could befall it.
These two things will come to you in a moment on one day: bereavement and widowhood. When Cyrus came to Babylon, he was initially friendly and did not seek to destroy it, but Babylon ultimately forfeited everything: its political power, influence, and independence. In their completeness they will come to you, for, because of, the abundance of your sorceries and the great intensity of your enchantments, your reliance on sorcery.
You relied on your evildoing; you said: No one sees me; your wisdom and your knowledge of idolatry and sorcery are your defiance, they made you defiant by giving you the impression that you have supernatural powers, and you said in your heart at the peak of your success: It is I, and there is none like me.
Evil will come upon you, you will not know its meaning [shah·], how to explain it. Here in the verse, the term shaĥra, which would usually be translated as “its sunrise,” refers to clarity. Alternatively, it means: You will not know how to confront it. And calamity will befall you, you will not be able to remove it; ruin will come upon you suddenly, you will not know.You will be utterly unprepared for your downfall.
Try to stand now with your enchantments and with the abundance of your sorceries, with which you have labored from your youth, throughout your existence; perhaps they will be able to avail you, perhaps you will grow strong (see commentary on 29:20).
You are wearied in your many schemes. Many generations prior to Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon was a large and powerful city. Over the course of time it declined, then once again became an empire during Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. The prophet mocks the Babylonians’ use of their generations-long knowledge of sorcery to regain world dominion. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, who pretend they can discern the future from the new moon, stand up and save you from that which will come upon you.
Behold, they became like straw, fire burned them; they will not deliver themselves from the grasp of the flame. They will be unable to predict their own downfall. There is no ember to bake their bread or a fire to sit before it. The fire will burn itself out, leaving nothing behind.
So you had those, the peoples with whom you labored, to acquire their alliance or business partnership, the merchants from your youth; each has strayed in his own direction; each shall depart on his way; there is no one to save you.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 48
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 48 somebodyHear this, house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel and who emerged from the waters of Judah. This prophecy refers mainly to the people of Judah, both the prophet’s contemporaries and future generations, who take an oath in the name of the Lord and mention the God of Israel. They thereby declare that He is their God, but it is not an oath taken in truth, nor is it taken in righteousness. Their self-identification as believers in God is not serious and their oaths in His name are not reliable.
For they are called the people from the holy city, their native Jerusalem, and they rely on the God of Israel; the Lord of hosts is His name. He gives them all their power and authority.
I told of the first things, events, beforehand; they emerged from My mouth and I announced them in advance; suddenly I did so, and they came to pass.
Because of My knowing that you are difficult, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead is made of bronze, you resist accepting reproach;
therefore, I told you beforehand, before it, the event, came to pass I announced it to you; lest you say: My effigy made them; my idol and my cast image commanded them. I informed you in advance so that you would recognize that I am the One in charge of events.
What you heard, see how it all comes to pass; you, won’t you tell that I have announced new matters to you from now, hidden matters that you did not know.
Now they, these new events, were created and not beforehand, and a day ago you did not hear them, lest you say: Behold, I already knew them.
However, despite the fulfillment of the prophecies and warnings, you had not heard, you also did not know; also beforehand your ear was not open. You do not listen to Me; you do not open your hearts and ears. For I knew that eventually you would commit a betrayal, and you are called a transgressor from the womb. This has always been your characteristic behavior.
Nevertheless, for My name’s sake I will defer My wrath; I will not punish you immediately. Literally this means: I will lengthen, since when an angry person calms down, his breaths lengthen. And for the sake of My praise I will forbear for you, so as not to eliminate you.
Behold, I have refined you, but not like a silversmith, who refines silver by burning away the dross so that only pure silver remains. Rather, I chose you through the crucible of affliction. Instead of destroying you like dross, I have afflicted you with the poverty and suffering of exile so that you will emerge refined. This is what is meant by the phrase “I will defer My wrath” in the previous verse.
For My own sake, for My own sake I will do so, as how will it, My name, be profaned? I will not give My glory to another. Your continued existence is due to the fact that I protect My honor and because you are associated with Me.
Although the people do not pay attention to his reproach, the prophet continues to encourage them to listen to him. He tells them about God’s greatness and declares that He, and not their false gods, is the Creator of everything: Heed Me, Jacob and Israel, My appointed ones. Alternatively, this means: Who is called by My name, or: Who was named by Me. I am He; I am the first; also, I am the last. I am the Creator, and I will continue to exist even after the entire world has ceased.
My hand also laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand measured the heavens, has determined their structure; I appointed them by name, or: I commanded them; they immediately stand together at My calling.
Gather yourselves, all of you, Israel, and take heed; who among them, the idol worshippers, was told these things? That the Lord loves him; that He will act on His desire against Babylon and will direct His arm against the Chaldeans. Of whom can it be said, other than you, that the Lord loves them and will redeem them from Babylonia?
I, it is I, who has spoken, I also have called him, the savior; I brought him and made his way successful.
The prophet speaks in the first person: Approach me, hear this: From the beginning, I did not speak my prophecy in secret, but in public; from the time that it, the decree of the destruction of Babylon, was set, there I was, and now the Lord God sent me and in His spirit He gave me my prophecies to deliver to you.
So said the Lord, your Redeemer, Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord your God, who teaches you for your good, who guides you on the way that you should go.
Had you listened to My commandments, followed My instructions, then your peace would be great and flowing like a river, and your righteousness, your success, would be immense like the waves of the sea.
Your descendants would be as plentiful as the sand, and the offspring of your innards like its grains; their name would not be excised and would not be destroyed from before Me.
Emerge from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans, not like those who escape from the sword, but rather proclaim with a singing voice, announce this, that the redemption has arrived, disseminate it to the ends of the earth; say: The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob.
They, Israel, did not thirst even when He led them through the deserts, on their exodus from Egypt; He caused water from the rock to flow for them, He split a rock and water gushed. This memory will accompany the Jewish people on their exodus from Babylonia as well.
Unlike you, who will eventually leave Babylonia and return to your land, there is no peace, said the Lord, for the wicked. They will have no rectification; they will perish in Babylonia.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 49
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 49 somebodyHeed me, lands of the sea, and listen, nations from afar. My prophecy reaches even to distant lands. The Lord called me, assigned me to my mission, from the womb, even before I was born; from the innards of my mother He mentioned my name. He has given me a name, Yeshaya, which alludes to my mission, to prophesy the salvation [yeshua] of God.
He made my mouth like a sharp sword, to speak caustically, and yet in the shadow of His hand He hid me, like a sword in its scabbard; and He made me into a polished, bladed arrow, but He concealed me in His quiver until the time came to reveal myself. The gifts the prophet was granted for his mission are described in tangible, graphic form.
He said to me: You are My servant, Israel, in whom I glory.
But in the past I said: For nothing I labored, I expended my strength for emptiness and futility. Despite all my talents, my efforts have not been successful; indeed, I know that my portion, the reward that I deserve, or my path, is from the Lord and my accomplishment, my behavior, is from my God, as He acts through me and takes pride in me.
Now, the Lord who formed me from the womb to be a servant to Him said to restore Jacob to Him and Israel would be gathered to Him [lo]; I will be honored in the eyes of the Lord; God will honor me for returning Israel to Him, and my God was the source of my strength. According to the Masoretic spelling of lo, with an alef, the verse means that Israel will never perish.
He said: It is not enough for you to be My servant merely to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the immured of Israel. I will also give you a greater honor than that, as I will render you a light for the nations, to be My salvation until the ends of the earth. Besides redeeming Israel, you will provide illumination to all the nations, and disseminate My salvation to the whole world. This statement is apparently addressed to the redeemer; however, some commentaries maintain that it is referring to Isaiah, who prepares Israel and the entire world for the ultimate redemption.
So said the Lord, Redeemer of Israel, its Holy One, to the spurned soul, to the abhorred of a nation, to one who was until now the slave of rulers: From now on you will no longer be disgraced. Instead, kings will see you and stand, and princes will prostrate themselves before you because of the Lord who is faithful in His promise, the Holy One of Israel, who chose you. It is unclear whether this refers to a specific person, perhaps the aforementioned redeemer, or to the entire nation of Israel. Like “Holy One of Israel” (see 47:4), the expression “Redeemer of Israel” is characteristic of the book of Isaiah (see, e.g., 44:6, 24; 48:17).
So said the Lord: In a time of favor, when the appropriate hour arrives, I will answer you, I shall respond to your questions and fulfill your requests, and on a day of salvation I will help you; I will protect you and I will grant you the establishment of a covenant of the people, to restore the land, to bequeath desolate inheritances.
I will also give you the strength to act on behalf of your own redemption, to say to prisoners: Emerge, and to those in darkness: Reveal yourselves. You need not hide and be afraid. They, the liberated prisoners, will graze along the ways, where they shall find what they require, and on all the bare hills will be their pasture.
They will not starve and will not thirst, and heat and sun will not strike them, as their Merciful One is the One who will lead them, and He will guide them to springs of water.
I will render all My mountains into straight ways, and My sunken highways, or the highways in the valleys, which are inconvenient to traverse, will be raised up so that they may be used with ease. Some explain that the status of the highways will be raised or that they will be renovated.
Behold, these exiles of Israel will come from afar, and behold, these will arrive from the North and from the West and those from the land of the Sinites, which is apparently to the south. They will return from all directions and from various countries.
Sing, heavens, and rejoice, earth, and mountains, burst into song, for the Lord has comforted His people, and He will be merciful to His afflicted, whom He has refined in the crucible of affliction (see 48:10).
Zion, referring to the city of Jerusalem, the Land of Israel, and the people, said: The Lord has forsaken me, and my Master has forgotten me.
God responds to this claim: Can a woman forget her baby, or desist from being merciful to the child of her womb? Obviously, a woman cannot forget her own child, and she retains her love and compassion for him. These too may forget, but even if they do, I will certainly not forget you. God will never forget His nation, Israel, as the ties between them are stronger than those between a mother and her child.
Behold, I have engraved you upon My palms, like one who places a sign upon his hand to remember something. Your ruined walls are before Me always. I never stop thinking about you and how to protect you.
Your children will hasten to return to you, whereas your demolishers and your destroyers will depart from you and disappear. The void they left behind will be filled, as the formerly desolate city of Jerusalem will become glorious.
Raise your eyes around and see: All of them, these children, have gathered from afar, have come to you. As I live – the utterance of the Lord – for you will don all of them like jewelry and you will tie them like a bride adorned with ribbons. Zion, who felt forsaken and forgotten by God, her husband, as it were, will again adorn herself for Him and take pride in her many children.
For until now you were left with your ruins and your desolation and your destroyed land; you will now crowd with many inhabitants, and they will not be hostile foreigners, as your destroyers will go forth from you (verse 17) and be distanced.
There will come a day when the children of your bereavement, your lost sons, will yet say in your ears: The place is crowded for me; make way for me so that I too may sit. The mother of these children will be surprised to hear so many requests for living space.
You will say in your heart in amazement: Who bore me these, as I am bereaved and lonely, exiled and astray, or banished. And these, who raised them? Behold, I remained alone; these children, from where are they? From where did they come?
So said the Lord God in response to Zion’s question about the returning children she does not recognize: Behold, I will raise My hand and wave to nations and I will hoist My banner to peoples, to announce to them that the time has arrived. This is similar to the verse: “He will raise a banner for the nations, and He will gather the outcasts of Israel. He will assemble the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth” (11:12). And they shall bring your sons in the edge of their garments, or in their arms, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders, as one carries young children on his shoulders for their delight.
Kings will be your caregivers, and their princesses will be your wet nurses; they will prostrate themselves before you, faces to the ground, and they will lick the dust of your feet. You will receive honor and love from the entire world. And you will know that I am the Lord, of whom those who long for Me will not be ashamed.
If one asks: Can plunder be taken from the mighty? When a mighty warrior has seized plunder, can it be taken away from him? Or can the captives of the victorious [tzaddik] escape from his possession? Although the term tzaddik generally refers to a righteous person, the root tzadi-dalet-kuf in the book of Isaiah often means powerful or victorious (see commentary on 41:2).
For so said the Lord, in response to this question: Even the captives of the mighty may be taken and the plunder of the powerful may escape; and this is because with your rivals I will contend, and your children I will save. Although it is difficult to fight against great and powerful enemies, it is I, God, who will fight them, not you.
I will feed your oppressors their own flesh; like sweet wine their blood will intoxicate them. And all flesh will know that I the Lord am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One, the Exalted One of Jacob (see 1:24).
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 50
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 50 somebodyContinuing His response to the sense of abandonment initially expressed by Zion in the prophecy, God speaks in a sharper tone here. So said the Lord to Israel: Where is the scroll of your mother’s severance with which I sent her away? Where is the bill of divorce that was given to her? By posing this rhetorical question, God rejects the idea that the exile and suffering are like a bill of divorce that permanently separates the nation, symbolically represented as Zion’s mother, from God. Or to whom among My creditors did I sell you? I have not sold you as slaves to other nations as a business deal or for a profit, nor did I wish to get rid of you. Rather, your exile was a punishment for your actions. Behold, for your iniquities you were sold and for your transgressions was your mother sent away.
It is therefore appropriate that you answer My call. Why did I come and there is no man, I called and there is no one to answer? Is My hand insufficient for redemption? Is there no strength in Me to rescue? Behold, with My rebuke I dry the sea, I render rivers wilderness, as a result of which their fish will reek from no water and they will die of thirst.
I clothe the heavens with blackness and I make sackcloth their garment. It is in My power to bring darkness and mourning to the world.
The Lord God has given me a skilled tongue, eloquent speech, to know how to give timely advice to the tired, or, to help and encourage them. He rouses me each morning; He rouses my ear to hear skillfully. I have received from God not only the talent to speak but also the skill to listen.
The Lord God has opened my ear to hear both His statements and those of the people, and I did not rebel, I did not retreat backward. Although I could have refused to develop these unique qualities and opted to remain an average person, I readily accepted them.
Consequently, I gave my body to smiters and my cheeks to pluckers of the hair of my beard; I did not hide my face from humiliation and spittle.
And although I am hated and disgraced, I am aware that the Lord God will help me; therefore I was not humiliated; therefore I made my face like a flint, so that their beatings and spittle have no effect upon me, and as I know that my prophecy is the word of God I will therefore not be ashamed.
I know that I am not alone: My vindicator is near, He stands at my side, and I act under His protection. Therefore, who will contend with me? Let us stand up together and contest each other. Who is my adversary? Let him approach me to argue with me.
Behold, the Lord God will help me; who is he that will condemn me? Behold, I rely on the Eternal God, whereas all of them, my enemies, will wear out like a garment; a moth will eat them. Their existence is temporary, like moldy, moth-eaten rags.
Who among you fears the Lord, hears the voice of His servant, the prophet, who appears to you to have walked in darkness and there was no light for him, who among you can be considered trusting in the name of the Lord and relying on his God? You, however, mistakenly consider yourselves enlightened.
Behold, all of you are igniters of fire, lighters of sparks; as you hold and bring together the sparks you have created so that they will form a flame, go in the flame of your fire and in the sparks that you kindled. Guard your flimsy light as best you can and follow it. This fate that will come upon you was for you from My hand; you will lie in suffering, without peace, consumed by worry and doubt. The light you produced will fade, and you will be left in the dark.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 51
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 51 somebodyListen to Me, pursuers of justice, seekers of the Lord. For those interested in closeness to God, the prophet offers: Look to the rock from which you were hewn, that is, your foundation stones, and to the hole of the pit from which you were dug; return to your roots.
These foundation stones are a metaphor for Israel’s first patriarch and matriarch: Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah your maker; for as one I called him to Me; I declared him for Myself, I singled Abraham out by name, and I nurtured him. Abraham and Sarah were merely a couple, but I multiplied them and made them into a nation: And I blessed him and multiplied him. Abraham and Sarah were a barren couple who experienced rejuvenation after their childbearing years had passed, and they begot a nation that inherited the Land of Israel. Likewise, you, the stones hewn from them, will rise again and rebuild the land.
For the Lord will comfort Zion; He will comfort all her ruins; He will render its wilderness fertile and pleasant like Eden and its desert like a garden of the Lord. Gladness and joy will be found in it, thanksgiving and the sound of music.
Pay attention to Me, My people, and listen to Me, My nation; for Torah will emerge from Me, and My judgment I will lay down [argia] upon the world as a light for peoples. The term argia may also indicate that the justice will be imposed in a calm manner [roga], or that God will impose tranquility upon the nations.
My justice is near; My justice will soon be revealed. Retribution is approaching: My salvation has emerged and My arms will judge peoples; the lands of the sea will long for Me and for My arm, My strength, will they yearn. God’s power will be sought after, and it will be revealed at the time of the redemption, even at the far corners of the world (see also 11:10, 42:4).
Raise your eyes to the heavens and look to the earth below, as the heavens will be eroded like smoke; alternatively, the verse means that the heavens will be in disarray. And the earth will be tattered like a garment. There will be great upheaval in the world; heaven and earth will not look as they appear now. And its, the earth’s, inhabitants, likewise, will die. But My salvation will be forever, and My righteousness will not be daunted; rather, it shall continue to grow and spread throughout the world. Some commentaries interpret the verse as follows: Even if heaven and earth were to be destroyed, God’s justice and salvation would remain. Others maintain that the verse alludes to a physical destruction of the world at the End of Days.
In the meantime, listen to Me, knowers of justice, the people with My Torah in their heart; do not fear the revilement of man, and from their taunt do not be daunted.
For like a garment, a moth will eat them, the taunting enemies, and like wool, a caterpillar will eat them. The enemies do not pose a real threat. They are like a perforated garment: From a distance, the garment appears whole, but from up close, one can see that the garment has been chewed up and is not wearable. But My righteousness will be forever and My salvation for all generations.
The prophet now addresses the arm of God: Awaken, awaken, don strength, arm of the Lord; let the might of God once again be revealed in the world. Awaken, like in days of old, as in generations of yore. Are you not, arm of God, that which hewed Rahav, which killed the sea serpent [tanin]? Rahav is a large, fearsome sea creature that is used to symbolize Egypt. The tanin is also an ancient monster that the hand of God will eliminate. The commentaries explain that the term tanin is a reference to Pharaoh, who is called “the great tanim that lies in the midst of his rivers.”
Are you not, arm of God, that which dried the sea, and the waters of the great deep; which rendered the depths of the sea a way to cross for the redeemed? It was the might of God that split the Red Sea and dried its depths so that the children of Israel could pass through it on their way out of Egypt.
So shall it be in the future: The redeemed of the Lord will return and come to Zion with song, and eternal and unbounded joy will be upon their heads; then, they will attain gladness and joy; sorrow and sighing will flee (see 35:10).
It is I, I who am your Comforter; therefore, who are you, that you fear mortal man, and a person who will be rendered to grass? Why should the children of Israel fear mere mortals, who are compared to grass that withers away or is cut? You fear mortal man because you have forgotten the source of your strength.
You forgot the Lord your Maker, who spread the heavens and laid the foundation of the earth. God, in His might, created the world; it is only because you do not remember Him that you have feared continually all day due to the fury of the oppressor, when he prepares his weapons to destroy. But look around you: Where is the fury of the oppressor? What is left of all those threats, of the bows that were aimed at you? You are wasting your time and energy with unnecessary concerns over transient matters. Instead, rely on the might of God, which is not bounded by time, place, or ability.
The wanderer, the exiled nation of Israel, will quickly be released from exile. Tzoeh may also mean the subordinate, the distressed, or the one who shouts. According to some commentaries, the verse means that Israel’s oppressor is weak and lowly, easily separated from its weaponry, or quickly emits its bile from its body. He will not die in the destruction, and his bread will not be lacking.
And I am the Lord your God, who constrains [roga] the sea though its waves rage. Some interpret the term roga to mean that God constrains the sea, or conversely, that He stirs it. In any case, the verse means that since God controls the storms and waves of the sea, it is certainly within His power to control the raging emotions of Israel’s oppressors; the Lord of hosts is His name.
I placed My words, which create, invigorate, and console, in your mouth, the mouth of the people. In this manner I have placed you under my protection, and with the shadow of My hand I have covered you. I am God, who said to plant the heavens, and to lay the foundation of the earth, and to say to Zion: You are My people. These are the greatest and most stable of God’s creations: heaven, earth, and the nation of Israel. A similar idea is also reflected in the Mishna, which teaches that God acquired five entities in His world: the Torah, heaven and earth, Abraham, the people of Israel, and the Temple. Alternatively, the verse means: I have placed My words in your mouth and protected you in order to create heavens and earth anew through you, My people, Zion.
The theme of consolation continues, in poetic fashion: Awaken, awaken, arise, Jerusalem, who has suffered and drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury; the goblet,or: The sediment fixed at the bottom of the cup of stupefaction have you drunk and drained of its contents.
From Zion’s perspective, there is no one to guide her from all the children she bore. None of her many children are interested in caring for her; they are all busy attending to their own affairs. And there is no one holding her hand from all the children she raised. Zion is compared to a mother whose children have grown and abandoned her. In their absence, others have come to visit her.
Your experiences are these two, that is, you will experience coupled tragedies; who will be moved for you? Pillage and destruction, famine and the sword, shall visit Zion in the absence of her children. Alternatively, the verse does not refer to pairs of tragedies; rather, pillage and destruction are in fact the famine and the sword. Who will comfort you?
Your children have fainted; they lie at the head of every street, like an aurochs that lies helpless after becoming ensnared in a trap. Your children also lie in the streets defeated and depressed, as they are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of your God.
Therefore, now hear this, afflicted, and you who are drunken, but not from wine, but from the cup of overwhelming tragedy. A tormented individual can reach a state similar to drunkenness in which he is confused, disoriented, unstable, and distraught.
So said your Master, the Lord, and your God who will eventually fight for His people: Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of stupefaction from which you drink; the goblet of the cup of My fury, you will not continue to drink it any longer. The persecution, killings, decrees, exiles, and massacres to which you have been subject for so long will eventually cease.
I will place it, this cup, into the hand of your oppressors, who have brought sadness upon you, who said to your soul, your living body: Bow and we will pass over you and trample you; you placed your body like the ground, and you were like the street for the passersby. Those proud nations that trampled you will drink from the cup of stupefaction from which you drank. You will recover, and they will come to understand the suffering you endured.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 52
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 52 somebodyAnother call of comfort and encouragement for Zion is declared as the time of its redemption arrives: Awaken, awaken, don your strength, Zion; don the garments of your splendor, Jerusalem, the holy city. The prophet encourages Zion by emphasizing its salvation and its eternality; as the uncircumcised and the impure will not continue to come among you any longer.
Shake off the dust, arise from the dust and sit, Jerusalem; open the restraints of the yoke on your neck, captive daughter of Zion, a metaphor for the entire nation of Israel. The time has arrived for you to go free.
For so said the Lord: You were sold for naught. When you were sold into the hands of your enemies, you received nothing in exchange for yourselves. And therefore, you will not be redeemed for money. You do not need to pay anything for your redemption, neither to God nor to any human being.
For so said the Lord God: My people went down to Egypt at first to reside there, and there they suffered; and Assyria exploited them for nothing, stealing from them for many years.
And now, what is here for Me in the exile? – the utterance of the Lord – for My people was taken for naught, unjustly. Its rulers [moshelav] glorify themselves [yeheililu] over their success – the utterance of the Lord. Alternatively, those who rule over My people cause them to howl [yalel]. According to another interpretation, moshelav refers to those who compose parables, meshalim. And always, all day, My name is blasphemed by the very fact that My people are in exile.
Therefore, when the time for redemption comes, My people will know My great name, which is currently blasphemed. Therefore, on that day they will know that I am He who speaks; here I am.
How pleasant are the feet of the herald on the mountains. How beautiful it will be when the messenger appears to announce the future redemption. In contrast to the heralds of war, destruction, and captivity, this messenger will be announcing peace, heralding good tidings, and announcing salvation. It will be he who says to Zion: Your God reigns.
Behold the voice of your lookouts, who stand watch above the city walls and spot the messenger running toward the city. Alternatively, the verse refers to the prophets of Zion, who foresaw her redemption and now see the fulfillment of their prophecies. They raise voice, together they sing, for with actual eyes they will see the return of the Lord to Zion.
Break out and sing together, even you, the ruins of Jerusalem, as the Lord has comforted His people; He has redeemed Jerusalem.
The Lord has bared His holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.
Turn aside, turn aside, come out from there, the exile; do not touch any impurity, as you are destined to touch items that are pure; come out from its midst; cleanse yourselves, bearers of the vessels of the Lord.
For when you return from this exile you will not come out in haste, and you will not go in flight. Unlike when you left Egypt, you will not return to Zion while fleeing, nor will there be great commotion or concern. This time, you will emerge from the exile in tranquility and you will walk calmly, for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will also be your rear guard. There is no need to fear, as you are under the strongest possible protection.
Behold, My servant will succeed [yaskil]. Although this servant of God may be a specific individual, it is clear from other passages in the book of Isaiah that this is also a symbolic figure representing the entire nation of Israel. In any case, the verse also means that this servant, whether the Messiah or the entire nation of Israel, will acquire sekhel, understanding: The servant will know God and understand the manner in which He runs the world, and he will anticipate the time of the redemption. He will be elevated and raised, and will become very lofty.
Just as multitudes were astonished over you, saying: Marred and dark beyond any man is his appearance, and his form is beyond any person. At various stages in Israel’s exile, the nation was subject to derision and insult; there were even times when Jews were viewed as subhuman.
So he, the servant of God, will disperse [yazzeh] many nations. Alternatively, the term yazzeh may mean: He will rebuke many nations; he will cause the nations to speak in an excited fashion; he will cause them to jump up from their place; he will sprinkle their blood; he will wage war against them; or he will sprinkle upon them water or the blood of offerings in order to purify them and atone for them. About him kings will shut their mouths, they will not dare to speak against him, for they will see that which was not told to them and they will look at that which they did not hear. They will witness a phenomenon that they have never experienced before: One who was considered downtrodden and despised by all will become honored, and all will look to him with astonishment and they will praise him.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 53
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 53 somebodyMany people will express their shock when they see the exalted status of the servant of God: Who would believe our report of this redemption? Upon whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? See how God’s power has been revealed through His nation, which had been seemingly rejected.
He rose like a sapling before Him, and like a root that sprouts from arid ground. The servant of God will appear in an entirely unexpected fashion. Previously, no form nor grandeur was his; we looked upon him and there was nothing seen, but we nevertheless desired him.This interpretation is supported by the traditional cantillation notes. However, many interpret the verse as follows: He had no form nor grandeur that we should desire him, or as though the verse states: And we did not desire him.
Spurned and unmanned, that is, lacking strength, a man of constant pains, disease-ridden and appearing as one concealing his face from us out of embarrassment or out of a sense of impurity. Alternatively, the verse means that he acted as though we did not exist; or, he appeared as though God hid His face from him; or, everyone who saw him turned their face from him and ignored his suffering. He was spurned, and we did not regard him because of his lowly stature.
Indeed, the true explanation for his misery is that he bore our illnesses and carried our pains; he bore the suffering of the entire world. But we regarded him as plagued, struck by God and afflicted. We thought that God struck him due to his own shortcomings, but in truth he suffered in order to atone for the sins of the entire world. According to Radak, the servant of God does not actually suffer for the sins of the world, as such a belief would seem to contradict basic principles of Jewish faith. Rather, this verse represents the mistaken assumption of the nations of the world that the servant suffered for their sins.
But he was wounded by our transgressions, subdued by our iniquities, the chastisement for our well-being was on him. The suffering that should have been brought upon us was visited upon him as the price for our well-being. And through his wounds we were healed; his suffering affected atonement for the entire world.
All of us strayed like sheep, each of us turned to his own way, apathetic to the consequences of our actions, and the Lord has inflicted upon him the iniquity of us all.
He is oppressed by others and he submits to his oppressors, but he would not open his mouth; he is like a sheep that does not resist as it is led to slaughter, and like a ewe silent before its shearers, he would not open his mouth. He is accustomed to bearing his suffering in silence.
He was taken from the place of his incarceration and the place of his judgment. Alternatively, the verse means: Israel was deprived of ruler and judge, or: Israel was deprived of the protection of rulers and judges. With whom of his generation, or those in his surroundings, will he converse? No one is interested in having any contact with him; alternatively, no one is interested in inquiring about the community’s relationship with him. For the nations say about him: He, the servant of God, was cut from the land of the living, due to the transgression of my people. A plague will come upon them, Israel. Alternatively, the verse means: The servant of God was excised from the land due to the transgressions of those nations upon which a plague should have come.
His grave was put by the nations with the wicked; they buried him in a disgraceful manner, among the wicked, though he was among the rich at his death. They killed him simply out of jealousy over his wealth or over the libelous claim that he became rich by taking advantage of others, but it was for no villainy that he performed and no deceit that was in his mouth.
The Lord desired to reduce him until he was afflicted with disease. If he would accept guilt upon himself and view his suffering as atonement for his sins, he would eventually see descendants, prolong his days, and the desire of the Lord would succeed at his hand.
From his life’s toil he will see misfortune, and he will be satisfied through troubles. Many commentaries understand this phrase as a continuation of the preceding verse: Through his suffering, he will experience goodness and he will be satisfied; alternatively: He supported himself by his own labors without taking from anyone else. By his knowledge and of his own free will, he will vindicate My servant the righteous one to the multitudes of nations, and he will bear their iniquities.
Therefore, in the future I will allot him a good portion among the multitudes and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty before their eyes, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors, as in truth he bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 54
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 54 somebodyThe prophet addresses the feminine embodiment of the nation of Israel: Sing, barren one, the nation of Israel, who did not give birth; burst into song and rejoice, she who it seems did not go into labor, for in truth it shall be that the children of the desolate are more than the children of the married woman, said the Lord.
Expand the place of your tent in order to receive your many children, and spread the curtains, the tent-coverings, of your dwellings, do not spare any space or curtains. Extend your cords that fasten the curtains to the stakes, and reinforce your stakes, as the time of your wandering has come to an end and you will now establish your tent in a fixed location.
For you will spread out to the right and the left; and your descendants will inherit nations and they will settle desolate cities.
The prophet continues to address Zion, which he previously compared to a barren woman: Do not fear anything, for you will not be shamed, do not feel humiliated, for you will not be disgraced anymore; for you will forget the shame of your youth and you will not remember the disgrace of your widowhood any longer. There will come a time when you no longer remember the loneliness you felt before you were married, nor the vulnerability you experienced as a widow.
For your Husband is your Maker, the Lord of hosts is His name. You are neither single nor widowed; your extended separation from your Husband has made you forget His existence. You will, however, be reunited with Him. And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, the God of the entire world He will be called, and He can do anything.
For as a wife forsaken and aggrieved of spirit, depressed and despondent in exile, the Lord called you back to Him, and as the wife of one’s youth she will be spurned, said your God. In God’s eyes, you are as the wife of one’s youth, who is never entirely rejected. As such, He will ultimately renew His bond with you.
God says: For a brief moment I forsook you; the lengthy exile is like a short moment from My perspective. And by contrast, with great and ongoing mercy I will gather you. Alternatively, the verse may be understood in line with the next verse, that in a brief moment of anger I forsook you for an extended period, and during this lengthy separation My compassion toward you has been steadily increasing.
In an outburst of rage, I concealed My face from you for a moment. This is only a momentary concealment of My face, not actual vengeance. Otherwise, nothing would have remained of the nation of Israel. But nevertheless, with eternal grace I will have mercy on you, said your Redeemer, the Lord. When all returns to its proper state, you will see that the depressing times of exile and persecution were only temporary.
For this is for Me like the waters of the flood in the time of Noah. That is to say, just as I took an oath that the waters of Noah would no longer pass over the earth and I have kept that oath, so too, I took an oath that I would not be furious with you, nor would I rebuke or abandon you as in the past.
For even if the mountains will move and the hills will collapse, and nothing will remain secure, but nonetheless My grace will not move from you and the covenant of My peace will not collapse; the bond with God will remain eternally stable, said the One who has mercy on you, the Lord.
The prophet offers another message of comfort to the nation of Israel: Afflicted, storm-tossed one, who has been tossed about without rest; she has not yet been comforted despite all the earlier promises: Behold, when you are restored to your land, I will set your flagstones with carbuncleand lay your foundation with sapphires;you will build with precious stones.
I will make your windows of chalcedony; the verse refers to decorative panels that glisten in the sun, perhaps stained glass panels. And I will make your gates of ruby, and your entire border, which is the entire space within your border, of precious stones. Some explain that the entire border refers to all the edges of a structure, such as the borders around a window or doorway, which were typically constructed with special stones. The prophet’s message is: There will come a time when you are no longer afflicted and tossed about; you will leave your tents and dwell in magnificent buildings, both literally and metaphorically.
Not only will the physical appearance of Zion change; its inhabitants will also undergo a significant transformation: All your children will be disciples of the Lord, they will know Him and follow His ways, and the peace of your children will be abundant. These learned children will not quarrel with one another, but will live together in peace and harmony.
When your ruins are restored, with righteousness you will be established; you will be rebuilt on a foundation of honesty and justice. Distance yourself from exploitation, for you need not fear. Sometimes, one acts dishonestly out of fear. Since you will live in tranquility, you will be capable of distancing yourselves from such behavior. And distance yourself from ruin, as it will not come near you. Some interpret the verse to mean: You will not fear exploitation or ruin, because they will be far from you. Alternatively: Distance yourself from exploitation, as then you will not fear ruin.
Behold, one who is not with Me nor under My protection will be afraid [gor yagur], but whoever resides [gar] with you and joins you, nation of Israel, will fall in with you; such individuals will be safe. Some interpret the word gar as relating to one who provokes [mitgareh] the nation of Israel: Whoever provokes you will fall because of you. In any case, the verse means that the nation of Israel will be able to build without fear, as it is God who controls everything, including the constructive and destructive forces.
Behold, I created the smith who, in the course of his work, fans the fire of coal, and thereby produces a tool with his labor, and yet I also created the destroyer to cause harm. Just as I created those who develop the world and fashion tools for its growth, I also created those who destroy it.
Since everything is Mine, any weapon that will be crafted in order to be used against you will not succeed; and any tongue, that is, any person or any nation, that will rise against you in judgment will be condemned. Those who rise against you with legal claims will be defeated, just like those who rise against you with physical force. This is the guaranteed inheritance of the servants of the Lord and their just deserts, or their salvation, which they shall receive from Me – the utterance of the Lord.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 55
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 55 somebodyWoe, everyone who is thirsty, go to water, which is God, who is compared to water as He is the source of life. And one who has no silver, go purchase food and eat; go purchase wine and milk, which means wisdom, without silver and without cost.Not only is the fundamental necessity of water provided for free; you can even obtain luxuries like wine and milk free of charge as well.
Why do you weigh out silver for no bread, but for worthless items that do not satiate; and why do you expend your exertion for no satisfaction? Instead of exerting such great effort in pursuit of unsatisfying or useless items, heed Me and eat well, and your soul will delight in fatness. Approach God, who is the source of good, abundance, and satisfaction.
Incline your ear and go to Me, take heed and your soul will live; and I will establish with you an eternal covenant, like the enduring grace of David, the eternal covenant that I established with him.
Behold, I have set him, David and his royal house, a witness for the peoples. The prophet does not refer to David solely as a private individual; as king of Israel and the patriarch of the royal dynasty, King David represents the entire nation of Israel. The entire nation is charged with the responsibility of testifying before the nations about the existence of God and His holiness. David, and the nation of Israel, is also a ruler and commander to the peoples.
Behold, in the future you will call a nation that you do not know and they will follow your instructions and guidance, and a nation that has not known you will run to you; the nations will gather around you to receive Torah and wisdom from you. All this shall be for the sake of the Lord your God and for the Holy One of Israel, as He glorified you.
The nation is again exhorted to turn to God, the source of life and strength: Seek the Lord when He is found, call Him when He is near. As the redemption approaches, God is more present in the world. The prophet urges the people: Do not suffice with passive endurance of the current situation; rather, take advantage of God’s accessibility, search for Him and actively pursue a closeness to Him. Under these circumstances, the prophet seeks to rouse his listeners, including the sinners among them.
Let the wicked forsake his way, his sinful activity, and the man of iniquity his evil thoughts; let him return to the Lord and He will have mercy on him and he will return to our God, as He will abundantly forgive.
When the redemption arrives, people will think that it has no relevance for them, as they spent their entire lives acting in ways that were not deserving of God’s blessing. The prophet rejects such an attitude, urging his audience that God is compassionate and that anyone may return to Him: For My thoughts are not your thoughts, as I do not hold a grudge against others, and your ways are not My ways, your actions are not like Mine – the utterance of the Lord.
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. You cannot compare My ways or My thoughts to yours.
Moreover, aside from the wide chasm between My thoughts and those of man, My speech is also not like yours; it is a present and active force in the world: For just as the rain or the snow descends from the heavens, and does not return there until it falls to the earth and has watered the earth, thus fulfilling its purpose, and has caused it to produce and sprout, providing seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so will be My word that issues from My mouth; it will not return to Me unfulfilled, until it has accomplished that which I have desired, and achieved that for which I have sent it. The word of God effects a definitive result; it will certainly achieve its desired outcome, like the nourishing impact of falling rain.
For you will emerge from any exile, hardship, or difficulty with joy and in peace will you be led. Not only will you be led, but you will also receive tangible aid. The mountains and the hills will break out before you in song and all the swaying trees of the field will clap hands. The entire world will be a better place.
Instead of the thorn will rise a juniper, which is of the cypress family; it provides shade and it may be used as building material or as fuel. And instead of the brier will rise a myrtle; it will be for the Lord’s renown, or for His remembrance, as an eternal sign that will not be eliminated.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 56
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 56 somebodyThe following prophecy continues the call to Israel to return to God: So said the Lord: Maintain justice and act with righteousness, for it is nigh that My salvation is to come, and My righteousness, which includes My justice, is soon to be revealed.
Happy is the man who does this and the person who upholds it, the Torah and its commandments; who keeps the Sabbath day from its desecration and stays his hand from performing any evil, any Torah prohibition. Although this call is directed primarily toward the nation of Israel, it applies to all of humanity.
Even gentiles will hear the call, and some will want to come close to God: The foreigner who accompanies the Lord shall not state, saying: The Lord will separate me from His people, and there is no way that I can join His people and receive His blessing; the eunuch, who is unable to procreate, shall not state: Behold, I am a withered tree, and my attempts to draw close to God will bear no fruits.
For so said the Lord to the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths and choose that which I desire and uphold My covenant:
I will give them a memorial and renown in My house and within My walls, which will be better than sons and daughters. Although children maintain the memory of their parents, the memory of those who cling to Me will last longer than descendants of flesh and blood. Eternal renown will I give him, he who embraces Me, that will not cease.
And as for the foreigners, who accompany the Lord, to serve Him and to love the name of the Lord, to be servants to Him, all who keep the Sabbath from its desecration and uphold My covenant; to those former gentiles, God promises that they will not be separated from His people:
I will bring them to My holy mountain and I will bring them joy in My House of prayer by answering their prayers there; their burnt offerings and their peace offerings will ascend for propitiation on My altar. Even if they choose to cling to Me only partially by retaining the status of descendants of Noah, they have a place with Me, for My House will be called a House of prayer for all the peoples. Likewise, I will accept the offerings that gentiles will bring to the Temple.
This is the utterance of the Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel: I will yet gather others to him, Israel, in addition to those gathered to him. As part of the process of redemption, additional groups of Israel’s exiled will sometimes be discovered, and God will gather them all. Many commentaries interpret the verse as referring to converts: Members of other nations will join the nation of Israel.
Aside from the people of Israel and those who join them, at the time of the redemption there will also be people who refuse to accept God’s authority, and they will be punished. The prophet compares the nation to a flock of sheep whose protection has been removed: All beasts of the field, come to eat their carcasses, all beasts in the forest; the flock is no longer protected from predators.
As his watchmen, the great political leaders who are supposed to anticipate future developments, are all blind, they do not know anything. Furthermore, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark. These leaders, who were supposed to serve as watchdogs for the people, cannot warn their communities even if they recognize approaching danger. They are like dogs that are dreaming, lying, loving to doze. Even if they are not dumb, they are too weary to alert the people of an approaching stranger or to repel him.
The dogs are ferocious, they do not know satiation; they are like wild dogs that continuously grab as much as they can for themselves, never reaching a point of satiation. They, these dogs, are merely an analogy for the shepherds, the leaders, who do not know to understand anything. They all turn to their own way, each for his own financial gain, from his lofty station, aloof from the people. The leaders do not comprehend the changes that are occurring in front of them, and they refrain from delivering the necessary rebuke to the people because they are small-minded people involved in their own personal affairs.
These leaders then say to one another: Come, I will take wine and we will get drunk with drink. After spending the day expropriating whatever property they could, they are satisfied and sit down to drink, wishing for themselves: And tomorrow it will also be like this, or even much greater than today.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 57
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 57 somebodyIn a generation with such leaders, the righteous is lost and no man takes it to heart; no one considers the righteous while he is alive, nor when he perishes, nor the values that he represents. Perhaps the members of the community orchestrate a grand funeral for the righteous, but they continue living their lives in apathy. Because of this, men of kindness are taken, they die with no one understanding the connection between the death of the righteous and the tragedies that befall their generation. They do not understand that it is due to the evil in this world that the righteous is taken to another world, as he cannot bear the evil. Additionally, the righteous die before an impending tragedy so that they will not have to suffer from it.
May he, the righteous individual, depart to his final resting place in peace; alternatively: He will come to the place of peace. May he, the righteous, together with the men of lovingkindness, each one who walks in his uprightness, who acts virtuously in the manner befitting him, or, alternatively, who walks before God, rest in peace on their resting places. Additional interpretations: Each righteous individual passes from the world in the manner appropriate for him, or: Peace comes to greet the righteous individual. In any case, one who is not righteous will suffer tragedy and experience neither peace nor tranquility.
The prophet levels harsh accusations against the people of his generation: And you, those who remain, approach here and receive what you deserve; alternatively: Approach here and hear what I think about you. You are children of a soothsayer [onena]; alternatively: You are children of an unstable woman who cannot be trusted, who wanders about as the changing of the seasons [onot]. Even worse, you are the descendant of an adulteress who has strayed. Some interpret the latter clause to mean: You are the descendant of an adulterer, and you also commit adultery.
For whom do you delight with your fancy speech? Others explain this to mean: Upon whom do you rely to be the source of your delight, or: Upon whom do you rely that you allow yourselves to indulge? For whom do you widen a mouth, extend a tongue? You speak so eloquently, but you are bereft of truth. Aren’t you children of transgression, descendants of falsehood?
The prophet continues with a series of descriptions that are difficult to understand: Aren’t you those who inflame yourselves among the terebinths, passionately practicing your idolatrous ways? Many explain this as a reference to adulterous acts that accompanied idolatry. These acts are performed publicly, under every flourishing tree. Aren’t you the slaughterers of the children in the ravines, under the crags of the rocks?
With the smooth stones of the ravine is your portion; they, they are your lot. It is possible that the stones of the ravine were used to draw lots pertaining to the idolatrous rituals that would be conducted there. Alternatively, they may have worshipped the stones or used the stones in their rituals, which is why the stones are called their lot. Also to them you poured a libation, offered up a meal offering. As with other descriptions of idolatry in the Bible, it seems that these rituals were not initially practiced with genuine idolatrous motivations; rather, they were first adopted from the surrounding cultures, perhaps as superstitious behaviors, and were eventually conducted as part of unadulterated idol worship. Can I relent with regard to these practices? Can I forgive them or behave toward them with apathy?
Not only in the valleys, but also on a lofty, high mountain you placed your bed; there too you ascended, neither for the view nor for an excursion, but to slaughter an offering.
And behind the door and the doorpost you placed your commemoration. In your devotion to your idols you placed them behind your doors so that you would immediately encounter them when entering your home. For you exiled yourself from Me, and you went up and departed from Me; you broadened your bed and created a space between us that has been filled by foreign entities, and you established covenants for yourself with them. Alternatively, the verse means: You have been excised because of them. You loved their bed wherever you saw fit for idolatry. Others explain: You loved the bed of anyone who extended a hand to you. After criticizing Israel’s inclusion of foreign forms of worship, the prophet begins a critique of Israel’s foreign relations. He accuses the people of developing diplomatic and cultural ties with foreign nations to win their favor.
You sent tribute of fine oil to the foreign king, and multiplied your spice blends for him. Alternative interpretations: You appear before the foreign king anointed with oil and perfumes, or: You seek the favor of the foreign king so that he will give you oil and perfumes. You sent your representatives far and you descended even to the netherworld. All your efforts to establish relations with other nations have not yielded any benefit and have in fact degraded you.
You were wearied in your multitude of ways. Some render the verse: With the multitude of your energies, or: With the multitude of your acts of intercourse you were wearied; but despite this, you did not say: Despair. If you failed to establish relations with another state, or if you failed in a certain diplomatic enterprise, you attempted a different approach. You found your livelihood; alternatively: You found your strength. You experienced some degree of success with which you sufficed, and therefore you did not fall ill in an obvious manner even though you were beset by various hidden ailments. Alternatively, the verse means: You did not become weak through your toils, or: You did not notice or worry about your illness.
From whom were you concerned and were afraid, that you were compelled to act in a deceitful manner? It is common to lie to an enemy that is becoming stronger and more intimidating, in an effort to appease him. And Me, you did not remember, and did not take to your heart. Instead of remembering Me, you have employed creative methods in repeated attempts to establish ties with foreign nations. You have developed an entire world of activity, diplomacy, and cultural relations with various nations, but you have forgotten Me. Is it not because I have always been silent that you did not fear Me? Some interpret the verse as follows: From whom do you fear that you deny your evil ways? Has it not always been My way to demonstrate compassion and to accept those who admit their sins? You have no reason to fear admitting the truth.
I will proclaim your righteousness and your actions, and teach you how to act and how to be righteous, but they will not avail you because you refuse to listen.
Your gathering will deliver you in your outcry; you organize large gatherings to cry out, and these gatherings provide help for a short time. According to many commentaries, the prophet is mocking Israel: When you cry, let the idols or the foreign nations that you have associated with deliver you, or: The worldly possessions you have gathered will not deliver you from your troubles. But eventually, the wind will carry off all of them, futility will take; they will be completely erased, while the one who trusts Me will inherit the land and take possession of My holy mountain; only actions performed out of a connection to God will have lasting impact.
He who trusts Me, who possesses the land, will say at the time of redemption: Pave, pave, clear the way, remove the obstruction from the way of My people so that they can return to their land.
The prophet combines words of comfort with words of rebuke: For so said God, the Exalted and Most High, who dwells forever, or: who dwells in the highest heavens, and Holy is His name: Exalted and holy I will dwell, in the greatest heights, and at the same time, I will be with the downtrodden and humble in the lowest depths, in order to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the downtrodden.
For I will not contend forever with one who has been punished and continues to suffer, and I will not be eternally angry with him, for the spirit of man will become weak and submit before Me. Others interpret this phrase: The spirit that is enveloped in the body is from Me, or: A spirit of holiness and purity will emerge from Me and envelop the people. And I will not destroy the souls, as it was I who made them.
I was angry because of the iniquity of his greed and I smote him, concealing Myself and being angry; anger is the concealment of God’s face; and he, the sinner, went waywardly in the way of his heart, without inhibition.
Even though he rebelled against Me and I hid My face from him, I saw his evil ways and I will heal him from his pain; I will guide him on the proper path and pay condolences to him for his pain even though he is undeserving, and I will pay condolences to his mourners, all those who mourn the destruction of Jerusalem. Alternatively, the mourners are the friends of the suffering individual, who mourn over his pain.
Creator of the expression of the lips; as the Creator of speech, God decrees that the mourners and those who suffer will yet experience speech of healing and peace: Peace, peace for the far, those who have been distanced and downtrodden, and for the near, said the Lord; according to the Sages, the far and the near refer to righteous individuals and individuals who have repented. And I will heal him through My speech and by granting the power of speech to others.
But the wicked are stormy like the sea, as it cannot rest; the wicked cannot rest from their constant desire to perform evil. And just as its water constantly expels mire and mud, so too, the tempestuous spirit of the wicked person constantly provokes him to act in a sinful manner.
Therefore, there is no peace, said my God, for the wicked.Unlike the righteous, the wicked are constantly agitated and will never have peace.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 58
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 58 somebodyThe passage begins with a statement of God to the prophet: Cry full-throated; do not restrain yourself; like a shofar raise your voice and tell My people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins. You must deliver your message publicly, although it contains ideas that are unpleasant for the people to hear.
Daily, they seek Me. My people approach the prophets, priests, and Sages to ask various questions. And they desire to know My ways, like a nation that acted with righteousness and did not forsake the justice of their God. Outwardly, they appear to be righteous and God-fearing individuals, as they ask Me about the laws of justice, they desire the closeness of God.
The prophet cites one of the important theological questions that concerned the people: Why did we fast, and You did not see? Why did we afflict our soul, and You did not know? The prophet immediately gives God’s response: Behold, on the day of your fast you pursue your usual desires, instead of using the day for introspection and repentance. Alternatively, this phrase means: You satisfy your own desires, not Mine, as you are fasting for your own reasons. And you oppress all your victims [atzeveikhem]. You continue to afflict your usual victims whom you upset on a regular basis. According to this interpretation, atzeveikhem refers to individuals who are sad or weary. Alternatively, atzeveikhem means your money. While this day should be set aside for repentance and the restoration of monetary debts to their rightful owners, you exploit it by demanding and collecting your debts and hurting those who are unable to pay you.
Behold, you fast for contentiousness, and strife. You argue with each other on the fast day itself, possibly because you have too much free time, or because you are more inclined to quarreling in your gloomy mood. And you fast to smite with the fist of wickedness. As the quarrel escalates, you reach the point of striking your opponents. You are not fasting today, there is no indication that you are fasting now, so as to make your voice heard on high. Although you refrain from eating and you congregate to call out to God, you do not undergo any internal change.
The prophet continues to cite God’s answer to the people: Will like this be the type of fast that I choose, a day that a man afflicts his soul for naught? Is it fitting for each person to bow his head like a bulrush [agmon] in a swamp, which stands upright with its top bent over, flapping in the wind because of the weight of the stalks, while spreading under himself sackcloth and ashes to sit or lie upon? Others explain that agmon refers to a sharp hook with a curved head. So too, even as you are bent over you harm others with your sharp edges (see also commentary on 9:13). Is this what you call a fast and a day of favor to the Lord? Do you think that I want the external gesture of bending one’s head in submission that accompanies fasting, which is designed to display humility, or any of your other formal expressions of mourning?
Isn’t this the fast that I choose? Isn’t the ultimate goal of an ideal fast to bring righteousness to the world, loosening the fetters of wickedness, untying the binds, the chains, and ropes of the yoke, binding it to the one who bears it, sending the oppressed free, and severing entirely every yoke that you have placed upon others?
The ideal fast must also include assistance to suffering individuals: Isn’t it slicing your bread for the hungry, and bringing the wretched poor home, to shelter them? In addition, when you see the naked, you must clothe him yourself or ensure that he is covered, and you do not disregard your own flesh, by abandoning your needy relatives. If you wish to repent, search for any poor people whom you may have forgotten, and provide them with sustenance. Your fasting, outward submission to God, and wearing of sackcloth are not the primary components of the fast. Rather, providing for the poor and covering the naked should be your central focus.
If you observe your fast days in the proper manner, then your light will burst out suddenly like the dawn, as it will appear from the darkness like the light of the morning breaking through the sky. This use of the terms bursting or breaking [yibbaka] is similar to the language of the prayer recited on the Sabbath morning during the blessings of Shema: And breaks forth through the windows of the heavens, as well as an expression in the Talmud: The light of dawn diffuses to here and to there. And your healing will quickly grow, and your justice will go before you, as your acts of righteousness will be renowned wherever you go, and the glory of the Lord will escort you, for God will accompany you. You will be honored by others, generally successful, and you will be protected from harm. The Sages expound this phrase as referring to the period after one’s death.
To those who asked why they were not answered when they fasted and prayed (verse 3), the prophet adds: If you perform the following actions properly, then you will call, and the Lord will answer, you will implore, and He will say: Here I am. You must refrain not only from eating, but also from the following types of activities: If you remove from your midst the yoke that you placed upon the unfortunate, and finger-pointing toward another in a threatening, incriminating, or contemptuous manner, and speaking evil,
and you will present yourself to the hungry. Instead of hiding from the hungry, you reach out to him, by expressing your desire to help, or by giving him some of your food. Alternatively, you treat him with a positive spirit, and greet him warmly. And if you will satisfy the afflicted person, suffering from hunger or other troubles, then your light will shine in the darkness and your blackness will be brightened like the noon.
The Lord will guide you always; alternatively: The Lord will grant you continuous tranquility, and He will satisfy your soul in brightness [betzah··], with a bright, clear light. This term, which appears nowhere else in the Bible, is used in a mystical sense in esoteric works. Alternatively, betzaĥtzaĥot means that God will satiate you in a time of drought, just as you satisfied the souls of the afflicted. And He will release your limbs and allow them unlimited movement, just as you freed the imprisoned from their chains; and you will be refreshed and joyful like a watered garden and like a water source whose water never fails.
If you are worthy enough, you will even be able to improve the world: Ancient ruins will be rebuilt by you. You will rebuild that which was destroyed long ago, in addition to recently destroyed edifices. You will reestablish generations-old foundations, those buildings constructed many generations earlier, of which only the foundations remain; and then you will be called by others: Repairer of the breach. The restoration of injustices is similar to repairing a breach that has been neglected for a protracted period. And you will also be termed: Restorer of paths for habitation. You will reinstate the desolate paths. Instead of crying and sitting idle, you should arise and act: remove harmful stones, repair injustices, and rebuild destroyed fences and other structures. This statement is both a demand of the people and a promise.
In addition to implementing social reforms, the prophet also insists on the observance of the Sabbath: If you restrain your walking because of the Sabbath, and do not venture beyond the prohibited Sabbath limit, and you refrain from pursuing your needs on the day of My holiness, in addition to avoiding all prohibited labor; and instead you call the Sabbath a delight, and you call the Lord’s sacred day, the Sabbath, honored, as is written in the Torah; and if you honor it by refraining from doing your business, your normal weekday activities, and from seeking and planning your business needs, and from speaking of such matters;
if you fulfill these directives, then you will delight in the Lord, and I will mount you onto the heights of the earth, as you will be exalted and will rule the world, with nothing standing in your way. Alternatively, the phrase “the heights of the earth” is a reference to the Land of Israel, or its high mountains. And I will feed you the inheritance of Jacob your forefather, as you will receive the entire blessing of Jacob: “Your descendants will be as the dust of the earth, and you shall spread to the west, to the east, to the north, and to the south.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. This is the prophet’s response and his advice, which he received directly from God.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 59
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 59 somebodyContinuing his explanation of why the prayers of those fasting were not answered, the prophet declares: Behold, the Lord’s hand is not too short to save and His ear is not too heavy to hear your prayers.
Rather, the sole reason that He does not answer you is that your iniquities have been separating between you and your God and your sins have concealed from you the face, from heeding. Your deplorable conduct has created a barrier that blocks God from hearing your prayers, as it were.
The prophet provides specific examples of his previous statement: For your hands are sullied with blood that you have spilled, and your fingers are contaminated with iniquity; your lips spoke falsehood, your tongue utters injustice. Since your actions and speech are evil, God ignores your prayers.
No one calls for justice. People use deceit and treachery rather than turning to each other in an upright, honest manner. Alternatively, no one rebukes others for sinning, or nobody prays. And no one is judged honestly. In court cases as well as in other types of disputes both sides attempt to deceive each other. The prophet offers another description of the same sorry state of affairs: Trusting in emptiness, and speaking futility. The people are rebuked here not for the inherent evil of their actions, but for their futility. They are continually conceiving wrong and giving birth to iniquity.
The prophet describes the efforts of the people in committing sin through imagery taken from animal life: They hatch the eggs of an adder. Like an adder, which cracks open its egg from the inside, in their minds they constantly devise evil plans that ultimately spawn harmful actions. And they weave spider webs, which are spun for catching flies; one who eats of their eggs, those of the adder, will die from the poison, and the egg, which is crushed, or squeezed, or heated until it cracks, will bring forth a viper.
Their webs will not be used for effectively protective garments and they will not cover themselves with their works. They are toiling not in order to prepare garments for their bodies, but so as to fashion traps. The conceiving of wrong and giving birth to iniquity, referred to in verse 4, is compared here to a harmful action that does not have long-lasting effects. Their works, the works of these people, are works of iniquity, as they use inappropriate force. Alternatively, the actions they perform have no permanence, and the product of villainy is in their palms.
Their feet run to evil and they hasten to spill innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; robbery and ruin are on their highways. Their actions are directed to plunder, and consequently they are destructive as well.
They do not know the way of peace, as they have not ventured along that road at all, and there is no justice in their goings about, the manner by which they conduct their lives; their paths are crooked for them, themselves; anyone who walks on it, their path, does not know peace.
The prophet changes his point of view from speaking as an outside observer to speaking in the voice of his audience: If indeed we act in that manner, we are incorrect in our claims against God. Therefore, justice, in the form of our success and the punishment of our enemies, is far from us, and righteousness, or salvation, does not reach us; we long for light, but behold, darkness; we look for the brightness but in blackness we walk.
We grope a wall like the blind, searching for an opening, like the eyeless we grope to find an exit; we stumble at noon, when all is clear, as in the dark of night, like the blind, who receives no help from the light; we are in the dark [ashmanim] like the dead, who do not hear or see anything. Some commentaries interpret ashmanim as graves. Others interpret it to mean fat and healthy, or oil lights used to light the way, whether they go among the gentiles or among the living. In other words, even if they are healthy or have lights for illumination, they still feel as though they are among the dead or are walking in the dark.
We growl like bears during our prayers, all of us, and like doves with their distinctive sounds we coo. This might also be referring to cries of pain. We find ourselves simply chattering away, without the ability to extricate ourselves from our distress. We long for justice upon our enemies, but there is none, for salvation, but it grows distant from us. The nation feels as though it is trapped in a maze from which there is no exit. Although it understands that it is unworthy of salvation due to its actions, it is perhaps incapable of even considering any type of guidance.
For our transgressions against You are many and all of our sins have testified against us. This is not rebuke from an external source, but an acknowledgement of sin on the part of the people themselves. For our transgressions are with us, and we have not rid ourselves of them, and as for our iniquities, we know them:
We have performed transgression and denial of the Lord. If we mention His name, it is only in a negative context, to bolster our false statements or in a curse. And we are guilty of withdrawal from following our God, speaking exploitation and defiance, conceiving [horo] and uttering [hogo] words of falsehood from the heart. Others maintain that the term horo is from the root yud-reish-heh, which means to throw, and hogo is understood to mean removing or emerging. Accordingly, the phrase means: We hurl words of falsehood from the heart, and they emerge into the world.
Therefore, justice has retreated and righteousness will stand at a distance, as truth has stumbled in the street. If truth were to walk on the street, the people would certainly thwart it. And any talk of uprightness cannot enter.
Deceit and denial are the most commonly employed tactics around which their lives revolve. Truth is missing, and therefore one who abstains from evil is deemed insane and fanatical. Other explanations of this term are: He is disregarded, or his possessions have been plundered and disappeared, or he is trampled upon like a road. According to all these interpretations, this society viewed one who refrains from evil negatively, for not capitalizing on his potential opportunities. The Lord saw and it was evil in His eyes, as there is no justice, order, or righteousness;
He saw that there was no virtuous man, and He was astonished that there was no one to intervene in this entire society, someone who would persist to maintain standards of justice or who would encourage others to do so. Since the situation was so difficult that people were apparently incapable of extricating themselves from it through their own efforts, God Himself interceded to impose order on the world: His arm brought salvation for it, as God alone will bring salvation to the people; and His righteousness supported it, the nation. The people’s salvation depends on God alone, not human actions. Consequently, God appears in the next verse as a man of war, as He is also described elsewhere in the book of Isaiah.
He donned righteousness and justice like armor and a helmet of salvation on His head; He donned garments of vengeance, military garb, as His costume and He cloaked Himself with zealotry like a cloak.He wraps Himself, as it were, in rage and in vengeance. Since righteousness and uprightness have disappeared, He seeks to restore them.
According to what is deserved, accordingly He will pay fury to His foes, retribution to His enemies, He will pay retribution against the lands of the sea, meaning distant lands. At the time of the redemption there will be not merely a limited change, but a global transformation.
At that time, the glory of God will be revealed in the world, and they will fear the name of the Lord from the West, the ends of the world, and they will elevate His glory from the rising sun, as the enemy will come continuously, like a river,but the spirit of the Lord will be consuming [nosesa] within it. God will overpower, consume, and destroy him. Alternatively, an enemy will come whom the spirit of God has raised like a banner [nes] above all those around him.
Then the redemption will arrive: A redeemer, God, as every mention of a redeemer in the book of Isaiah refers to God, will come to Zion, Israel, and salvation will come to those who repent from transgression in Jacob – the utterance of the Lord.
And as for Me, this is My covenant with them, those who have repented from sin and who are faithful to Me, says the Lord; My spirit that is upon you, Jacob, and My words that I have placed in your mouth will not move from your mouth, or from the mouth of your descendants, or from the mouth of the descendants of your descendants, said the Lord. This promise will be in effect not only for a few generations, but will remain from now and forever. As long as Israel fulfills the will of God, they will preserve their connection to Him and are assured of the redemption. The covenant between God and the Jewish people guarantees that His spirit and His word will not be cut off from among them.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 60
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 60 somebodyArise, congregation of Israel and Zion, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has shone upon and illuminated you. Others explain that the light you were accustomed to seeing in the past has dimmed, and in its place, the glory of God will shine upon you.
For behold, the darkness will cover the earth, and the other peoples will be covered by a fog; but upon you the Lord will shine, and His glory will be seen upon you. In an entirely dark world, only one small corner will have light.
Since you will be the only source of light, nations will walk by your light and kings will march by the glow of your shining.
The prophet describes other aspects of the redemption: Lift up your eyes all around, and see, they, your exiled children, are all assembling and coming to you; your sons that had disappeared are coming from afar, and your delicate daughters are carried on the side of the body. They will be carried gently by caregivers, like young children who require assistance and careful supervision.
Then you will see and be radiant and your heart will thrill and swell. In your emotionally-charged state, you will be almost afraid to believe that all of this wonderful news is actually true. For a horde like the sea will be turned upon you, throngs of people turning around to see what has occurred, and streaming to you from all directions. The power and wealth of the nations will come to you. Some explain that the phrase “horde like the sea” is also referring to the great riches that will arrive from overseas.
A herd of camels will cover you, the land. This is an exaggeration, as though the land will not be visible due to the multitude of arriving animals and their loads. The young camels of the lands of Midyan and Ephah, all of them will come from the land of Sheba; they will carry to you gold and frankincense, Sheba’s finest products, and when they arrive, their riders will herald the praises of the Lord.
All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered to you, Jerusalem, the older rams of Nevayot will serve you. Nevayot was Ishmael’s firstborn, while Kedar was his second son. In this verse, these two tribes represent all Ishmaelites, whose sheep will be brought to Zion and the Temple. They will be offered up for the propitiation of My altar and I will make splendid the house of My splendor.
Who are these who fly like a cloud and like doves returning to their cotes?
For the lands of the sea, distant lands, will long for Me, to come to Me, or for My reward, or My instruction, with the ships of Tarshish, which departed from distant lands (see 23:1), yearning in the lead, to bring your children to you from afar. The children will not arrive as captives that have been redeemed in exchange for gold and silver, as their silver and their gold will be with them, like dignitaries bearing expensive goods. And all this will be performed for the name of the Lord your God and for the Holy One of Israel, because He has glorified you.
Foreigners will build your walls and their kings will serve you. Those who destroyed your walls and conquered you will help you rebuild them. As at that point, it will become apparent that it was only in My anger that I struck you and in My time of favor I have had mercy on you.
Open always your gates, Jerusalem; day and night will they not be closed, to bring to you the wealth of the nations, and their kings will come led by others, as kings are normally transported. Alternatively, they will come in an orderly fashion, like sheep herded by a shepherd. Some explain that they will be led by others in the manner of prisoners.
For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve you will perish and the nations will be destroyed. Any kingdom that refuses to fulfill God’s wishes will disappear from the world. This idea is further developed in the book of Zechariah.
The glory of the Lebanon, the large, magnificent trees that grow in that region, will come to you: Juniper, ash, and boxwood together (see commentary on 41:19), all will come to make splendid the place of My Temple, just as these trees were brought from Lebanon for use in the First Temple, and the place of My feet will I honor.
The sons of your tormenters will come to you bent over submissively; all those who have scorned you will prostrate themselves at your feet and they will call you: City of the Lord, and Zion of the Holy One of Israel.These new names for Jerusalem will reflect its relationship with God.
Instead of your being forsaken and hated during the exile, with no one passing through, as you were a small, desolate area in which no one took interest; I will now designate you for eternal glory, a continual source of gladness for generations.
You will nurse the milk of the nations, wealth and gifts from the entire world. And moreover, from the breast of kings will you nurse, as you will receive the spoils and possessions of kings; and then you will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior, and your Redeemer is the Mighty One of Jacob, who is exalted and rules over Jacob (see 1:24).
Instead of bronze, of which you currently have plenty, I will bring gold. Both gold and bronze have a yellowish tinge. Although their color is roughly equivalent, gold is far more valuable than bronze and therefore this metal symbolizes the great wealth of the Messianic times. And instead of iron I will bring silver. These grayish-white metals are also similar, but once again the value of silver is much greater than that of iron. And instead of wood, the cheapest material, I will bring bronze; and instead of stones, iron; I will appoint your officials for peace. The authorities will not behave cruelly, in the haughty manner of inspectors and collectors, but will act honestly and peacefully. And I will likewise designate your tax collectors, your rulers who place burdens upon the people, for righteousness. Others explain that righteousness and peace will replace your officers and tyrants.
The prophet addresses the moral and spiritual aspects of life at that time: No longer will villainy, the improper appropriation of money, be heard of in your land, robbery and ruin will likewise not appear within your borders; you will call your walls salvation, and your gates, praise. The sturdy walls of Jerusalem will be called the walls of salvation and victory, and the gates of the city will be known as the gates of praise. Since there will be no more desolation and destruction, the walls will lose their primary purpose, and will serve only as a memorial to God’s salvation of His people. Others explain that salvation will be your stronghold, and praising God will be the necessary means of entry to the city. Alternatively, calls of salvation and praise will be heard from within the walls of Jerusalem.
Moreover, in those times the sun will no longer be for light for you by day, as you will not require the sun to supply daylight. Alternatively, you will not be subject to the forces of nature, but will instead be directly under the supervision of God. And similarly, the glow of the moon will not illuminate for you at night. These celestial bodies will be secondary to the great light: The Lord will be for you an eternal light and your God will be your splendor.
Your, Zion, sun, will no longer set and your moon will not be gathered in, by setting and disappearing. The continuous presence of these two luminaries together in the sky represents the miraculous light of the redemption that will not wax and wane, as the Lord will be for you an eternal light, providing you with all that you lack, and the days of your mourning will be completed.
And your people, they are all righteous at that time, they will inherit the Land of Israel forever. The renewed growth of the nation of Itsrael from an existing base will be like the scion of My planting, a small branch that grows from the roots of a tree, ultimately becoming a large tree in its own right. These branches, which symbolize the increasing power of the nation, are My handiwork, to be adorned in splendor, they will develop into a glorious product.
The smallest of the people will become a thousand, a large number, and the youngest, or the least in quantity, will develop into a mighty nation; I am the Lord, who promises that at its appropriate time, I will hasten it, the arrival and the process of the redemption.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 61
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 61 somebodyThe spirit of prophecy in the name of the Lord God is upon me. I have been sent to deliver these prophesies and to reveal future events only because the Lord has anointed me to herald to the humble; He sent me to bind the broken-hearted, a poetic depiction of the removal of the suffering of the downtrodden, to proclaim liberty for captives and implant in them the hope of freedom, and release for the imprisoned [pekah··], taking out [lakaĥ] the imprisoned. Alternatively, this means to awaken the imprisoned from their oppressed state. Others explain that koaĥ is the location to which these people were taken, such as a prison, which God will open.
To proclaim beforehand a year of favor for the Lord, a year in which on one hand God will be accessible and which will be characterized by a spirit of reconciliation, and conversely, a day of vengeance for our God as well. The consolation of Zion will include the punishment of Israel’s enemies, as described below (see 63:1–6). The purpose of the day is to comfort all mourners taking part in the national mourning for the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of Israel;
to provide for the mourners of Zion, to give them splendor instead of ashes. It was customary to place dirt or ashes on one’s head as a demonstration of mourning or at a time of distress. The prophet promises that these expressions of mourning will be replaced with clothing, hats, and jewelry. Likewise, festive oil, a colorful description of the oil that would be spread upon a person at a time of joy, will be given to them instead of mourning, a garment of praise will be worn instead of a spirit of despondency or weakness. Rather than remaining in a sour mood, focused on the negative aspects of life, the children of Zion will be wrapped in a glow of light that will provide them with honor and greatness. At that time, they will be called pillars of [eilei] righteousness. The children of Zion will be paradigms of righteousness and stability, and they will also be called the planting of the Lord, to be adorned in splendor. Others interpret the word eilei as referring to trees, just as the conclusion of the verse deals with planting. Alternatively, eilei means the great ones or officers.
When the redemption arrives, they will rebuild ancient ruins that have lain in wreckage for centuries, and former desolations will be restored, and they will renew ruined cities, the desolations of many generations. You will then not only be liberated and transformed into free people, but you will also be granted your rightful exalted status.
Strangers, other nations, will stand of their own volition and shepherd your flocks and foreigners will be your farmers and your vineyard workers, attending to all your agricultural needs, not because you rule over the other nations, but due to the universal recognition of your lofty status and your mission.
And you, the entire nation, will be called priests of the Lord; servants of our God will be said of you. While other nations will be engaged in agriculture on your behalf and for themselves, you will be free to serve God, which will benefit all humankind. Therefore, you will consume the wealth of the nations, and enjoy the fruit of their labor and their possessions, and in their glory will you revel [tityamaru]. Since you will attain the highest status, any honor or achievement that others merit will be easily accomplished by you. Some commentaries associate tityamaru with temura, exchange, meaning that you will take their place. Alternatively, it is related to mar, master, as you will be their masters, or to the term meri, fat, as you will enjoy the fat of their land.
Instead of your doubled shame that you suffered in the past, as you were embarrassed in your own eyes and in the eyes of others, and instead of the disgrace that they, the gentile nations, would sing, that it, Israel’s suffering, is their portion; they, Israel, will therefore doubly take possession in their land; eternal joy will be theirs. Some interpret the verse as saying that Israel would speak of its own disgrace in the form of a dirge. Alternatively, the verse means that instead of enduring their shame, your redeemed children will sing and rejoice in their portion.
For I am the Lord, who loves justice, hates robbery with iniquity. Throughout the generations, Israel was robbed and oppressed, while the offending gentiles were never brought to justice. In the Messianic Era, God will rectify this situation. I will give them their recompense in truth, and an everlasting covenant will I establish with them.
Their descendants will be known among the nations. Not only will they be clearly identified with the nation of Israel, but they will also be praised as such, and their offspring will be prominent and highly regarded among the peoples; consequently, all who see them will recognize them for they are the descendants of the blessed of the Lord. Wherever they are, it will be evident that they are more blessed than the peoples of the other nations.
In the role of spokesman for Israel, the prophet responds to the announcements of redemption in the previous passage: I will be gladdened in the Lord when the redemption arrives; my soul will exult in my God, as He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, with a robe of triumph has He cloaked me (see commentary on 5:16), like a groom who exhibits splendor, whose clothing is as magnificent as the priestly garments, and who leads all the celebrants, and like a bride who bedecks herself with her ornaments and wedding attire. So too, I will rejoice in the glory that will adorn me at the time of the redemption.
For like the earth produces its growth and like the garden sprouts its seeds, so the Lord God will sprout strength and praise, success and light, before all the nations. The prophet compares the redemption to a plant that suddenly sprouts from a seed concealed in the ground. Just as the land will produce vegetation sooner or later, and the garden will cause the decomposed seeds long buried in the ground to sprout, so too the nation of Israel, although currently demeaned, contains the potential for redemption, and when the time comes, its greatness will be revealed before all the nations.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 62
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 62 somebodyHere the prophet speaks in his own voice: For the sake of Zion I will not be silent, and for the sake of Jerusalem I will not be still. I will raise my voice and pray on behalf of Jerusalem, until its rightness emerges as a glow. Jerusalem’s strength and the righteousness of her ways will be apparent to all, and its salvation will blaze like a torch.
Nations will see your rightness and all kings will see your glory; and then, after your redemption, you will also be called a new name that the mouth of the Lord will designate.
You will be a crown of splendor in the hand of the Lord and a royal mitre in the palm of your God. You will be close to God, protected, supported, and embraced by Him, as it were.
The city that was forsaken will no longer be said of you and desolate will no longer be said of your land; rather, you will be called the opposite: My desire is for her and your land will be called: Wedded; for the Lord desires you and your land will be wed; it shall have owners, and be inhabited.
Just as a young man weds a maiden, so your sons will wed you, with comparable joy and enthusiasm they will arrive to reinhabit, build, and develop the land; and like the gladness of a groom with a bride, so your God will be glad with you. God will rejoice over you like a bridegroom toward his bride. The image of a husband and wife is commonly used by the prophets to describe the relationship between God and Israel. Here the prophet focuses specifically on the joy at the renewal of this relationship.
The prophet speaks in the name of Israel: On your walls, Jerusalem, I appointed guards [shomerim], all day and all night, they will never be silent. These guards are not appointed to protect the city from enemies; rather, they guard in their hearts the city’s former glory, anticipate its return, and do not cease thinking about it. In this context, shomerim bears a meaning similar to a verse regarding Joseph’s dreams: “His brothers envied him; but his father kept the matter in mind [shamar].” Those who remind the Lord, urging Him, as it were: You have promised to redeem Your beloved Zion and we wish to know when this will occur, do not be quiet.
The prophet further states to those individuals: And do not afford Him quiet; rather, continue to mention Zion, pray for it, and ceaselessly act on its behalf, until He establishes and until He places Jerusalem to be an accolade in the land, by bringing the ultimate redemption.
The prophet cites a response from God with regard to future times: The Lord took an oath by His right hand and by His mighty arm: I will no longer give your grain as food for your enemies, and foreigners will not drink your wine, for which you labored. After you have harvested your grapes and brought them to the winepress, foreigners will not drink your new wine.
Rather, its harvesters, of the grain, will eat it and will praise the Lord in the appropriate manner, by bringing a portion of the produce to Jerusalem where they will praise God. And likewise, its gatherers, of the wine, will drink it in the courtyards of My Sanctuary. The land will be quiet and tranquil, and the people will bring the grain and wine they have harvested to the Temple with joy. Other commentaries maintain that the entire Land of Israel is included in the phrase “the courtyards of My Sanctuary.”
The prophet continues to describe the coming of the redemption: Pass, pass through the gates of the crowded cities, to call upon the people to travel to Zion, clear the way of the people; pave, pave, and straighten the highway on which they will travel to the mountain of God, clear the stones and any other impediments, in order to facilitate easier access to Zion; raise a banner over the peoples, as a signal that the time has arrived for Israel to return to Zion.
Behold, the Lord has announced to the ends of the earth, including all distant locations: Say to the daughter of Zion, who reached even those far places: Behold, your Savior has come to redeem you; behold, His reward that He will give you for serving Him is with Him, and His recompense that He will give is prepared before Him.
They will call them, the children of Israel: Holy people, and redeemed of the Lord; and you, Jerusalem, will then be called: Sought after, a city not forsaken, as you will rise to your former level of greatness, and again become a prominent city beloved by all.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 63
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 63 somebodyThe redemption of Israel will be accompanied by vengeance upon Israel’s enemies, which the prophet describes in the vivid form of a figure arriving from Edom with blood-stained garments. Who is this, coming from the land of Edom, red-clothed from the prominent Edomite city of Botzra (see 34:6)? Who is resplendent in His military attire, striding [tzo’eh] in His abundant strength? Other possible interpretations of the word tzo’eh include shaking the nations, calling out, walking erect until the head bends over backward, forcing others into submission, or girding oneself. The figure from Edom introduces Himself: I speak with justice and righteousness, and have fulfilled My word. Alternatively, righteousness is with Me and strength is in My hand (see commentary on 1:16), and I am potent and ready to save.
The figure is once again addressed: Why is there an unusual red color on Your attire and are Your elegant garments stained with red marks like one treading grapes in a winepress?
The figure responds: I have trodden the winepress [pura] alone. Others interpret the word pura as referring to a large measuring vessel that is used in the manufacture of wine. God continues: But I have not trodden upon grapes there; rather I have crushed the nations, and from the peoples there was no man with Me to assist Me; I trod them in My wrath, and I trampled them in My fury; and their lifeblood, or their stench, splashed against My garments, and I sullied all My attire with blood.
For it was a day of vengeance in My heart, and the time has come to bring it to pass, and the year of My redemption has come, when the day of vengeance will occur.
I looked, and there was no helper, and I carefully inquired, and there was no supporter, to help Me carry out this vengeance; therefore My own arm and strength brought Me salvation, and My fury against the nations supported Me. There was no other cause for My actions other than My own might and My anger at the nations. Therefore, I was forced to stain My garments with blood.
I trampled peoples in My wrath and made them helplessly drunk with My fury and I poured their lifeblood onto the ground.
The prophet starts by praising God for all His past deeds for His people, as every prayer must begin with words of praise: I will proclaim the kindnesses of the Lord, the praises of the Lord in accordance with everything that the Lord has bestowed upon us, and the great goodness for the house of Israel that He bestowed upon them in His mercy and in His many kindnesses. God’s goodness to Israel is a result of His kindness despite the fact that Israel does not merit it.
He said, at the time that He bestowed goodness upon us: Indeed, they are My people; they are My children, and they will not play false, as they are faithful to Me. And therefore, He was their Savior.
In all their troubles He was troubled. Whenever the Israelites were afflicted, He suffered together with them, and the angel of His presence, the angel that constantly stands before Him, saved them; in His love and in His compassion He redeemed them, and He took them up, raised them so that they would not be submerged in suffering, and raised them up all the days of old.
But the relations between God and Israel soured, and trust between them was undermined: They, Israel, were defiant, and they aggrieved His holy spirit. Therefore, He was transformed into their enemy, and ultimately He Himself made war against them rather than helping them as He had previously done.
He, God, remembered the days of old, Moses, the leader of His people: Where is he who took them up from the sea, the shepherds, the leaders, of His flock? Where is he who placed the spirit of His holiness in their midst? Some explain that it is Israel who remembered the days of Moses, who led the nation from the sea and caused God’s spirit to rest in their midst. Consequently, He did not destroy them, despite their sins.
Moses did not act alone. He guided at Moses’ right with the arm of His splendor, God’s magnificent strength, splitting the water of the Red Sea before them, to make for Himself eternal renown.
He led them through the depths of the sea; like a horse galloping in the wilderness, in an open, level area, they would not stumble.
Like an animal will go down and walk tranquilly on the plain (40:4), so too the spirit of the Lord gave them, Israel, rest from their enemies when they went down to the sea. Alternatively, God calmed the depths so that they would be easily traversed. So You led Your people, to make for Yourself a name of splendor.
After reminiscing about the glorious past, the prophet turns to God and presents a request in Israel’s name: Look down from the heavens and see what has occurred. Look from the abode of Your holiness and Your splendor, the glorious Temple in heaven. Where is Your zealotry on Israel’s behalf, which appeared in the past, and where is Your valor that You demonstrated for the nation? The stirring of Your innards, Your sympathy, and Your mercy, which were aroused in the past, have now been restrained toward me, as You do not exhibit them.
For You, God, are our only Father, for Abraham our patriarch does not know us, and Israel, Jacob, does not recognize us. Despite their greatness, they are human and are liable to deny their connection to us as an expression of their disappointment that their descendants did not follow their path. By contrast, You, Lord, are our true Father; our eternal Redeemer is Your name. Alternatively, Your name from the earliest times is our Redeemer.
Since everything is in Your hands and You control our destiny, Lord, why do You lead us astray from Your ways and harden our heart from fearing You? Return to us with love for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your inheritance. See the great distance that has developed between us.
For only a short while Your holy people possessed it, the land. Alternatively, our enemies almost dispossessed Your holy people from the land entirely. Our foes trampled Your Sanctuary like one stomping in mud.
In the past You dwelled in our midst, but now we have become like ones over whom You never ruled and Your name was not called upon them. You are now so distant from us, it is almost as though You were never close to us. Were You to rend the heavens and descend to us as in the past, the mountains would melt before You. Alternatively, it is as though You never rent the heavens and descended to us and never caused the mountains to melt before You.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 64
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 64 somebodyLike fire heats what melts and water is boiled by fire, so too it, Your conduct, would be acknowledged as affecting the world, had you descended to make Your name known to Your foes. Nations would have trembled before You
in Your performing awesome deeds for which we could not hope, beyond what we could have anticipated, just as when You descended in the past and mountains melted before You. The melting and dissolving of mountains is a common theme in the Bible in descriptions of redemption, as well as in descriptions of God’s revelation at Mount Sinai.
They, the other nations, never take heed; they did not listen. No eye has seen, besides You, God, such great actions, that which He will do for one who awaits Him. The manifestation of God’s power will cause radical changes, but the nature of those transformations is currently unfathomable.
You encountered one who gladly performs righteousness; through Your ways they, the righteous, remember You and that You desire righteousness. Conversely, behold the result when You were angry and hid Your face: And we sinned, we became blemished. Nevertheless, even with them, those blemishes, we will always be saved, as it is always in Your power to transform those blemishes into merits, leading to an everlasting salvation. Alternatively, we are entirely dependent upon You, since You come close to us or distance Yourself as You wish. Many commentaries understand this verse to refer to the phenomenon of the righteous being punished for the iniquities of their generations and nevertheless praising God for all that befalls them. The ultimate redemption is by their merit.
The prophet presents statements of confession and repentance on behalf of Israel: We have all become like one who is impure, and all our righteous deeds are like a tattered, old, stained garment. As a result, we all wither like a leaf, and therefore our iniquities will bear us away from place to place, like the wind blowing away old leaves.
And there is no one calling Your name, none rousing himself to hold on to You, for You concealed Your face from us due to our sins. If You do not reveal Yourself, it is difficult for us to draw close to You. And You melted and subdued us because of our iniquities.
The prophet entreats God in the name of Israel: But now, Lord, You are our Father, in the sense of a source or root rather than a biological parent. We are the clay, and You are our potter, who shapes the material as he wishes, and we are all Your handiwork, which is why we plead with You.
Do not be angry to the extreme, Lord, and do not forever remember iniquity; behold, please look, and remember that although we have sinned and are severely flawed, ultimately all of us are Your people.
At the time of the destruction of the Temple, the cities of Your holiness have become a wilderness. Moreover, Zion has become a wilderness and Jerusalem a desolation.
The House of our holiness and our splendor, where our fathers praised You, has become a fiery conflagration, and all that we cherished has become a ruin. Alternatively, our fathers praised You by relating to us about the splendor of the Temple.
Will You restrain Yourself for these, O Lord? Will You be silent and afflict us to the extreme? How can You watch the destruction of the holy city and the Temple and refrain from responding to our pleas and prayers?
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 65
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 65 somebodyThe prophet begins with a statement by God: I responded to those who did not ask for Me; I was available to those who did not seek Me. I aided Israel without a request on their part. I said: Here I am, here I am, to a nation that does not proclaim My name. God made Himself available, despite the fact that the people did not demonstrate any interest.
I spread out My hands all day, in request and invitation, to bestow a blessing to a wayward people, who walk on a way that is not good, following their own evil thoughts of idolatry.
Israel is the people that continually angers Me to My face, sacrificing in the gardens to idols and burning incense to those idols on the bricks,
a nation of people who dwell in graves and sleep in hidden places, alluding to those who communicated with the dead, as they would sleep in cemeteries and caves for that purpose. Besides idolatry, Israel includes those who eat the flesh of swine, and soup of detestable things, forbidden foods, is in their vessels,
who nevertheless hypocritically say to others: Keep to yourself; do not approach and touch me, as I am holier than you [ki kedashtikha], and your touch will render me impure. Others interpret the phrase ki kedashtikha as I have distanced you or rendered you prohibited. All these acts are the cause of the smoke of My wrath, a fire burning all day, as they constantly arouse My anger against the people.
Behold, it, a complete list of their sins, is written before Me. I will not be silent until I have repaid their punishment, and I will repay what they deserve into their bosom.
The recompense will come for your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together, said the Lord. For your fathers, who burned incense on the mountains, in accordance with the custom of worshipping in high places, and reviled Me on the hills, I will first, or fully, calculate their recompense and pay it into their, the children’s, bosom, that is, punish them. Alternatively, God will measure their actions from the beginning, and the children will receive punishment for them all.
However, not all the nation is disobedient. So said the Lord: As when grape juice is found in the cluster of a vine whose grapes have not grown properly, and one says: Do not destroy it, the fruit, as a blessing is in it, since some of it is valuable, so I will do for the sake of My servants, who live among the many sinners, not to destroy everyone, the entire nation.
I will cause a seed worthy of a blessing to emerge from Jacob, and an heir of My mountains, the mountains of the Land of Israel, I will bring forth from Judah; My chosen ones, those whom I have chosen because they have chosen Me, will inherit it, and My servants will dwell there. Despite the severe damage done to the land as punishment to the sinners, there will be sufficient produce left to sustain the servants of God and His chosen ones.
The Sharon, where little produce grows, will be a pasture for flocks, and the muddy valley, a swamp or marsh, will be utilized as a place for the lying of cattle, where cattle are raised, for the sustenance of My people who sought Me. In contrast to the individuals mentioned earlier who did not pray or seek God, those who did so will inherit the bountiful land and will dwell there peacefully.
The prophet now addresses the sinners: But you, forsakers of the Lord, who forget the mountain of My holiness and do not come to serve Me in the Temple, who set a table for the pagan god Gad and fill a libation for Meni, the name of another pagan god, before whom libations were customarily poured,
I will consign [maniti] you to the sword. This is a play on words, a reference to Meni in the previous verse. And all of you will bow for slaughter, as you will be killed like captives, who are forced to kneel and are then decapitated. You deserve all of these punishments, because I called and you did not answer, I spoke and you did not hear, and you did that which is evil in My eyes, and you chose that which I did not desire.
Therefore, so said the Lord God: Behold, My servants will eat, and you, who set a table for Gad, will starve; behold, My servants will drink, and you, who pour libations for Meni, will be thirsty; behold, My servants will rejoice, and you, who worship gods of fortune and success, will be shamed;
behold, My servants will sing from heart’s cheer, out of happiness for the blessings they have received, and you will cry out from heartache and wail from a broken spirit, due to your troubles.
You will leave your name as a curse for My chosen. Your name will be mentioned only as an example of a terrible fate. People taking oaths would proclaim that such a fate should befall them if they break their word. See, for example, the verse “And the woman shall become a curse among her people.” They will curse, saying: May the Lord God put you to death, just as He slayed you. But His servants He will call by another name. It is possible that the title “servant of God” had developed a negative connotation. God will therefore call them by another name, without negative connotations.
After the destruction of evil, the entire world will consist of good alone, so that one who blesses himself that he remain in the land will bless himself by the name of the God of faithfulness, who keeps His covenant and fulfills His promises, in whom it is appropriate to have faith. And one who takes an oath in the land will take an oath by the God of faithfulness, as all of the prophecies stated in His name will be fulfilled, because the former troubles, the punishments visited upon those who strayed, are ultimately forgotten and because they are concealed from My eyes. God will not look upon those troubles anymore, as in the new reality they will have disappeared completely.
For behold, I am creating new heavens and a new earth. The entire world will undergo a wondrous transformation. And the former, the transgressions and their ensuing punishments, will not be remembered and will not come to mind.
Rather, be glad and happy forever in that which I create, for in the new world, behold, I am creating Jerusalem to be happiness, a place where joy alone will exist, and its people will be a nation of gladness.
At the same time, I will be happy in Jerusalem and gladdened in My people; the sound of weeping and the sound of outcry will no longer be heard in it. In the new world, only joyful voices will be heard in Israel.
There will no longer be a young child or an old man from there, Jerusalem, who will not complete his days, as everyone will live long lives. As the youth will die when he is one hundred years old. People will say about one who died at the age of one hundred that he died young. Others explain that no one will suffer an untimely demise; rather, everyone will live to the age of one hundred, and the sinner will be cursed when he is one hundred years old. When the human life span will be lengthened, a sinner will be judged for his actions beginning only when he is one hundred years old. This is in contrast to today, when one is judged for sins committed after the age of thirteen or twenty. Others suggest that when someone dies at age one hundred, people will say that he died before his time due to his sins.
They will build houses and inhabit them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit, unlike the situation at the time of the prophecy, when those who grew crops did not always enjoy the fruit of their labor.
They will not build and have another inhabit their home, and they will not plant and have another eat their food, for like the days of a tree, which can live for over one thousand years, will be the days of My people, and My chosen ones will outlive their own handiwork.
At that time, they will also not exert themselves in vain. All effort they invest will yield productive results. And furthermore, they will not give birth to panic, confusion, and uncertainty, for they are the descendants of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. Their children will not be conquered and exiled; rather, they and their offspring will live together.
It shall be before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear. Whereas in the present one must often pray many times without necessarily receiving a response, in those days prayers will be answered before they have even been completed. The entire world will be peaceful and prosperous.
Wolf and lamb will graze as one, as both will be herbivores, and a lion like cattle will eat straw, and as for a serpent, dust will be its food. Wild animals will no longer prey on other living creatures. None will harm or destroy on the entire mountain of My holiness, said the Lord.
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 66
Steinsaltz Tanakh Commentaries | Prophets | Steinsaltz on Isaiah 66 somebodyThe prophet delivers additional rebuke and a description of the forthcoming retribution in the Messianic Era. So said the Lord: The heavens are My throne, and the earth is My footstool; accordingly, what house could you build for Me and what place could be My resting place? It should be impossible to construct a house for God, as King Solomon stated at the inauguration of the First Temple: “For will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You, certainly not this House that I have built.”
My hand made all these, the heavens and earth, My throne and footstool, and all these exist – the utterance of the Lord. Everything in the world was created by Me, while nothing can contain My presence. But even though everything is subject to Me, to this I will look, to the poor and the dispirited but fervent for My word. Some believe that they can bring joy to God by building Him grand palaces and other such superficial actions, but these are insignificant in His eyes. Rather, a destitute or dispirited person who nevertheless takes care to fulfill God’s word is precious to Him. Other commentaries explain that the purpose of the Temple and the redemption is not to serve a need of God’s. The redemption and rebuilding of the Temple will take place for Israel, a poor nation with a contrite spirit.
Unlike those who fulfill the word of God, one who slaughters an ox as an offering is considered in God’s eyes as though he smites a man; one who sacrifices a sheep is like one who beheads a dog, an act that provides no benefit and contains no aspect of sanctity. Likewise, one who presents a meal offering upon the altar, it is considered as though he offered the blood of a swine; one who burns frankincense is comparable to one who bestows iniquity. Those who bring these offerings, they too chose their evil ways, and their soul desires their detestable things. They think that their acts of worship exempt them from any other obligation. However, these acts are heinous in God’s eyes, not because there is any inherent shortcoming in the offerings themselves, but because after bringing the offerings those people continue along the same evil paths. Some commentaries interpret the entire passage as referring to the pagan nations.
Therefore, I too will choose their exploits, I will focus on their inappropriate actions, and I will bring their fears upon them, because I called and none answered, I spoke and they did not hear and accept My statements. They performed evil in My eyes and chose that which I did not desire. I will punish those who spend their time on superficial matters while ignoring the important issues.
Hear the word of the Lord, those who are fervent for His word and who truly listen to Him: Your brethren, who are sometimes those who hate you, or your ostracizers, who do not want you to join them and excommunicate you (65:5), have said: For the sake of my name, in our merit, the Lord will be glorified. They believe that everything depends on them and their offerings, while they demean others for their deeds and their omissions. But ultimately, we will see your joy, and they will be shamed.
The punishment alluded to at the conclusion of the previous verse will occur in the following manner: The sound of a din is to emerge from the city, Zion, a sound emanating from the Sanctuary; it is the Lord who pays recompense to His enemies. The punishment at the time of the redemption will be accompanied by a great noise.
The prophet describes the redemption process in metaphorical terms: Before she, Zion, begins to feel the pains of labor, she will already give birth; before a pang comes, she will deliver a male child. The redemption will arrive swiftly and suddenly, like a birth that was not preceded by labor.
Who has heard of something like this supernatural redemption? Who has seen something like these? Will a land complete labor in one day? Is it possible for an entire land to conceive and give birth in one day? Is a nation born at one time? For Zion has labored and has also given birth to her children all at once. The development of a nation is generally a lengthy process.
Will I set Zion on the birthing stool and not help cause birth? said the Lord. Will I, who causes the birth of everything, prevent it, Zion, from giving birth? said your God. I have initiated these processes and will ensure that they are completed.
Rejoice with Jerusalem at the birth of its children, and all who love it and are currently suffering together with the city in its misery, be happy with it; all who mourn for it in its state of destruction be gladdened in gladness with it.
Participate in its celebration, so that you may nurse and be satisfied from the breast of its consolation. The inhabitants of Jerusalem will be like infants who will be consoled by nursing from their mother, Jerusalem. So that you may suck and delight from the aura of its glory. Following the imagery, this phrase is alluding to the nipples of its breast.
For so said the Lord: Behold, I will direct peace to her, Jerusalem, like a river, as I will grant Jerusalem the perfect blessing, and I will bring the wealth or importance of the nations like a flowing stream and you will nurse, nourished from this abundance. You will be borne on the side, like small children, and dandled on the knees, in the manner of infants. You will return to Zion like young children, with innocent joy, without any worries or cares.
Like a man whose mother comforts him with tender words upon experiencing a distressing event, perhaps her departure, so will I comfort you; and in and through Jerusalem, for which you mourned, you will be comforted.
You will see the redemption and your heart will be gladdened and your bones will flourish like grass. This image of one’s bones being reinvigorated expresses youthful renewal and joy, as opposed to the shriveling and drying of an aging body. And the hand of the Lord will be known to His servants, and conversely, He will rage at His enemies. He will support his servants and take vengeance on their behalf.
For behold, at the end of days the Lord will come and reveal Himself in fire, and His chariots will be like a storm to discharge with fury His wrath, or respond to his enemies with wrath and fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire.
For the Lord will judge with fire, and with His sword all flesh, and the slain of the Lord will be many.
Those who prepare themselves for ritual worship and purify themselves for idolatry in the gardens (65:3) following the one in the center, where the idol was placed, those who are eaters of the flesh of swine, detestable creatures, and mice, all forbidden foods, will perish together – the utterance of the Lord.
God declares: And as for Me, their actions and their thoughts, the plots of the idol worshippers against Jerusalem, are coming to be, in order to gather all the nations and the tongues that will come and see My glory.
I will place a sign upon them, the nations that will assemble, as an indication that I am responsible for this redemption, and I will send their survivors to send a message to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, nations living near the Mediterranean Sea who are drawers of the bow, archers, and also to Tuval and Yavan, the distant lands of the sea that have not heard of My fame and did not see My glory, and they, these messengers, will tell My glory among the nations. Yavan is probably Greece and was considered distant from the Land of Israel.
When coming to Jerusalem on pilgrimage, they, the other nations, will bring all your brethren from all the nations in the Diaspora as a gift to the Lord. They will arrive by all possible methods of transportation, on horses and in chariots and in fancy coaches and on mules and on camels, to the mountain of My holiness, Jerusalem, said the Lord, when the children of Israel bring the offering in a pure vessel to the House of the Lord. Those of Israel who were dispersed among the nations will be brought speedily and honorably. The nations returning Israel to Zion is analogous to bringing an offering to God in purity and with joy.
And from them too, those returning exiles who are found to be priests and Levites, will I again take as priests and as Levites, said the Lord. Some explain that God will take people from the other nations to serve the priests, or He will take some of the wagons for the priests’ use.
For just as the new heavens and the new earth that I will make (see 65:17) will remain before Me – the utterance of the Lord – so your descendants and your name will remain forever.
It shall be that on each and every New Moon and on each and every Sabbath all flesh, every living person in the world, will come to prostrate themselves before Me, said the Lord. They will not all come at the same time; rather, different people will come on each New Moon and Sabbath, as the entire world will honor the God of Israel.
When they arrive, they will emerge and they will see the corpses of the people who have betrayed Me, as their worm, which eats these carcasses, will not die and their fire that burns them will not be extinguished, and they will be a disgrace for all flesh. The punishment and disgrace of the sinners will be an eternal sign to all.