Behold a king shall reign, etc. This refers to Hezekiah and his princes, the firm establishment of whose government is promised.

ולשרים And princes. The ל has no meaning as far as I know. Comp. לאבשלום (1 Chr. 3:2), למן (Ex. 9:18).¹ Is. 31:1; 1 Sam. 15:22; Deut. 24:5; 1 Chr. 29:6; Ezr. 1:5; Gen. 1:15; or the predicate, e.g., 1 Chr. 1:13; 21:12; 2 Chr. 3:12; 5:12; Jer. 30:12, 15.

footnotes: ¹ Comp. Sepher Harikmah, 100:6: ל is used sometimes to indicate the subject; e.g.,

והיה איש And a man shall be. Either every one of the officers of Hezekiah, or Hezekiah himself is meant.

מחבא Hiding place. Participle Hiphil.

בציון In a dry place. Comp. ציה dry (41:18).

עיפה Thirsty.² Comp. Ps. cxliii.—

footnotes: ² A.V., Weary; but Ps. 143:6, Thirsty.

The verse may also be explained thus:³ And Judah shall be like one who sitteth in a hiding-place from the wind, etc.

footnotes: ³ או or, ויתכן it may be explained, or a similar phrase, introducing a new explanation, is omitted in the Hebrew text before והיה איש. As the continuation of the first or second explanation, this remark would certainly be superfluous, and a mere tautology.

תשעינה Shall be dim. Root שעע. Comp. השע Shut⁴ (6:10)

footnotes: ⁴ Lit., cause to be dim.

נמהרים The rash. Hasty in a foolish way. It is derived from מהר to be hasty.

עלגים The stammerers. Hap. leg.; in Arabic it means slaves.⁵ It is contrasted with to speak plainly (דבר צחות).

footnotes: ⁵ عِلْجٌ Barbarous; Freytag, Lex. Arab.

צחות Pure words. Supply מלות words; for צחות is an adj., in form and meaning like זכות.⁶

footnotes: ⁶ The singular of these adjectives is זך and צח pure, of the root זכך and צחח.

נבל The vile person. Comp. נובלת fading⁷ (1:30).

footnotes: ⁷ The oak is said to be fading, on account of its losing its foliage and remaining without fruit and leafless; so נבל the vile person, is without good actions, yielding no benefit to his fellow-men.

כילי The opposite of שוע. שוע Bountiful. A noble person, whose hands are loose, ready to give, and not closed. Comp. ושוע and turning.⁸ Adopting a sort of homiletic explanation, כילי may be said to be composed of two words, כי לי for it belongs to me; for he says, שלי שלי what is mine shall remain mine⁹ (Aboth 5:13)

footnotes: ⁸ This quotation is to prove that the two roots שוע and שעה are equivalent in meaning: to loosen, to be or to make ready, to move forward, to turn, to look, to trust. שוע is therefore explained by I. E. to be a person whose hands are loose or open, ready to give whenever opportunity is offered.—Rashi likewise derives שוע from שעה ═ שוע to turn, but in a more simple and natural way; a man to whom the eyes of the people are turned for assistance. ⁹ This is there declared to be מדת סדום the principle of the Sodomites.

For the vile person, etc. This refers to the officers of Ahaz.

תועה Error. It is a noun; the forms of nouns are manifold.¹⁰

footnotes: ¹⁰ There is hardly any occasion for this remark. We find, except תעתועים errors (Jer. 10:5), no other noun of this root in the Bible; in the post-biblical literature, however, we meet with טעות and תעות error.

The instruments also, etc. The instruments of justice; for the officers were judges, whose principle was to arrest judgment.

But the liberal. Hezekiah and his officers, of whom it was said, And princes shall rule in judgment.

Ye daughters. According to some the towns, which are like the daughters of the metropolis Samaria.

שנה על שנה ═ ימים על שנה. Year after year.

רגזה¹¹=רגזנה Be troubled. The opinion of the Nagid¹² is, that רגזה is imperative, referring to the feminine בטחות, although it has a masculine termination; according to R. Moses Hakkohen it is infinitive.

footnotes: ¹¹ I. E. seems to have read רגזה (as in the next verse), instead of תרגזנה; for רגזה is mentioned again by him, and instead of commenting on it, he refers to the explanation given before; it is therefore impossible to suggest that this remark on רגזה has been dislocated from its proper place by the carelessness of some copyist. ¹² R. Samuel, the Prince, several times mentioned by I. E. See Introd. to Moznaim, and Zahoth, On the secondary conjugations.

The gathering of the increase shall not come. Repetition of the same idea.¹³

footnotes: ¹³ As contained in the words, the vintage shall fail.

חרדו Tremble. Imperative masculine. Comp. תעירו ye stir (Song 2:7); תמצאו ye find (Ib. 5:8). It may be considered as an elliptical expression.¹⁴

footnotes: ¹⁴ The use of the imperative plural masculine instead of the feminine is called by I. E. דרך קצרה ellipsis, since the feminine requires the addition of two letters נָה the masculine only וּ; but the use of the termination ־ִים instead of the feminine וֹת (next verse), is explained by supplying the word כׂל all, which is masculine singular in form, but plural in meaning.

רגזה I have explained this word already. פשוטה וערה Strip you and make you bare. These words are to be explained in the same way.¹⁵ וערה And make you bare. Comp. עריה naked (Ez. 16:7). עריה תעור Thy bow will be made quite naked (Hab. 3:9). I think that women, daughters (ver. 9), are to be taken literally.

footnotes: ¹⁵ As רגזה has been explained, namely as imperatives or infinitives.

סופדים They shall lament. כל all is to be supplied.¹⁴ Comp. וכל הנשים יתנו and all women shall give. (Est. 1:20)

footnotes: ¹⁴ The use of the imperative plural masculine instead of the feminine is called by I. E. דרך קצרה ellipsis, since the feminine requires the addition of two letters נָה the masculine only וּ; but the use of the termination ־ִים instead of the feminine וֹת (next verse), is explained by supplying the word כׂל all, which is masculine singular in form, but plural in meaning.

My people. The people of Samaria.

קוץ שמיר Thorns, briers. Asyndeton. Comp. אדם שת אנוש (1 Chr. 1:1).

Yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city. Supply thorns shall come up.

The palace of the king. נטש, shall be forsaken; עזב, shall be left. Pual.¹⁶

footnotes: ¹⁶ Instead of מהבנין הקל שלא וגו׳ is to be read נֻטָּשׁ .מהבנין הכבד שׁלא וגו׳ and עֻזָּב are participles of the Pual, the prefix מ having been dropped. See Zahoth, On the secondary conjugations (בנינים הנלקחים מאחרים). I. E. rejects the opinion of R. Moses Hakkohen, who says that forms like לֻקַּח are sometimes derived from the Kal, namely, when the Piel of that verb is not found in Scripture.

עופל An elevated place.¹⁷ Comp. ויעפילו and they ascended.¹⁸

footnotes: ¹⁷ A. V., The forts. ¹⁸ A. V. They presumed.

ובחן And tower. Comp. בחוניו his towers. (23:13). היו מערות═ היה בעד מערות shall become dens.

יערה Be poured. Niphal. עד יערה עלינו רוח Until the decreed evil, the approach of the King of Assyria to the land of Judah, be poured upon us. רוח signifies here the divine decree.

And the plain¹⁹, that is cultivated, will be like Karmel,²⁰ and Karmel, etc. Comp. 29:17

footnotes: ¹⁹ A. V., Wilderness.—According to I. E., מדבר signifies here a plain, used for a corn-field; in the similar phrase (29:17), it is replaced by Lebanon, which is said to be more fruitful than Karmel, in the same measure as Karmel is superior to the forest (יער). The original meaning of מדבר is in fact pasture, whither the flock is driven (דבר to drive). See Gesen. Lex. Hebr. ²⁰ A. V., Fruitful field.

Then judgment shall dwell, etc. God will punish those that forsake him.

And the work of righteousness shall be peace, as in the time of Hezekiah. Comp. And peace without end (9:6)²¹ Some explain ver. 15 sqq. as a blessing.²²

footnotes: ²¹ The passage quoted refers, according to I. E., to King Hezekiah; according to others, to Messiah. ²² Comp. Targum Jonathan ad locum.

My people. Judah.

וברד When it shall hail. The Pathah under ר proves that the word is a verb; comp. עשן it smoked (Ex. 19:18). When it shall hail, coming down on the forest. When the hailstones will come down, they will come down on the forest, not on the fields.

The city shall be low, shall be like a wide plain without walls²³

footnotes: ²³ In time of war the people used to retire to the mountains, where they lived in forts and fortresses, and were thus enabled to resist the attack of the invading army; but as soon as the danger was over the people scattered again over the valleys and plains, to live in villages and open towns, where they could with greater ease devote themselves to their usual pursuits.

Beside all waters, that shall come²⁴.

footnotes: ²⁴ Beside the water, that is, after the rain, that will cause the seed to grow and to prosper.

That send forth the feet of the ox and the ass. Comp. 30:24; all these chapters from xxiv.—xxxvi. form one continuous prophecy.