In the preceding chapters, the prophet dealt with the snare of idolatry, and in Chapter 4 he turns to another trap in which Israel became ensnared: the oppression and robbery rife in their hands. The Malbim explains that here the prophet exposes the social root of the sin: a life of luxury and indulgence enjoyed by the aristocratic class, funded at the expense of the poor and the destitute.
שִׁמְעוּ הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה פָּרוֹת הַבָּשָׁן אֲשֶׁר בְּהַר שֹׁמְרוֹן, הָעֹשְׁקוֹת דַּלִּים הָרֹצְצוֹת אֶבְיוֹנִים, הָאֹמְרֹת לַאֲדֹנֵיהֶם הָבִיאָה וְנִשְׁתֶּה׃ - Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the destitute, who say to their masters, "Bring, and let us drink!"
There are two approaches to explaining the term "cows of Bashan." The first approach is that this refers to the wives of the ministers and nobles. Just as the cows of Bashan were fat and prime, so too the wives of the aristocracy were refined, delicate women, pampered with gluttony and plenty, maintaining a very high standard of luxury. Their husbands had to fund this lavish lifestyle, and from where? "Who oppress the poor, who crush the destitute" - not that the women themselves directly oppressed them, but they brought it about. "Who say to their masters" - namely, their husbands - "Bring, and let us drink," meaning: bring more money, procure more wealth. Under this relentless pressure, the husbands would oppress the poor and crush the destitute. The word rotzetzot ("crush") denotes breaking, as in "a crushed reed" (kaneh ratzutz), and the weak and impoverished had no strength to save themselves from their grasp.
The second approach is that of Targum Yonatan, cited by Rashi, according to which "cows of Bashan" is a metaphor for the wealthy men themselves, not their wives: "the wealthy in possessions upon the mountain of Samaria," "who oppress the poor and extort the needy," "who say to their masters: grant us dominion so that we may plunder as we please."
The Malbim analyzes the precise phrasing of the two terms in the verse: "who oppress the poor (dalim)" and "crush the destitute (evyonim)." What is the difference between them? A dal is someone who once had wealth and became impoverished (niddaldel), yet still retains a small amount. An evyon is related to desire (ta'avah) - out of his extreme poverty he longs for everything, and whatever you give him will satisfy him. Thus, the condition of the evyon is far more dire than that of the dal. Therefore, they "oppressed" the dalim, since they still had something left to be extorted; whereas the evyonim, who had nothing at all, could not be monetarily extorted, so they would "crush" them - breaking them physically, forcing them into labor to generate money.
נִשְׁבַּע אֲדֹנָי ה' בְּקׇדְשׁוֹ, כִּי הִנֵּה יָמִים בָּאִים עֲלֵיכֶם, וְנִשָּׂא אֶתְכֶם בְּצִנּוֹת וְאַחֲרִיתְכֶן בְּסִירוֹת דּוּגָה׃ - The Lord God has sworn by His holiness that behold, days are coming upon you when you will be carried away on shields, and your posterity in fishermen's boats.
"The Lord God has sworn by His holiness" - the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, swore by the Heavens, as in "For I lift up My hand to heaven" and "to His holy dwelling, to heaven." This signifies an irreversible decree accompanied by an oath.
Targum Yonatan explains "and you will be carried away on shields (tzinot)" - "the nations will bear you upon their shields," from the word for a large shield (tzinah), as in "His truth is a shield and armor (tzinah vesocheirah)": the enemies will come and carry you off atop their shields, expressing that men of war will lead you into exile. "And your posterity (acharitchen)" refers to your sons and daughters, as in "and divided toward the four winds of the heavens, but not to his posterity," meaning the kingdom would not pass to his children; and them they will carry off and exile in "fishermen's boats (sirot dugah)," fishing vessels, named for the fish (dagim) caught in them.
Another explanation: Be-tzinot is related to tzinim, thorns. The enemy will come, torment you, and drag you with thorns, just as a fish is dragged with a hook - for a hook is a type of thorn, as in "And I will put hooks in your jaws" and "and pierce his jaw with a hook." According to this, the entire verse is based on the metaphor of catching fish: just as fish are caught with a hook and cast into fishing baskets, so too they will take you and your descendants after you.
The Malbim explains completely differently: Tzinot are carriages of honor, similar to "and they shall come against you with chariots, wagons, and wheels [chotzen]" and "your sons shall be brought in their arms [ve-chotzen]," whose root is tzin - a carriage. The enemies will carry you in honorable carriages; and we will soon see that this honor is very dubious. "And your posterity" - in the end, you will be so degraded that they will not even transport you in a passenger ship that has seats and cabins, but rather "in fish-pots" [be-sirot dugah]. According to the Malbim, sirot is related to sir (pot), not sefinah (boat): a kind of vat in which fish are transported and piled on top of one another. Just as fish are thrown into a pot, so they will fling you into the ships and exile you.
וּפְרָצִים תֵּצֶאנָה אִשָּׁה נֶגְדָּהּ, וְהִשְׁלַכְתֶּנָה הַהַרְמוֹנָה נְאֻם ה'׃ - "And you shall go out through the breaches, each woman straight ahead, and you shall be cast to Harmon, says Hashem."
Rashi and the Radak explain that because of the enormity of the distress, everyone will try to flee. Normally, someone wishing to escape from a city must search for a gate in the wall, but here the wall itself will already be breached and riddled from every side by the enemy. Therefore, "each woman straight ahead" - every woman will flee directly opposite where she is standing, without having to seek an opening. This in itself demonstrates how severe the calamity is, as the enemy will have already torn breaches along the entire circumference of the wall.
"And you shall be cast to Harmon" - Rashi explains: you will cast off the pride and authority you assumed. Harmonah is like hurmanuta de-malka, which means the royal decree and authority of the king. They were the wives of princes and judges, wives of dignitaries, and that authority and prestige will be cast away from them.
The Radak explains in the name of his father that ha-Harmonah is like ha-Armonah, the palace: you will be cast out from the king's palace situated by the wall, and flee. We find something similar with King Tzidkiyahu, who fled through an underground tunnel from his palace outside the walls of Jerusalem when the enemy arrived, confident that he would not be caught. Under normal circumstances he indeed would not have been caught, but a deer happened to run by, and the enemy soldiers chased after it - likely wanting it for lunch - and suddenly they spotted Tzidkiyahu emerging from the ground, and the Holy One, blessed be He, delivered him into their hands.
The Malbim continues with his line of interpretation. It might seem puzzling: if these were wicked women, why would they be carried in carriages of honor? To this he answers: woe to such honor. In Eastern literature, a "harem" [harmon] refers to the women's quarters, the place where the king kept his wives and concubines, akin to the harem of Ahasuerus overseen by Shaashgaz. That is to say: at first they are taken in carriages of honor to raise their value, but ultimately, "and you shall be cast to Harmon" - you will be cast into the quarters of concubines and harlots. The word "and you shall be cast" conveys what they will endure: you thought this was a carriage of prestige, but ultimately you are discarded into a harem. This is the punishment of those individuals - degradation in place of the authority and pride they exercised against the poor and destitute.
The Malbim's basis for this explanation lies in the word peratzim: from the root of paritz and parutz (licentious or wild), as in "he fathers a violent son" [ben paritz], meaning immoral, licentious women. The meaning of the verse is: when these women arrive, licentious women will come out of the harem to greet them, "each woman straight ahead" - one woman facing another, as if heading toward the fate designated for them, may Hashem save us. And then they will be cast into that place of promiscuity and degradation.
בֹּאוּ בֵית אֵל וּפִשְׁעוּ, הַגִּלְגָּל הַרְבּוּ לִפְשֹׁעַ, וְהָבִיאוּ לַבֹּקֶר זִבְחֵיכֶם לִשְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִים מַעְשְׂרֹתֵיכֶם׃ - "Come to Beit-El and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes every three days."
וְקַטֵּר מֵחָמֵץ תּוֹדָה, וְקִרְאוּ נְדָבוֹת הַשְׁמִיעוּ, כִּי כֵן אֲהַבְתֶּם בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל נְאֻם אֲדֹנָי ה'׃ - "And burn a thanksgiving offering of leaven, and proclaim freewill offerings and publish them; for so you love to do, O children of Israel, says the Lord Hashem."
The verse is astonishing: Is the prophet calling upon them to commit sins? Rather, Rashi explains, and Radak follows this same line, that this is "like a person saying to a scoundrel: 'Go on, keep doing what you are doing until your measure of guilt is full.'" Radak adds that this is not a command expressing desire, as if he actually wants them to do so, but rather said by way of irony and exaggeration, like "Rejoice, young man, in your youth."
Why specifically Beit El and Gilgal? In Beit El stood the calf, and in Gilgal we have already seen their wickedness - "In Gilgal they sacrificed bulls." And the reason: the Mishkan initially rested in Gilgal, and it was the site of national gatherings and divine revelations, so the people felt a natural attraction to the place. Therefore, they consistently latched onto places that had previously possessed sanctity, and established their idolatrous worship there, claiming that it was a place where divine favor rests. This is the very same reason that Al-Aqsa was built on the site of the Temple Mount: the place is holy, believers are naturally connected to it, and through it they draw people in. The same applies to the Cave of Machpelah, over which a mosque was built. Even though they may claim a connection through "Ibrahim," the primary motive is to ride the wave of the site's inherent sanctity. Incidentally, the leading sages of the generation remarked that Hashem entrusted His world to watchmen - that it is better a mosque was built there rather than a church, since a church constitutes actual idolatry (avodah zarah), whereas a mosque is not idolatrous; moreover, had there been no mosque there, the Temple Mount would have become a tourist site, and well-meaning people whose intentions were purely for the sake of Heaven would have stumbled into the severe prohibition of kares (spiritual excision). We do not rejoice over the presence of the mosque, but it is the lesser of evils. Therefore the prophet says, "and at Gilgal multiply transgression": it was not enough that you established idolatry in Beit El; in Gilgal too, you multiplied your sins.
Seemingly, what is the meaning of "bring your sacrifices in the morning, your tithes on the third day"? What practical difference does it make when they bring them? Here the commentators diverge. Rashi explains that the idolatrous priests wanted to make life easy for their worshippers, telling them: Why sacrifice at the Beit HaMikdash? Come worship my idol; it is more liberal, less strict, less extreme. This is precisely the same slogan that those who undermine the covenant love to use today: "A welcoming Judaism, an embracing Judaism" - which usually comes at the expense of Halachah. A "welcoming," Reform-style idolatry, so to speak.
How was this expressed? In the Torah it says, "The fat of My festival offering shall not remain overnight until morning," but they say, "bring your sacrifices in the morning." Regarding sacrifices of lesser sanctity (kodashim kalim), the Torah says, "It shall be eaten on the day of your sacrifice and on the morrow," but they say, "your tithes on the third day" - referring to the animal tithe (ma'aser behemah) - teaching that it is permissible to eat the meat for three days. The Torah states, "For you shall not burn any leaven or any honey [as a fire-offering]," yet they say, "burn a thanksgiving offering from leaven," instructing them to burn leavened bread from the Todah sacrifice. The Torah commands, "You shall not delay in paying it," whereas they say, "proclaim freewill offerings and announce them" - announce and proclaim anyone who pledges a freewill offering, so that whoever forgot and has not yet brought his offering will take note and remember, for with us there is no strictness about delay. In other words: worshipping idols is far more convenient and profitable for you than serving Hashem.
Radak explains in a completely opposite manner: Everything you are doing for idolatry, you should have been doing in the service of Hashem. You turned Gilgal and Beit El, places consecrated to the service of God, into temples of idolatry. "Bring your sacrifices in the morning" - every single morning you bring your sacrifices there instead of to the Beit HaMikdash. "Your tithes on the third day (yamim)" - "yamim" here means a year, as in "Let the maiden remain with us a year (yamim) or ten [months]," and "his redemption may be during a year (yamim)," and it refers to "At the end of three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce." That is, according to Radak, this does not refer to animal tithes as Rashi interpreted, but to grain tithes. And over this the prophet marvels: You bring your sacrifices and tithes to the house of idolatry instead of bringing them to Me - why did you prefer to go and serve a worship that has no substance?
The same applies to "and burn a thanksgiving offering from leaven." According to Rashi, there is no such thing in the Torah, for no offering of leaven is ever burned on the altar; with a Todah (thanksgiving) offering there are thirty matzah loaves and ten leavened loaves, but the loaves do not ascend the altar at all, but rather are eaten by the owners. Therefore, according to Rashi, the priests say: With me, you are even allowed to burn bread on the altar, which the Torah forbids. But according to Radak, where the entire verse rebukes them for failing to direct these practices to the service of Hashem, the Torah did indeed permit this, as it is written, "With loaves of leavened bread he shall present his offering" - which does not mean burning the bread itself on the altar, but offering the sacrifice accompanied by loaves of leavened bread, while the loaves themselves are eaten. And although leaven is not burned on the altar, from the sacrifice brought alongside the leaven - which is the Todah - they do burn the sacrificial parts (eimurin), the inner parts of the animal, which are completely consumed on the altar.
Chapter 4 opens with a rebuke regarding the snare of extortion and theft: "cows of Bashan" - the pampered wives of the ministers (or the wealthy men themselves, according to Targum Yonatan) - who demand, "Bring, and let us drink," and in doing so oppress the poor who still have a little left, and crush the destitute who have nothing at all. Because of this, the Holy One, blessed be He, swore by His holiness that they will be exiled: according to Targum Yonatan, carried upon shields and in fishermen's boats, and according to the Malbim, in chariots of honor that ultimately lead to disgrace - being cast toward the palace (Harmon) and transported on boats like fish thrown into a pot. "And you shall go out through the breaches" - the wall will be breached on every side, and according to the Malbim, promiscuous women will go out to meet them. Finally comes the cynical rebuke, "Come to Beit El and transgress," explained through two distinct paths: according to Rashi, the seduction of the pagan priests offering leniencies not permitted by the Torah; and according to Radak, the indictment that everything they devoted to idolatry rightly belonged in the service of Hashem.