This psalm, the Malbim explains, was composed by Asaf in the days of Chizkiyahu regarding the miracle of the downfall of Sancheiriv. This is the opinion of most commentators here, as well as Rashi, that the entire psalm speaks of the defeat of Sancheiriv, for we find no other enemy who fell in Jerusalem besides him. Nevertheless, we will also address the words of the Radak, who wrote that while he previously interpreted this matter as referring to the fall of Sancheiriv, he now explains it as referring to the War of Gog and Magog - the future war in which the Jewish people will fight against Gog and Magog.
לַמְנַצֵּחַ בִּנְגִינֹת מִזְמוֹר לְאָסָף שִׁיר׃ - For the conductor, with stringed instruments; a psalm of Asaf, a song.
"With stringed instruments" (bineginot) - the Ibn Ezra says: set to various tunes, or to the melody of a liturgical poem; and some say that it refers to musical instruments.
נוֹדָע בִּיהוּדָה אֱלֹהִים בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל גָּדוֹל שְׁמוֹ׃ - God is known in Yehudah; in Yisrael His Name is great.
The Metzudat David explains: When the downfall of Sancheiriv becomes known, then God will be known and renowned in Yehudah, and His Name will be magnified and sanctified; while "in Yisrael His Name is great" is a poetic repetition of the same concept in different words. We, on the other hand, do not advocate the approach of mere repetition in different words, and therefore the Malbim explains the distinction between the two clauses.
The Malbim explains: The tribe of Yehudah served Hashem, and therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, was known among them through His deeds - Yehudah were always the righteous ones. "Yisrael" refers to the Ten Tribes, who were exiled first and who continually had wicked kings and worshipped calves. Among them there was no clear knowledge, yet nevertheless "His Name is great." We have a principle established by the Malbim: wherever "His Name" is written, it indicates renown and fame, which is a lower level than "known." "God is known" refers to clear knowledge, knowledge of His very Essence, whereas in Yisrael only His Name is great - that is, renowned.
וַיְהִי בְשָׁלֵם סוּכּוֹ וּמְעוֹנָתוֹ בְצִיּוֹן׃ - His tabernacle was in Shalem, and His dwelling place in Zion.
"Shalem" - the Ibn Ezra explains - is Yerushalayim. And why was it called this? Because it is complete (sheleimah), positioned directly opposite the gate of Heaven; or because it is worthy of being at peace (shalom), and by way of prayer we call it Yerushalayim - that there should be peace within it, as in "Pray for the peace of Yerushalayim."
The Radak, who follows the approach of the War of Gog and Magog here, explains "His tabernacle was in Shalem" - that the Beit HaMikdash will be built, referring specifically to the Third Temple. "And His dwelling place in Zion" - Zion is the place of the king. And "Shalem" is Yerushalayim, as in "Malki-Tzedek, king of Shalem," who was Shem, the son of Noach, the first person to call Yerushalayim by the name "Shalem."
From here stems the Midrash Shocher Tov: Avraham called the place "Yireh", as it is said, "And Avraham called the name of that place Hashem Yireh, as it is said to this day, in the mount of Hashem it shall be seen." The Holy One, blessed be He, said: If I call it "Shalem" as Shem called it, I will nullify the words of Avraham who called it "Yireh"; if I call it "Yireh" as Avraham called it, I will nullify the words of Shem who called it "Shalem." So He called it Yerushalayim - combining "Yireh" and "Shalem" together. This is also an expression of awe (yirah) and wholeness (sheleimut): the place of awe and perfection is Yerushalayim.
The Malbim explains: "In Shalem was His sukkah" - in Yerushalayim, where the multitude dwelt, was the sukkah of the Holy One, blessed be He; and a sukkah is a temporary dwelling. In contrast, "His dwelling place" (me'onato) - a ma'on is a permanent house - was in Tzion. And Tzion, as the Malbim explains in several places, is the seat of the king, the Sanhedrin, and the kohanim of Hashem, and there stands the Temple of Hashem and the resting of the Shechinah. This is not a temporary sukkah, but a permanent abode. The Malbim adds that the term ma'on generally applies to conceptual domains, such as the "abode of wisdom" or the "den of beasts of prey."
The sefer Levush Yosef on the Yamim Tovim cites here the famous teaching of the Vilna Gaon on this verse. The Gaon says: There are only two mitzvot into which a person enters and fulfills with their entire body. One is the settlement of Eretz Yisrael: you enter Eretz Yisrael, and your entire body is enveloped within the mitzvah. Tefillin you place upon the arm and the head; tzitzit you put onto your garments - but in which mitzvah is the entire body submerged? The mitzvah of dwelling in Eretz Yisrael. And the second is the mitzvah of sukkah: you enter the sukkah, and your entire self is within the mitzvah, surrounded by the encompassing lights of Binah. This is hinted at in the verse: "In Shalem was" - these are the mitzvot that a person fulfills with the wholeness (sheleimut) of their entire body: "His sukkah" - the mitzvah of sukkah, "and His dwelling place in Tzion" - the mitzvah of dwelling in Eretz Yisrael.
The Brisker Rav asks: Why was mikveh not counted as well? After all, one enters a mikveh with one's entire body too. One simple answer is: immersing in a mikveh is not a mitzvah in its own right. There is no positive commandment of "and you shall immerse"; the mikveh is an enabler of purity (hechsher). One who wishes to become pure immerses; a utensil that became defiled is immersed; a woman wishing to become pure to her husband immerses. It is an instrument of taharah, a means, rather than an independent mitzvah.
Yet the Brisker Rav offers another approach. The Kesef Mishneh writes that a mikveh purifies upon exiting. If a person was inside the mikveh holding an impure creature in hand - as in the idiom "immersing while holding a sheretz" - and then let go of it and stepped out, he is pure, because the emergence from the mikveh is what effects the purification. As explained in the past, this is also how the Meshech Chochmah explains Yom Kippur: "Hashem is the mikveh of Israel" - just as a mikveh purifies the defiled, so too the Holy One, blessed be He, purifies Israel. And when does the mikveh purify? Upon exiting - which is why Yom Kippur purifies at Ne'ilah, at the moment of departure. According to this, it is wonderful: as long as one is still inside the mikveh, he has not yet become pure, for the purification occurs only upon his exit. If so, mikveh cannot be counted among the mitzvot into which a person enters completely to fulfill the mitzvah, for on the contrary - the process of purification takes effect precisely upon leaving, not while one is entirely submerged within the mikveh.
שָׁמָּה שִׁבַּר רִשְׁפֵי־קָשֶׁת מָגֵן וְחֶרֶב וּמִלְחָמָה סֶלָה׃ - There He broke the fiery arrows of the bow, shield and sword and battle, Selah.
The Ibn Ezra explains "the fiery arrows of the bow" (rishpei kashet) as related to sparks: the arrows fly like flying sparks. He further adds that the verb "He broke" (shibbar) applies to the subsequent words as well - a grammatical rule explained several times: a word stated at the outset carries over to the following clauses, as in "that He did not set our portion like theirs, nor our lot like that of all their multitude," where the opening "that He did not" applies to the second clause as well. So too here: "He broke the fiery arrows of the bow," and it is as though it reads again, "and He broke the shield, the sword, and the battle."
Rashi rejects this interpretation: rishpei here does not mean sparks, for "sparks" always appears with a dagesh in the letter peh - as in "sparks of fire" (rishpei eish). Here, the peh is without a dagesh, indicating a different root, as in "and the sons of reshef fly aloft" - creatures of flight. Thus, "the rishpei of the bow" refers to the arrows that fly from the bow, like "the arrow that flies by day." Hashem shattered the arrows launched by the bow. There Rashi also notes what was mentioned earlier: the entire psalm speaks of the downfall of Sancheiriv, for we find no enemy who fell at Yerushalayim other than him. The Radak, however, understands that it speaks of an enemy destined to fall at Yerushalayim in the future, namely Gog and Magog.
The Malbim explains: Sancheiriv marched with bow, sword, and warfare to conquer the entire world, but when he reached Tzion, Hashem shattered his weapons of war, and then the land rested and was tranquil. "Selah" - according to the Ibn Ezra, means "in truth," while according to the Malbim, as is his consistent approach, it marks the conclusion of a theme.
נָאוֹר אַתָּה אַדִּיר מֵהַרְרֵי־טָרֶף׃ - You are radiant and mighty, more than mountains of prey.
The Radak cites commentators who explain that the letter nun is part of the root, related to the phrase "He spurned (ni'er) His Sanctuary" (Lamentations 2:7), where ni'er means nullified and destroyed. According to this, na'or atta means: You, Master of the Universe, bring destruction upon the enemies. Just as when Hashem shows mercy He is called Rachum (merciful), and when He shows grace He is called Chanun (gracious), so too when He destroys (mena'er) He is called Na'or. This is a descriptive title for Hashem, Blessed be He, for nullifying and destroying the nations, and this is also Rashi's interpretation.
However, the Radak prefers the second interpretation, which is that of Ibn Ezra, and the Malbim follows in their footsteps: the nun is not part of the root, but rather one of the prefix and suffix letters. Just as from shel (of) we derive shelo (his), sheli (mine), and shelahem (theirs), where the grammatical letters are not part of the root, so too here: the root is or (light), and the nun is an affix, just as in the word nachon (established), whose root is kun (kaf-vav-nun). According to this, na'or atta means that Hashem is the One Who illuminates and shines light. This connects with what was said earlier, "God is known in Judah" - that in that war, the light of the Creator, Blessed be He, would be revealed and made known.
"Mighty from the mountains of prey" - You are mighty over the enemies, like a lion emerging from the mountains of prey to hunt, and in this manner You will tear apart all the enemies. "Mountains of prey" are the habitats where predatory beasts, bears and lions, dwell. Rashi explains: You are stronger than the predatory giants who are as tall as mountains, who before You are considered as nothing.
The Malbim, who explains this entire passage as referring to the downfall of Sennacherib, explains how the concept of light enters here: Sennacherib's downfall occurred at night, and the verse uses a poetic metaphor that Hashem emerges from Mount Zion to strike the Assyrian camp like a young lion emerging at night from the mountains of prey to strike flocks of sheep. Similarly, Isaiah uses the metaphor, "As a lion or a young lion growls over its prey..." (Isaiah 31:4). Nevertheless, the verse calls Him Na'or (radiant) - do not think that the Holy One, Blessed be He, walks in darkness, as it were; rather, "light dwells with Him" (Daniel 2:22), and He proceeds with His light accompanying Him, mighty from the mountains of prey to tear apart those who come to besiege Mount Zion.
אֶשְׁתּוֹלְלוּ אַבִּירֵי לֵב נָמוּ שְׁנָתָם וְלֹא־מָצְאוּ כׇל־אַנְשֵׁי־חַיִל יְדֵיהֶם׃ - The stout-hearted were despoiled, they slept their sleep; and none of the men of valor could find their hands.
"Eshtolelu" is a unique word that appears nowhere else in Scripture. Therefore, the commentators search for similar words to determine its meaning, arriving at several interpretations.
Rashi explains: "Eshtolelu" is like hishtolelu, since an aleph sometimes substitutes for a hei, as in "Ahaziah joined (etchabbar)" (II Chronicles 20:35), which means hitchabber. And what is this term? It derives from the phrase "He leads counselors away stripped of reason (sholal)" (Job 12:17) - an expression of error and folly, as the Targum translates it, beshalu, meaning in error; similarly, "God struck him there for the error (al ha-shal)" (II Samuel 6:7), for having acted in error by grasping the Ark. Thus, "the stout-hearted were despoiled (eshtolelu abbirei lev)" means that those stout-hearted warriors acted foolishly and errantly, "they slept their sleep," and through this the Holy One, Blessed be He, struck them down.
The Radak interprets the word as related to spoil (shalal): those stout-hearted men who gathered against Jerusalem will become plunder. Just as it is written that for nine months they will bury the slain, so it will be in the war of Gog and Magog, where all the spoils will be taken from those stout-hearted men. "They slept their sleep" does not mean that they simply went to sleep, but that they entered an eternal sleep; they lacked the strength to fight, like a sleeping man, and this was the sleep destined for them - the sleep of death, as though they were already dead. And those warriors and men of valor, whose way is to turn back the battle at the gate, "could not find their hands" - they could not find hands to fight, much like the familiar idiom for someone who is disoriented and "cannot find his hands and feet," meaning he was completely lost and did not know where to turn.
Incidentally, this is a phrase that Halachic authorities frequently use rhetorically: when they wish to say that the commentators struggled with an issue and could not find a satisfactory explanation - as the Malbim himself writes many times - they write, "and none of the men of valor could find their hands." The men of valor, meaning the commentators and halachic authorities, could not find their hands, having reached a verse or a ruling and found no clear explanation for it.
The Malbim, on the other hand, explains eshtolelu neither as an expression of error nor of plunder, but as an expression of forgetfulness. Those stout-hearted men, the army of Sennacherib, forgot the matter entirely. This answers the question: if the Holy One, Blessed be He, came upon them at night to destroy them, why did they go to sleep instead of preparing? Because they forgot the reality of the Creator and His ability to catch them off guard in a single moment; they were complacent and assumed nothing would happen. And "none of the men of valor could find their hands" is a poetic figure of speech: when the predator strikes, a person frantically searches - "Where are my hands?" - and cannot even locate his hands to fight. What does the Malbim base this interpretation on? On the verse, "and he who departs from evil is considered mad (mishtolel)" (Isaiah 59:15), which in this context means forgotten and dismissed.
מִגַּעֲרָתְךָ אֱלֹהֵי יַעֲקֹב נִרְדָּם וְרֶכֶב וָסוּס׃ - At Your rebuke, O God of Yaakov, both chariot-rider and horse were cast into a deep sleep.
The difficulty is immediately apparent: "nirdam rechev vasus" would have flowed much more naturally. What is the purpose of the letter vav in "ve-rechev"? Rashi explains simply that this is an extra vav (vav yeteira), and one should not be surprised by this, for at times we find an extra vav in Scripture, such as "These are the sons of Tziv'on: ve-Ayah and Anah" - where the vav is subordinate and superfluous. Rashi does not explain why an extra vav was written here and not elsewhere, but he teaches us how to read the text: in its plain understanding, as if no vav were present. Surely, according to the esoteric and inner dimensions of the Torah, there is profound meaning in this, for hints and secrets permeate all of Scripture; but Rashi came to explain the plain meaning of the verse.
The Ibn Ezra addresses a different difficulty: Why is "nirdam" phrased in the singular when it refers to many? He answers: "nirdam" refers back to the "men of valor" mentioned earlier, and the intent of the verse is that each and every one of the men of valor fell into a deep sleep. This is an expression frequently found in Tanach - Scripture speaks in the singular when its intent applies to each individual within the collective. According to the Ibn Ezra, the vav is also neatly resolved: "None of the men of valor found their hands" - each one of them fell into a deep sleep, and the chariot-rider and horse fell asleep as well.
The Radak explains that the one cast into a deep sleep is Gog and Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tuval. Since the psalm had mentioned the "stout-hearted," it said simply "nirdam" - referring to the king, the leader of those stout-hearted warriors. According to this, it is clear why it is phrased in the singular, and the chariot-rider and horse were put to sleep alongside him. Furthermore, "rechev" here simply means rider - both rider and horse were cast into slumber.
Yet the Malbim offers a marvelous insight: they were not asleep beforehand. "At Your rebuke, O God of Yaakov, they were cast into a deep sleep" - by the power of the mighty lion's roar, the rebuke of Hashem itself is what put them to sleep. Out of sheer terror, the rider, the horse, and all of them fell into a deep sleep; and although it is the nature of a horse to stay awake at night, a deep sleep fell upon it by divine decree. A human rebuke awakens a sleeper from his slumber, whereas here the opposite occurred: the rebuke of the God of Yaakov puts to sleep - He rebukes him, and the foe vanishes and falls into a deep sleep.
The Malbim makes an additional keen observation: three expressions of sleep appear here - "namu" (they slumbered), "shenatam" (their sleep), and "nirdam" (cast into deep sleep). Scripture never multiplies expressions for no reason. Slumber (tenuma) is lighter than sleep - as people still say today: he is just catching a nap, dozing half-awake; sleep (shena) is full sleep; and tardema is complete unconscious immersion, far deeper than ordinary sleep. Thus: first they slumbered slightly; under the influence of that slumber they drifted into sleep; and from sleep they sank into a profound stupor - and all of this came about through the rebuke of the God of Yaakov.
אַתָּה נוֹרָא אַתָּה וּמִי־יַעֲמֹד לְפָנֶיךָ מֵאָז אַפֶּךָ׃ - You, awesome are You! And who can stand before You once Your anger flares?
Pay close attention to the precise reading: on the second "Attah" there is a Revi'a cantillation mark above the alef. The first "Attah" is read milra (stressed on the final syllable), as the accent is placed beneath the tav; whereas the second "Attah" is read mile'el (stressed on the penultimate syllable), with the accent above the alef. And so it reads: "Attah nora áttah, u-mi ya'amod lefanecha me'az apecha."
This psalm, in the view of most commentators, was composed concerning the downfall of Sancheiriv, and in the view of the Radak, concerning the war of Gog and Magog in the time to come. The Holy One, blessed be He, is known in Yehudah with clear and certain knowledge, and even in Yisrael His Name is great in renown; in Yerushalayim is the temporary sukkah and in Tzion the permanent dwelling - from which we learned the teaching of the Vilna Gaon regarding the two mitzvot into which a person enters with his entire body, sukkah and dwelling in Eretz Yisrael, as well as the Brisker Rav's insight that a mikveh purifies specifically upon exiting. There Hashem shattered the weapons of war; He is resplendent, His light ever with Him, mighty as a lion emerging from the mountains of prey. The enemies forgot the existence of the Creator, dozed and sank into a deep stupor, and the men of valor could not find their hands - for the rebuke of the God of Yaakov, unlike a human rebuke that awakens from sleep, casts a deep sleep upon both rider and horse. "You, awesome are You! And who can stand before You once Your anger flares?"