He now speaks of it as being planted, according to its will, as Rashi explains. "Shall it prosper?" Is it possible that one who betrayed her first husband could ever prosper? Here we are speaking, so to speak, about Tzidkiyahu, who betrayed Nevuchadnetzar. After all, Nevuchadnetzar made him king, he was the one who gave him the position and appointed him, and yet you went and betrayed him. Do you think you will succeed? It cannot be that through your betrayal you will succeed. "When the east wind touches it, shall it not wither?" The moment the east wind, which serves as a metaphor for the king of Bavel, comes (since Bavel is to the northeast of Eretz Yisrael, he compares it to the east wind, for the east wind is a wind that comes from those directions). So he says: behold, an east wind is coming and it will wither you. And the east wind, as is well known, is hot, it dries out, as it is written, "An east wind shall come, a wind of Hashem rising from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry and his fountain shall be parched." We see that the east wind is an eastern wind that dries things out. If so, your current situation is not one in which you can afford to betray Nevuchadnetzar. When the east wind comes it will surely wither, "upon the beds where it grew it shall wither." Upon the beds where it grew, there it will dry out. Through this it will wither your reality. How can you go and rebel, and how do you expect to succeed? "And behold, it was planted" - until now it was planted - "shall it prosper?" In your rebellion against Nevuchadnetzar do you think you will succeed? The Malbim explains that here there is really an added point, saying that even if the eagle does not come to uproot it (the eagle being Nevuchadnetzar, who, as we said, planted it originally), even if he does not come to uproot it, still, once it is planted, and behold it is uprooted from this place and transplanted to another place, is it possible that it will succeed? Because this place is not its place. This means that the moment you uproot a tree from one place and plant it in another, it is not certain that it will succeed in taking root there and growing. Very often it was actually in the first place that it had life, while afterward the second place is a place where it will dry out, will have no vitality, and the tree will not manage to take root. So this is what he says: even without Nevuchadnetzar you will have no vitality, precisely because you went to lean on Pharaoh king of Egypt. We will soon see how he explains matters further.
"The word of Hashem came to me, saying: Say now to the rebellious house, do you not know what these things mean? Say: Behold, the king of Bavel came to Yerushalayim and took its king and its officers and brought them to him to Bavel."
Now he will explain to them the meaning of the parable. We saw that the chapter opened with a riddle and a parable, and now he wishes to clarify the parable and the riddle, to explain every single detail that I mentioned in the parable and what it signifies in the analogue.
A significant portion of these matters we already explained, the analogue within the parable itself, but now the prophet will do so in an orderly fashion. "The word of Hashem came to me, saying: Say now to the rebellious house" - beit hameri means the house of rebellion, these rebels - "do you not know what these things mean?" Do you understand the parable and the riddle that I told you earlier? "Say: Behold, the king of Bavel came to Yerushalayim and took its king and its officers." This is the top of the cedar we saw above. The king of Bavel will come and take the top of the cedar, that is Yehoyachin and his officers, since we said that the kings are considered like the top, the upper part, as it were, of the people.
The Malbim explains that the analogue is that the king of Bavel will come to Yerushalayim, and he is really the great eagle that came to the Levanon. The Levanon is the Beit HaMikdash, since the Beit HaMikdash whitens (malbin) the sins of Israel, it is called Levanon. Another reason: it was built from the cedars of the Levanon, and therefore it is called Levanon. And then he says: Nevuchadnetzar king of Bavel will come and take the top, take the king (that is the top of the cedar), and its officers, as we saw above where he said "he plucked off the tip of its young twigs." And these he will bring to himself to Bavel, as we saw above, "he set it in a city of merchants." He will place him in a city of merchants, which is Bavel.
"And he took of the royal seed and made a covenant with him, and brought him under oath, and he took the mighty of the land." "And he took of the royal seed" - this is Tzidkiyahu, as we saw above. "And he took the mighty of the land" - besides the oath and the covenant, the Radak explains that he took additionally from the mighty of the land, he took officers and dignitaries so that they would be with him as hostages. This was a very common practice among the ancient kings: when a king would rebel against another king, or when there was concern that he might rebel against another king to whom he was supposed to be subject, the other king would ensure that he had a guarantee that the second king would not rebel against him. What would he do? For example, he would take one of his children. He would take one of the second king's children and keep him with himself. If you rebel against me, I will kill him. Or he would take officers and dignitaries from his kingdom, and then he would say to the opposing king: if you rebel against me, I will kill you, I will kill them. In this way this arrangement would ensure that there would be no rebellion on the part of the kingdom subjected to the ruling kingdom's dominion; that kingdom would not rebel against the king above it. About this he says "and he took the mighty of the land": besides the oath and the covenant with which he swore Tzidkiyahu not to rebel against him, he took the mighty of the land, who are the officers, so that these officers would be hostages ensuring that he would not rebel against him, that he would be subject beneath him and not exalt himself above him.
The Malbim explains that what is written here, "he took of the seed of the land," is the same as "he took of the royal seed." "He took of the royal seed" is the seed of the land that we saw above. "And made a covenant with him" is what is written, "he set it in a field of seed," meaning that he planted him in order to make a covenant with him: I plant you, appoint you here, on condition that you be subordinate to me. "And he took the mighty of the land" is like what is written, "he set it like a willow." "To be a lowly kingdom, that it not exalt itself, to keep his covenant that it might stand." "To be a lowly kingdom, that it not exalt itself" - all this he did so that it would be a spreading vine, as we saw above, that this vine would not grow tall, that this vine would trail along the ground, that this vine would be subject to whoever is above it, that is, to the king who rules over it, who is Nevuchadnetzar. And it was supposed to be a lowly kingdom, that is a spreading vine. And afterward it is written that it was of low stature, which is what is written here, "that it not exalt itself," that this vine should be low and not raise its head to rebel. And this was intended "to keep his covenant that it might stand." This is what is written, "to turn its branches toward him," that its branches (meaning the tendrils of the vine) should turn toward Nevuchadnetzar, meaning that it would keep his covenant, keep its oath, and not rebel against him. "That it might stand" means that the covenant would stand and endure. All this Nevuchadnetzar did, planting Tzidkiyahu in order to ensure that he would not turn away from his covenant.
Well, and what happened in the end? "But he rebelled against him by sending his messengers to Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper? Shall he who does such things escape? Shall he break the covenant and escape?" He says: behold, look, instead of this, what did Tzidkiyahu do? "He rebelled against him." This is what is written, "it became a vine and put forth branches." It already had long branches, it no longer related to Nevuchadnetzar king of Bavel. "He sent his messengers to Egypt" - this is the second parable we saw, the second eagle. We said that the second eagle is Pharaoh, and Tzidkiyahu turns to him to receive assistance. What did he want from him? "That they might give him horses and much people." And this is what we saw there, "to water it from the furrows of its planting." He wanted, as it were, to be planted on Pharaoh's bed, to receive watering from there, which means: I am no longer subject to Nevuchadnetzar, I have taken for myself other masters. About this he says, "Shall he prosper?" In this whole course of action, will he succeed? For in this course he will fail, and for two reasons. First, "shall he who does such things escape?" For Nevuchadnetzar will not let you off, he will fight you, he will conquer you. And this is what is written there, "will he not tear off its roots?" He will tear off its roots, he will fight against you. Another matter, "shall he break the covenant and escape?" Even if he does not fight you, you have broken the covenant of Hashem, the covenant you made with him, and Hashem will punish you. It emerges, then, that for breaking the covenant there is punishment from Hashem, for you made a covenant with him, you swore to him. And this is the explanation of what we saw above regarding "the beds where it grew," which we saw would wither. We said that even if Nevuchadnetzar does not come to wither you, you will wither on your own. And why? Because you have a covenant with Nevuchadnetzar, and you are bound by this covenant and this oath before Heaven. And if so, is it possible that you will rebel against him and Heaven will not hold you accountable for it?
"As I live, says Hashem Elokim, surely in the place of the king who made him king, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke, with him in the midst of Bavel he shall die." "As I live, says Hashem" - "im lo," every place where "im lo" is written is an expression of an oath. Like "surely many houses," "surely as I have thought." So this is what the Malbim now says, explaining what we saw above, "shall he who does such things escape?" He will not escape, because Nevuchadnetzar will come against him in war, and not only that, he further tells him a prophecy, "in the midst of Bavel he shall die." There in Bavel, there will be his death; you will not continue here to rule and reign. Your kingship will cease, because Nevuchadnetzar will conquer you, and your death will be in Bavel.
"Neither shall Pharaoh with a great army and a large assembly act with him in war, when they cast up siege ramps and build siege towers to cut off many souls." "Neither shall he act with him in war with a great army" means that Pharaoh will not come with a great army in order to help him and assist him in the war he will have against Nevuchadnetzar. This means: you relied on Pharaoh, but it will become clear to you that Pharaoh will not trouble his army and his forces to come and fight for you, to come and protect you. "When they cast up siege ramps and build siege towers" - when they cast up a siege ramp, when they wanted to conquer a city, they would cast up a siege ramp. This means they would make a mound of earth against the wall so that by means of it they could climb the wall. They would make this mound diagonally; this was casting up a siege ramp. "And to build siege towers" in order to capture the city, in order to cut off the souls. The point of this was to show you that the covenant you made with the king of Egypt, with Pharaoh, this covenant will not help you. And Pharaoh will not help them with a great army. The Malbim explains that this is the meaning of what we saw in the parable, "and not with a great arm and much people to lift it from its roots." About this, what is the analogue? Pharaoh will not come with a great arm and much people. That is how the Radak explains it. The Malbim, by contrast, explains, as we saw above, that Nevuchadnetzar will come and take you easily. This is "not with a great arm and much people." Nevuchadnetzar will not need to invest forces. The idea is the same idea: Pharaoh will not help you. The only question is, "not with a great arm and much people will he come," whom is it speaking about? According to the Radak it speaks about Pharaoh: Pharaoh will not come with a great arm and much people to save you from Nevuchadnetzar. By contrast, according to the Malbim's explanation, the meaning is that Nevuchadnetzar will not need to come with a great arm and much people; he will conquer you, and again, the same reason, because Pharaoh will not come to help you. So we arrive at the same result; the only question is who is the great arm and much people we are speaking about.
"Seeing he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, and behold he had given his hand, yet did all these things, he shall not escape." "Seeing he despised the oath by breaking the covenant" - that is, as we saw above, "shall he break the covenant and escape?" After he despised the oath (an oath is a sworn vow), he broke the covenant he had with Nevuchadnetzar upon which he had sworn to him. And more than that, he had already "given his hand." What does "given his hand" mean? There are two explanations. Rashi and the Radak go in the direction that giving the hand is the establishment of love and peace. "And he gave his hand" means like shaking hands and committing to be with him in peace and love. The Malbim, by contrast, explains that "and he gave his hand" means he had already withdrawn his hand from the war after the city was breached. (Here in the Malbim there is a printing error: all the editions write that the city sank, but this is an error; the meaning is that the city was breached.) After he had already withdrawn his hand from the war, after the city was breached, he had already given his hand, withdrawn his hand, as if he no longer struggled, no longer fought. And he says: yet with all this, look how he stood firm in his rebellion and wanted to flee to Egypt. When Nevuchadnetzar, as it were, no longer continued to strike, but the city had already been breached, and he was now, as it were, already inside, well, then there is nothing more for you to do, surrender. He says: look how he still continued in his rebellion. And how did he continue in his rebellion? He wanted to flee to Egypt. For we know that Tzidkiyahu fled; he had a cave, as we saw at length above, a cave that extended from the palace, and this cave was supposed to be an escape cave, a tunnel of escape. But in the end Hashem delivered him into the hand of Nevuchadnetzar, as we will mention this matter again here. So about this he says: how do you expect to escape? And this is what is written above, "behold, it was planted, shall it prosper?" How do you expect that you will be able, after they planted you here, to uproot you from here and plant you in another place (for "planted" always, as we explained, means being transplanted to another place)? "Shall it prosper?" Do you think you will be able and will succeed in breaking the oath and breaking the covenant and being planted in another place, and that your course of action will succeed?
"Therefore thus says Hashem Elokim: As I live, surely My oath which he despised and My covenant which he broke, I will bring upon his own head." "Thus says Hashem Elokim, as I live, im lo" - as we said, "im lo" is an expression of an oath. "Surely My oath which he despised" - why "My oath"? It was his oath, the oath that Nevuchadnetzar swore him. The answer is: he swore him by Elokim. And therefore it is called "My oath which he despised." He broke My oath, says Hashem, for he swore to him by Elokim. "And My covenant" - likewise, it is called "My covenant," because he made a covenant with him in the name of the Holy One, blessed be He. And so in what you did now there was, as it were, a desecration of Hashem's name, against His blessed name. Hashem says, "And My covenant which he broke, I will bring upon his own head." That very sin I will place upon his head, I will repay him his recompense upon his head for what he did. And here it is truly literal. What is "upon his head"? What did Nevuchadnetzar do to him after bringing him down to Bavel? He blinded him, he put out his eyes. "I will repay his recompense upon his head" - the recompense was upon the head, upon the eyes which are in the head.
"And I will spread My net upon him, and he shall be caught in My snare, and I will bring him to Bavel and will enter into judgment with him there for his treachery which he committed against Me." This speaks of what I mentioned earlier, about the flight that he tried to flee already after Nevuchadnetzar had given his hand, that is, withdrawn his hand and no longer continued to strike but had already breached the city; we said that Tzidkiyahu fled. But his flight through the cave did not help him, because the Holy One, blessed be He, spread a net upon him. In what manner was the net spread? Chazal say, as we saw above, that a deer presented itself to one of Nevuchadnetzar's forces. A deer presented itself to them, and they pursued it, and pursued and pursued and pursued, until they managed to reach it, and suddenly whom do they see popping up before them out of the ground? Tzidkiyahu. What turns out is that in fact the Holy One, blessed be He, brought and summoned this deer not so that they would hunt it, but so that they would hunt Tzidkiyahu. This deer was pointing out the place to the Chaldean force, showing them how to find Tzidkiyahu. Therefore the expression "and I will spread My net upon him, and he shall be caught in My snare" is also understood. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: did someone here make a snare for him? It was I here who summoned this snare for him. And the reason is, as we saw above, "My oath which he despised, My covenant which he broke." About this, "I will bring it upon his head," for Hashem warned him not to rebel against Nevuchadnetzar, and he went and rebelled against him. And if so, Hashem says, here there is a spreading of a net upon him. "And I will enter into judgment with him there" - there in the prison in Bavel He entered into judgment with him and, as it were, disputes with him over the treachery he committed against Him. And through this he will come to confession. What is "and I will enter into judgment with him"? This means: we do not see that the Holy One, blessed be He, spoke with him there. But when a person has done some corrupt deed, and he suddenly catches a slap, and this slap is overt, one sees in it the hand of Hashem, and one sees here that my corruption is what drew the blow and the slap, Hashem enters into judgment with him. The Holy One, blessed be He, comes into judgment with him, so there is no need to speak. It is without words. The Holy One, blessed be He, judges him through this and rebukes him. This is "and I will enter into judgment with him there for his treachery which he committed against Me," and through this he will understand that everything that happened to him is because of the treachery he committed against Me; because of this he was struck.
"And all his fugitives with all his troops shall fall by the sword, and those who remain shall be scattered to every wind, and you shall know that I, Hashem, have spoken." "And all his fugitives (mivrachav) with all his troops." What is mivrachav? There are two explanations here. Rashi brings a first explanation, which is that of the Targum: mivrachav means his mighty men. Rashi does not explain how mivrachav means his mighty men. It is quite possible that mivrachav is from the language of "his drivers-away," meaning that the mighty man drives away all who pursue him. That is possible. But it could be that it is a word that simply means a mighty man. On the other hand, Rashi brings the explanation that is more accepted among the commentators, which is what Menachem explains, that mivrachav is connected to the matter of "flee, my beloved." "Etc., its interpretation being: and all who flee." It emerges from this that what I said earlier is not correct, since mivrachav is not in the sense of "his drivers-away," that is, it is not connected at all to the expression of fleeing. For Rashi only regarding Menachem says that Menachem connected it with "flee, my beloved." That is, only according to Menachem's approach is mivrachav connected to the expression of fleeing. But it is implied that if we follow the explanation of Targum Yonatan, then mivrachav is a word by which mighty men are called mivrachim, without connection to the expression or word for fleeing familiar to us. In any case, Menachem's explanation is the explanation here that is more agreed upon, that mivrachav means those who flee. "All his fugitives with all his troops" - all those who will escape, those who will try to flee from the sword of Nevuchadnetzar. "All his fugitives with all his troops" - the force that will flee with him, "with all his troops (agapav)" - the Malbim explains this means all his wives and those accompanying him, they too will fall by the sword, as we saw an explicit expression of this above in chapter 12, verse 14, where he too describes this reality, how all those who will flee with him will also fall by the sword. "And those who remain shall be scattered to every wind." "Scattered to every wind" means they will be dispersed. Like "I have scattered you like the four winds of heaven," the meaning being from the language of spreading, dispersing. And apparently also from the language of departing, yes, to depart, something that goes and departs from a certain point and disperses to other places. What is the meaning of the word agapav? We already saw this above in chapter 12, verse 14, we saw several explanations for this meaning of agapav. Agapav, the simple understanding, is from the language of wings. As the Radak brings in the name of his father, that agapav, agapecha, the aleph is added. As it were, the aleph is merely an accompanying aleph, the word being gapav. And the meaning of gapav refers to the soldiers, the forces which are called wings. "Behold, the outstretched wings shall fill the breadth of your land," the meaning being about the enemy, wanting to say that he will come with mighty and abundant force, so he says "the outstretched wings shall fill the breadth of your land." So if so, when agapim is written here, the meaning refers to the forces. So "all his fugitives with all his troops shall fall by the sword" means all his forces shall fall by the sword.
From here, from verse 22, this is the haftarah that the Yemenite community was accustomed to read for Parashat Haazinu. Many do not read this haftarah at all, but among the Yemenites, mainly the Baladi, they were accustomed to read this haftarah. "Thus says Hashem Elokim: I Myself will take of the top of the lofty cedar and set it out; I will pluck off from the top of its young twigs a tender one, and I Myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it, and it shall bring forth boughs and bear fruit and become a mighty cedar; and under it shall dwell every bird of every wing, in the shade of its branches they shall dwell." "Thus says Hashem, I Myself will take of the top of the cedar." After we saw that the top of the cedar was plucked, removed from its place by Nevuchadnetzar, now He comes and says: know that I am destined to take of the top of the cedar, and this taking is not like the taking of Nevuchadnetzar, which is a taking in order to nullify, in order to destroy, like the taking that the king of Bavel took. Rather, I will take it from the place of exile, and I will plant it back in its place. That is, the prophecy here concludes with a good prophecy. Even though there are harsh matters here about Nevuchadnetzar and about what he is destined to do, "all his fugitives with all his troops shall fall by the sword, those who remain shall be scattered to every wind," this is a harsh prophecy. He says: but know, against the top that Nevuchadnetzar took, which is the top of the cedar with which we opened, against this Hashem says, "I Myself will take of the top of the lofty cedar." The Malbim explains that this prophecy was given regarding what we will later see, that there will be a reality in which Hashem takes of the top of the cedar and it has an existence of its own. And where do we see this? Regarding Evil-merodach it is written that later he brought Yehoyachin out of prison. So that same one who is the top of the cedar, that top which was plucked here and went away, which as we saw above is Yehoyachin, about whom he spoke at the beginning of the chapter, as the Malbim explained on verse 3, "and he took the top of the cedar," the Malbim explained there that he exiled Yehoyachin, who is the head of the nation, and the officers and mighty men. Now Hashem comes and says: that same top of the cedar, that is, that same Yehoyachin, will have relief. When will he have relief? When Evil-merodach brings him out of prison. And afterward, "from the top of its young twigs a tender one I will pluck off," that is, from those who will come from him, from this, this is Zerubavel ben She'altiel, who will be from his seed. "And I will plant," says Hashem, I will transplant him from Bavel to Eretz Yisrael. And from there, from his seed, will come forth a shoot for the house of David, to establish a light for David at the end of days. This is what we say, "until Zerubavel ben She'altiel comes," and his great shofar, and he will blow a great shofar, his great shofar which will herald the redemption. And then the Holy One, blessed be He, says: what you see now which is a terrible situation, that Yehoyachin is imprisoned there, behold, I am destined to bring him out from there, and I am destined ultimately to raise him up, I am destined to exalt him, until in the end (this was the beginning, but in the end there will be the future redemption, a future redemption for which we are still waiting), that then Hashem says, the whole reality will change. And this is the continuation.
So he says, "and from the top of its young twigs a tender one I will pluck off," meaning that he was still young, this being Zerubavel ben She'altiel. "And I Myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain" - it is possible that "I will plant" (shatalti) also alludes to She'altiel, yes, it recalls the word She'altiel. "I Myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain" - I will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. A high mountain means a place where there is air, there is sun, it is fit to grow properly. And what is the meaning of the word talul (lofty)? The word talul comes from the word tel. A tel is a high place. So when one wants to say a very high place, one says talul. Like "letel," Har Tziyon is called a tel, meaning Yerushalayim, and Har HaBayit is called a tel. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: I will plant it in the place that is lofty, in the place that is high. And here He says to them, "on the mountain height of Israel I will plant it, and it shall bring forth boughs and bear fruit and become a mighty cedar; and under it shall dwell every bird of every wing, in the shade of its branches they shall dwell." First of all, it is written here "and bear fruit." With Tzidkiyahu we saw that there is no fruit. With Tzidkiyahu we saw that he killed his sons before his eyes. There, there is no fruit. But here we are speaking that there will indeed be fruit. Here He says: it will not happen to you as it happened to Tzidkiyahu, whose sons were killed before his eyes, but rather "it shall bring forth boughs and bear fruit." Here there will be fruit, and as we explained above, fruit refers to having children. "And become a mighty cedar" - afterward it will grow, as it was in the beginning a mighty cedar, the top of the cedar, not as it was afterward a willow, when Tzidkiyahu became a vine, and we said that the vine was lowly and did not bear fruit; no, rather "it shall become a mighty cedar." "And under it shall dwell" - Israel will dwell in its shade. "Every bird of every wing in the shade of its branches they shall dwell." In the shade of its branches (dalyotav) - dalyotav means the drooping branches, they are called dalyotav. And then also in the shade of its branches they shall dwell, even the branches spreading far off, they too will be a refuge and shelter, and it is really a good prophecy about what is destined to be. Note, there are two explanations here, and in fact we combined both explanations because both are true. There is one explanation that speaks about the near period, about Zerubavel and about the near redemption of the building of the Second Temple, and there is an explanation about the King Mashiach. And the Malbim in fact combined both, because both matters were said here. Both about the near period and about the future redemption through Zerubavel ben She'altiel, that the King Mashiach will come and redeem us with an eternal redemption, and both matters are included here, speedily in our days, amen.