They will pour upon you an abundance of good. "To them too you have poured a libation." He says "to them too you have poured a libation," meaning even to the children, for after they slaughtered them, as we said, they believed that the children themselves became deities, since they slaughtered them to a god, and afterward one would pour libations to the child itself. To the child that he slaughtered, he believed it had now become a god, that it possessed divine power, and therefore one would pour libations to the god itself and offer it libations. So how can I be comforted over such abominable deeds?
"Upon a high and lofty mountain you set your bed, there too you went up to offer a sacrifice." As we said, he depicts the relationship of the people of Israel with idolatry as a bed, as harlotry. "Upon a high and lofty mountain you set your bed," as it is written that they would worship their idols upon the high mountains. "There too you went up to offer a sacrifice." The Radak explains that there is here, as it were, a certain complaint against them: it was no trouble at all for you to climb up in order to sacrifice to it. They had no cable car. You had to go up and toil and exert yourself to reach the top in order to sacrifice to idolatry, and this was easy for you, out of your love for the worship. For normally we understand the disgrace of "upon a high mountain" simply as this: the high places are the choice places, and precisely there you placed idolatry. Is it not written where they place the synagogue? In the highest spot in the city, at the heights of the town. And you, upon the high mountain, what did you place? Your idolatry. That is the simple meaning. But in contrast the Radak explains that the charge against them was: you did not shrink from all the trouble needed to worship idolatry every time, to climb up to the summit of the mountain, it was easy in your eyes. In simple words, as it were: My worship, which was not hard or troublesome in your eyes, and idolatrous worship, which is very hard, this you do with ease. It is not difficult for you.
The Malbim explains: earlier we saw that they performed their idolatry in the valley, in the clefts of the rocks, and now he speaks of the high mountains. Says the Malbim, they had, they believed there are several "sons of gods." There are idols who dwell in the valley, and there are idols who dwell on the high mountains. And as is known, from each god they wished to receive the power that it influences. They believed in many deities, for they believed that each god has power of influence over a particular matter. And since this was so, they would sacrifice and offer incense to that god in order to receive from it influence in the very matter they needed. One who set out to sail the sea would sacrifice and offer incense to the god of the sea. And one who went to dig in the earth would go and sacrifice to the god of the earth. And so for each and every matter. So that in fact both this idolatry and that idolatry, all of them you worshiped.
"And behind the door and the doorpost you set your memorial, for you uncovered yourself away from Me and went up, you widened your bed and made a covenant with them for yourself, you loved their bed, you saw a place." "And behind the door and the doorpost you set your memorial." Since he likens them, perhaps first let us note what Chazal expound, for we saw that there is one who expounds this on Yoshiyahu. "The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Hashem," as we saw at the beginning of the chapter. And if we recall, Yoshiyahu was righteous, and when Egypt came here he went out to fight against them and in the end fell in battle. And over him the prophet lamented, "The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Hashem, of whom we said, in his shadow we shall live," and so on. So that in fact we see that he himself was righteous. Why then was he punished? He was caught up in their corruption. And he did not know that his generation was not fitting. And what was the sin of his generation? It is written that he would send men, messengers, to the houses in order to verify that there was no idolatry, to uproot idolatry. And they would place their idols on the door, on the inside. Yes, "and it shall be for a sign upon your hand and for frontlets between your eyes," so that they would not forget them. Now these men would arrive, open the door, and the inner part of the door would now face the wall. They would search the whole house, looking for idolatry, and find none. They would go out, close the door nicely, and the idolatry would once again stand in its place, since the idolatry was on the door, on the inside. And even if it were two doors, they would open this way and then it would close and the idolatry would remain in its place. And this he did not know. And this is what he says: "And behind the door and the doorpost you set your memorial." Where did you place your idolatry? Behind the door and the doorpost. And through this Yoshiyahu could not know of it.
Rashi explains, Rashi explains, "And behind the door and the doorpost you set your memorial," says Rashi, since he likens her to an adulterous woman, he depicts her as it were as a woman for whom they wait before the entrance of her house in order to commit harlotry with her, and her heart and her thoughts, where are they? On the door and on the doorpost. That is, "the doorpost" refers to the lintel. "On the door and on the doorpost" means: when will the door open and I will go out to them. This is the meaning of "on the door and on the doorpost you set your memorial": you constantly look for when to go out to the men with whom you will commit harlotry. "For you uncovered yourself away from Me and went up." As it were, as we said, we as the people of Israel are like ones married, as it were, to the Holy One blessed be He, but away from Me, as it were, you would lie and you uncovered the covering and left your place of bed, which is our union with the Holy One blessed be He, "and went up." You went up away from Me, to where? You went to the adulterers. "You widened your bed," meaning that your bed should be wide to receive in it many adulterers. "And made a covenant with them for yourself": you made a covenant with them instead of with the man of your bosom, who was the Holy One blessed be He. "You loved their bed, you saw a place." You loved their bed when you saw that there was a place and a spot to show them your love. "You saw a place" (yad chazit), like "the portion of Yoav," "Elad and Elead," and so on, meaning a place, a spot beside. So you set up for yourself some place, a spot where you could show them your love.
The Radak explains, "And behind the door and the doorpost you set your memorial." The Radak explains, and thus we will see yet another interpretation afterward, that "your memorial" (zikhroneikh) is from the expression "your fragrance is like the wine of Lebanon." So perhaps first, the Radak gives one interpretation: "your memorial" means you made something by which you would always remember idolatry. You made a symbol that would always be a reminder of idolatry for you. The opposite of what is written, "and you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates": on the gates you made a symbol of idolatry. Hashem said to place a memorial of the service of Hashem, and you went and placed a memorial of the Baal and of idolatry. I gave you the mitzvah of mezuzah so that you would always remember Me when a person enters and when a person leaves. The Rambam says that this is the essence of the matter of the mezuzah, that a person should look at the mezuzah and see and remember that the Holy One blessed be He watches over. And you removed the mezuzah and set your memorial. You set things that would remind you of your idolatry. This is one interpretation.
Another interpretation, as I began to say earlier, "your memorial" is from the expression "his fragrance like the wine of Lebanon," "its memorial-portion to Hashem." You set, where you set, you placed the incense for the idols. This is the meaning of "memorial-portion" (azkarah), referring to the incense with which they would, as it were, burn incense to idolatry. This you placed behind the door and the doorpost. And why? "For you uncovered yourself away from Me and went up." You uncovered yourself away from Me. What does this mean? I commanded you My service, My service, says Hashem, in a hidden place. "An altar of earth you shall make for Me," not a lofty structure of stones. And I further commanded, "You shall not go up by steps upon My altar," that there should be no stairs. And you did the opposite, you went to worship idolatry in a high place. You did the opposite of what I commanded. I commanded not a high place but a low place, and even there I commanded that you worship Me, and you went and worshiped idolatry in a high place. "You widened your bed," regarding what is this said? I said, "You shall not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see." You cannot offer wherever you want. There is a place where one must offer, "but in the place that Hashem your God will choose in one of your gates." Yet you widened your bed. That is, you found for yourself many places in which you could offer your sacrifices to idolatry, "for as the number of your cities were your gods, O Yehuda." And incidentally, one must know that the Beit HaMikdash, the Holy of Holies, is called "the place of your bed," for it is called the place where there is, as it were, union of the community of Israel and the Holy One blessed be He. This place is the Holy of Holies. But you, instead of uniting yourself with the Holy One blessed be He specifically there, with the Infinite blessed be He, with the Holy One blessed be He, as we always unite ourselves in prayer facing the Beit HaMikdash and the Holy of Holies where the gate of heaven and the Divine Presence are, you widened your bed, firstly to commit harlotry with idolatry, and secondly, everywhere. You widened what was a restricted place, only in one place, you widened it to many places to offer sacrifices in many places, meaning that which the Holy One blessed be He forbade. "You saw a place" (yad chazit): in every single place that you saw, this is the meaning of "you saw a place." It means in every spot, as it is written, "Take heed to yourself lest you offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see," as if the place that He will choose. I commanded you not to do as they do, offering in every place, but you "saw a place," in every place you saw you set up a spot for yourself. In every place you saw you made yourself an altar for idolatry.
The Malbim too interprets this verse in the manner of a woman committing harlotry against her husband. And he depicts her as a woman who goes out at night, as it were secretly, from her husband's bed and goes to the harlots who wait for her behind the fence. And then she lays down her memorial. What is the meaning of "behind the door and the doorpost you set your memorial"? The Malbim explains that this speaks of the frankincense, as we explained earlier, like "his fragrance like the wine of Lebanon," "memorial-portion," which speaks of the varieties of incense. So the frankincense and the perfumes on her neck she places behind the door and the doorpost so that her husband will not notice her. "For you uncovered yourself away from Me and went up." You used to lie with Me, says the Holy One blessed be He, the people of Israel were joined with the Holy One blessed be He, and now you removed the covering of the bed and went up to where? As he said earlier, to the top of the mountains, "there too you went up to offer a sacrifice." "You widened your bed," what does he mean? You had a wide bed. Where? Here. Not as we explained earlier, that you widened your bed among the harlots. The Malbim does not explain it that way. The Malbim says here that with the Holy One blessed be He, as it were, you widened your bed. But you could not bring the harlots here, since here the husband is present, as it were, here with the Holy One blessed be He. So what did you do? You left the wide bed and went to the narrow bed to be with the harlots behind the fence. You widened your bed, why? "And made a covenant with them for yourself." Through the bed, if you wished, that is, this bed cut you off from them. This bed, as it were, that belongs to your husband, you cannot bring the harlots here, "and made a covenant with them for yourself." This separated you from the harlots. Therefore you loved their bed. You preferred their narrow bed over the wide bed here. For the wide bed here, here is the wife of the husband, here is the wife of the Holy One blessed be He, "which is a place you saw" (yad chazit), by the front and by the fence. What does he mean? The lesson is: the Holy One blessed be He was for us a wide bed. With the Holy One blessed be He we had abundance, we had blessing. And what did we do? We abandoned the source of living waters of abundance and blessing, to seek a narrow bed. With whom? With the harlots, with idolatry, with the deities. And this bed not only did not do us good, it even did us harm. And He tells you, come and see what a bad bargain you made. You left a place of abundance to go to a place that is in the category of broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
"And you journeyed to the king with oil, and multiplied your perfumes, and sent your envoys far off, and lowered yourself down to Sheol." Here there are two approaches to interpreting the verse. Let us first explain according to Rashi and the Targum. The Targum says: "When you observed the Torah, you prospered in your kingdom." When you kept the Torah, you prospered in your kingdom. The era of Shlomo, good eras for the people of Israel. "And when you increased your good deeds, your camps multiplied." When you increased your good deeds, your army and people also grew. "And you sent your envoys far off": your messengers you would send far, to distant lands. "And you brought low the mighty," you succeeded in humbling mighty nations, "the mighty of the nations down to Sheol." That is, we had might, we had abundance, and we had political ties with the distant nations. Success smiled upon us. When? When we did the will of Hashem. "And you journeyed to the king with oil." Says Rashi, at first I would raise you up, you would receive the face of your King with all kinds of delights. "You journeyed" (tashuri), Rashi explains, is an expression of seeing the face, like "I behold him but not near." Incidentally this is interesting, because Rashi explains that even what is written "there is no gift (teshura) to bring," what is teshura? From what expression is teshura, that it is a gift? Because with the gift one sees the face of the king. So teshura is from the expression of "beholding," from the expression of "to see." "Behold" (shuru), right? From the expression of "to see." Like the wall is called, why, how is the wall called? Shur, right? "Daughters, march upon the wall (shur)." And here too it is from the same idea, because they would go up on the wall and see far off. So we see that the expression "to behold" (lashur) is an expression of seeing, "I behold him" is an expression of seeing. And you would merit to see the face of the King, "and you journeyed to the king with oil," when you have all good. And you would come and give Him a gift of oil out of the abundance of good you had. "And you sent your envoys far off" in order to collect tribute from the nations. So you ruled over them, you had tribute from them, you had abundance in the light of the face of the supreme King, all our lives were lives of abundance and blessing. "And you brought low the nations down to Sheol." And behold, all this you nonetheless abandoned for whose sake? As we explained earlier, for the sake of idolatry, chaos and vanity that have no substance.
In contrast the Radak explains "and you journeyed (tashuri) to the king," says the Radak, this is like "and you went." Like "look (tashur) from the top of Amanah," "he sings (yashor) over men." He says it is from the expression of "caravan" (shayara). A caravan means travelers going from place to place. "And you journeyed to the king" means, from the expression of "and you went to the king." Who is this? According to the Radak, note, this is a different line. According to the Radak he is not recounting the good era we had when we were with the Holy One blessed be He, but rather he continues to describe our negative deeds. And what are the negative deeds? Instead of trusting in the Holy One blessed be He and awaiting His salvation, to whom did you go? To the nations. To the kings of the gentiles to ask them for help. Why? Because if I ask the Holy One blessed be He, I need to change my ways in order to be worthy of salvation. Master of the universe, I will manage on my own. I have the king of Assyria, I have that king, I have this king. I will turn to them, I will bribe them, I will forge ties, I will turn to the king of Egypt, as the prophet rebukes them that the king of Egypt is a support of a splintered reed. Upon him you lean? But they preferred to lean on any other way, as long as they did not turn to the Holy One blessed be He. And incidentally, to our sorrow, we see this, if we do not understand how such a thing can be, we see it also in our generation. Ready to rely on America, ready to trust in the army, ready for everything. But to say, Master of the universe, give us salvation, this no. Not to be mentioned. This they will not mention. The Holy One blessed be He gave salvation, say thank you, Master of the universe. The president of the United States, after the war in Iraq, offered a blessing to the Master of the universe. Thank You to the Master of the universe. Only we Jews are ashamed to mention the name of Heaven. The army can, and the long arm of the army, and we will cut them down, and we, and our strength, and the intelligence, and... where is thank You to the Master of the universe? It has already been in ages past. We see also then, Master of the universe, that is fine, we will manage. And incidentally there is an explanation for this. Chazal say why? Because if I say thank You to the Master of the universe, that obligates me. If I say thank You to the Master of the universe, that means there is a Master of the universe, so I need to keep Shabbat, I need to put on tefillin. So it is better for me not to say thank You to the Master of the universe, so that there will not be an accusation here against the people of Israel. For the gentile, religion obligates nothing. What does he care to say thank You to the Master of the universe? It demands nothing of me. In contrast, for the Jew, if I say thank You to the Master of the universe, then there is a Master of the universe, so it obligates me. From morning to evening I need to change my whole conduct. But a gentile can continue with everything he does, yes, and there is also a Master of the universe, true, there is also the Master of the universe. Once a week, once every two weeks, a month, two months, he went to the priest, who wipes away his sins, and even gives him a chance, gives him some overdraft, as it were, so you have credit for the next times, and afterward you come again and we do a delete, we erase everything again. For them it is very easy, their religion is very light, he has no problem believing in the Master of the universe. But for the Jew, a Jew deep down knows, you believe in the Master of the universe, it demands of you, it requires of you. And therefore this is a merit-finding, why for the Jew it is much harder for him, because he truly knows what it means. This is what he says here, this is what he says also, "and you journeyed to the king with oil." What is "and you journeyed to the king with oil"? The king of Assyria, who ruled over all the lands, not only did you worship other gods, but you altogether went to rely on flesh and blood. Upon the king of Assyria, you turned to him to ask him for help. And regarding this it is said, "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart turns away from Hashem." If they were idolaters but their intent was to the Master of the universe, like there were idolaters who worshiped the sun as the servant of the Holy One blessed be He, they worshiped the moon as the servant of the Holy One blessed be He. He says, fine, that too is forbidden. "You shall not make with Me gods of silver," even in order to worship Me. But here you did an evil much greater. You completely removed your trust from Hashem, you went to rely on flesh and blood. Not as an instrument for the Master of the universe, not as a means through which I serve the Master of the universe, but you altogether erased the Master of the universe and went and made for yourselves some man as a power-holder, you turned to him to save you. And in the end they fell into his hand, the very one they relied upon, the king of Assyria. What did you do at first? "And you journeyed to the king with oil." You send him gifts, from where? From the land of Israel, a land of olive oil, we have much oil. You send a gift to the king of Assyria. And what in the end? In the end, "and you lowered yourself down to Sheol." Did it help you? Did it save you? It lowered you down to Sheol. "And you multiplied your perfumes," you would send them as a gift compounded oil, the work of a perfumer. You would send them fragrant, special oil. "And you sent your envoys far off," you sent your messengers as far as Assyria, which is a distant land. "And you lowered yourself down to Sheol," you lowered yourself down to Sheol before him. And behold, come see that these things not only did not benefit you, but even harmed the people of Israel.
The Malbim explains that here he continues with the parable of that woman committing harlotry against her husband. And here he describes how she went from bad to worse. After she went out from her husband's bed, she went to be a harlot prepared for adultery. That is to say, if until now it was some one-time deviation, from here on it already became a method. Until she thought thoughts, says the Malbim, of how to commit harlotry with the king himself. You adorned yourself with oil of myrrh, and this is what he says, this is what is written, "and you journeyed to the king with oil," meaning you went to adorn yourself with kinds of oils in order to be fit for the king. "And you sent your envoys" so that they would praise you in Pharaoh's house, a figurative expression, so that they would extol you before the king, how comely you are and how good you are, so that the king would take you. Until you lowered yourself down to Sheol. To what extent? Until in the end, when you saw that all this investment in the king brought you no benefit, you began to commit harlotry with the great ones, and even when that did not succeed you were in the category of a harlot for every passerby. That is to say, what at first she designated herself for the great ones, afterward she reached the lowest degree. And the lesson here, says the Malbim, is how at first they went astray after their gods, to whom? To the kings, the kings of Assyria, the king of Egypt. Not with the small ones. But afterward in the end they were brought so low that even before the small kings they were lowly and inferior. Like the deeds of that harlot woman. That is to say, even if at first you thought there is someone great here, it is not a degradation to lower myself before him, but this brought you afterward to needing to lower yourself before every leper and every emission-sufferer, before small kings before whom you normally should not have lowered yourself. According to the Malbim, "and you journeyed" (tashuri) here is also an expression of looking and gazing. You set your eyes on the king. At first you thought to lower yourself to the king of Assyria, the king of Egypt. But in the end these gazes did not help you and they paid you no heed, and you still needed to lower yourself even before the lowly.
"In the greatness of your way you toiled, you were weary. You did not say, it is hopeless. You found the life of your hand, therefore you did not grow sick." Rashi explains, "in the greatness of your way you toiled," meaning you occupied yourself the whole time only with your own needs. Only to fulfill your desires, only to increase your wealth. "You did not say, it is hopeless." You did not say, I will let go of this, I will give up on it and occupy myself with Torah, occupy myself with mitzvot. "You found the life of your hand," as it were the need of your hand you found. You felt that you were succeeding in your deeds. Rashi interestingly explains here that "the life of your hand" (chayat yadeikh) is from the Arabic. Rashi says, chayat in the Arabic language means "need." Does anyone know this word in Arabic? Chayat as a word for need? Is there such a word in Arabic? What? Chayim (life). Chayim? Chayat. What is al-chayat? They have a newspaper al-Hayat, no? What is it? A judge. Debt. Al-chayat is debt? It could be. Fine. In any case Rashi here explains that chayat is apparently from an ancient Arabic expression, meaning "need." "You found the life of your hand," as it were you feel that what you need you found in the investment you invested. "Therefore you did not grow sick." Therefore you did not seek the way of Hashem and the service of Hashem. This is essentially a parable saying, when a person goes after vanity and feels that he lacks nothing, he is in no hurry to repent. I lack nothing, thank God I have all good. As they said, we served the work of Heaven and all was good, and since we ceased offering incense to the Queen of Heaven everything has gone badly for us. So too he says, "in the greatness of your way you toiled," after physicality and materialism, "you did not say, it is hopeless," for "you found the life of your hand." "Therefore you did not grow sick," because of this your heart did not grow sick to worry how much I have fallen short in the service of Hashem, how far I am from His service. No, you felt quite good in your situation.
The Radak explains, if you had wished, you would have had salvation in rest in your land, without needing to go and be exiled and send officers and dignitaries to flatter the king of Assyria and flatter the king of Egypt. The Holy One blessed be He would have saved you here. "In the greatness of your way you toiled," but you went and toiled, you wearied yourself and went on journeys in order to turn to these kings that they should save you. "You did not say, it is hopeless." A person who wearies himself on journeys for the sake of some matter sometimes says, it is hopeless. What does that mean? He says, enough, I have already despaired of going on these journeys, I am giving this up. But you went, you toiled after these kings to await salvation from them, you did not say, it is hopeless. All this toil was easy in your eyes. You did not say, enough, I have despaired, I have no strength to exert myself further. Rather, all that trouble was pleasant to you. "Therefore you did not grow sick." You had no sickness and pain in this trouble, meaning all this was easy in your eyes. It was not counted by you as an effort. This is truly the reality we see in a person who distances himself from Torah and mitzvot, you see that all matters of physicality and materialism are easy in his eyes. It does not burden him. Tell him some mitzvah, tell him a shiur, tell him... whoa, brother, I am tired, no, I have no strength for this, what happened? What did they even ask of you? All matters of physicality, there he has tremendous strength. He has no problem. As Rav Yaakovzon once told about two young men who left the yeshiva, they would not get up in the morning for prayer. It was impossible to wake them in the morning for prayer, he says it was a terrible ordeal with them until in the end they left the yeshiva. Fine, they left the yeshiva, they went to rent an apartment. To rent an apartment you need work. They went to work. And what did they do? There was some tower being built then, some tall building, and they needed to lift drywall boards to the upper floors. They had no crane to lift the drywall boards, they needed it urgently until they built the crane, so they brought workers to lift the drywall boards. They would get up at 5:00 in the morning and lift drywall boards to a floor, you understand? To get up at 7:00 for prayer, I have no strength, leave it, why are you waking me now in the morning. To get up at 5:00 in the morning to lift drywall boards to the 30th floor, for that he does have strength. And we see this trait, this nature, that "in the greatness of your way you toiled," to go to them, you wearied yourself, you exerted yourself, you did not say it is hopeless. "You found the life of your hand, therefore you did not grow sick." And behold I see, he says, "life of strength," the life of your strength is "the life of your hand." Meaning this thing was pleasant to you like the life of a person and his strength. And in any case you did not despair, you went and pursued after this and did not grow sick. All these efforts did not make you sick. They did not bring you to a state of crisis, enough, I will no longer go after the idols. Rather, going after the idols, as he said earlier, even to climb and scale high mountains, this was no obstacle for you. But to make a light effort for the honor of Hashem may He be blessed, this was hard for you. This already demanded of you efforts that you could not, as it were, withstand.
The Malbim explains, as we explained that this returns to the matter of harlotry, says the Malbim, even though you toiled in the greatness of your way, you went to seek the harlots to commit harlotry with them, you did not find what you sought. Nevertheless you did not say, it is hopeless. For "you found the life of your hand." What does this mean? As long as you felt that your hand was alive. "Therefore you did not grow sick." What does this mean? Says the Malbim, the legs were already tired, the body was already weary, but as long as you have one hand that still works, you still felt, it is fine, I still exist. It is fine, I am still capable. You did not rest from your evil deeds, as long as "you found the life of your hand." Even though "in the greatness of your way you toiled," you did not say, it is hopeless, as long as one hand of mine acts and works. What does he mean? The people of Israel had already reached a state where the land was destroyed. Most of the people of Israel had already been exiled. How many evils befell them? The whole body was already sick, but one hand still works. "You found the life of your hand." One hand still works, not everyone was exiled, there still remained here a surviving remnant, you still did not stop seeking the help of the idols. You still turned to Egypt, you turned to Assyria, you still tried to receive help from the other nations. That is to say, however wounded you were and however many blows you took, it did not break you. There was still a little vitality, and this vitality you did not exploit to repent, but rather you exploited it to turn to yet another human hand to save you.
"And of whom were you afraid and fearful that you should lie, and Me you did not remember, you did not lay to heart? Have I not been silent, even from of old, and Me you do not fear." "And of whom were you afraid," Rashi explains, of whom were you afraid that you should lie, that you ceased to worship Me? "That you should lie" (tekhazevi), like "whose waters do not fail (yekhazevu)," for "every man is a liar (kozev)." What is kazav? One who is relied upon and disappoints, that is called kozev. As distinct from falsehood (sheker), for falsehood was never true. Kazav is something we expected to be fulfilled and it disappointed. Says Hashem, "Have I not been silent," for I was silent over how many crimes you committed against Me. The Radak explains more deeply, "of whom were you afraid and fearful." Of whom were you afraid, that you are now fearful? "That you should lie." That I tell you that you did negative deeds and you say to me, I did not do them. Why does a person deny? A child who is asked, who touched? He says, not me. Why does he say not me? He is afraid, right? He does not want to be punished, for them to be strict with him. But the Holy One blessed be He wonders, as it were, at us: of whom are you afraid that you need to lie and say, I did not do these deeds? Says the Holy One blessed be He, of whom were you afraid that you need to lie? What will you say? Of the Master of the universe? Says the Holy One blessed be He, behold, Me you did not remember. When you did these corrupt deeds, you did not remember Me. "And you did not lay to heart." For you did not even think, as it were, that I see your deeds. Says the Holy One blessed be He, if so, that you do not worry and do not fear Me, the Holy One blessed be He asks, then why should you lie? Is it not better for you to confess? Who lies? One who is afraid. But the Holy One blessed be He says, "of whom were you afraid and fearful"? You do not worry, you are not afraid of Me, for Me you did not remember, you did not lay to heart, so why should you lie? So confess, it is better for you to confess and say, yes, it is true, I did it, than to lie. Says the Holy One blessed be He, "have I not been silent," for I was silent, I was patient (lengthened My anger), I did not give you punishment immediately. "Even from of old," and of old too this has been My way with My creatures, that I do not exact payment immediately. And says the Holy One blessed be He, "and Me you do not fear." So firstly you have nothing to fear in admitting, says the Holy One blessed be He, for from of old I am patient. I am silent. "Even from of old," "from of old" means and so too from of old it is My practice to be silent, meaning not to react immediately. Says the Holy One blessed be He, and if you did not fear Me at the time of the transgression, why should you fear Me now at the time of the rebuke, and you suddenly say, I did not do it? This is the conclusion, "and Me you do not fear." Says the Holy One blessed be He, so you did not fear Me when you did the transgression, so why suddenly now at the time of the rebuke do you suddenly fear and deny your deeds?
The Malbim explains that this verse is essentially a continuation of what we saw, that he rebukes her earlier as a woman committing harlotry against her husband. He says to her, "and of whom were you afraid?" Of whom are you worried, of whom were you worried, as it were, when you went and did your deeds? You do not fear your husband, you have no worry or fear of your husband lest he catch you, lest he act against you. For "have I not been silent," behold you see that I am silent and do not punish you. "And you do not fear" out of the fear of exaltation, for there are two kinds of fear. There is fear where a person is afraid of punishment. There is fear where a person fears the exaltedness of that being whom he fears, for a wife's fear of her husband. A wife is not supposed to fear her husband with the fear of punishment, but rather more the fear of exaltation, meaning that she honors him. He says to her, says the Holy One blessed be He, for Me you do not fear, I see that all your deeds are without worry and without fear, and you do not regret the evil deeds you do. So says the Holy One blessed be He, of whom were you afraid, so of whom are you worried and whom do you fear? "I will declare your righteousness and your deeds, and they will not benefit you." This verse can be interpreted in two ways. Rashi says, "I will declare your righteousness," I always declare to you things that, if you do them, you will be righteous. Its meaning: I always give you good counsel. I always give you things that can help you. "I will declare your righteousness." "And your deeds," says the Holy One blessed be He, but your deeds, you do not do what I say. I will declare your righteousness, but your deeds are different. "And your deeds will not benefit you." When the evil comes upon you, the negative deeds you do will not help you, in simple words, they will even harm you. The Radak in contrast has an interesting interpretation here. He explains that this verse is written cynically. Says the Holy One blessed be He, "you should lie." What is "you should lie"? You make yourself out to be righteous. What, what is the matter? What is wrong with me? What bad things did I do? "You should lie." Says the Holy One blessed be He, you say you are righteous? The Holy One blessed be He comes and says, "I will declare your righteousness." I will tell you what a righteous woman you are. Come, I will tell you how many good deeds you did. That is, I will tell you what righteous deeds you did. And they are the evil deeds mentioned earlier, that she would go and commit harlotry against her husband and so on and so forth. Says the Holy One blessed be He, these are your righteous deeds. These are your righteous deeds, I will declare your righteousness, I will tell you the good deeds you did. "And your deeds," the deeds you did and you think that these deeds will benefit you, not only will they not benefit, they will even harm, so tell me, are these acts of righteousness? Are these good deeds? The Malbim explains, why do you worry and how do you fear before Me? Says the Holy One blessed be He, I declare your righteousness, I teach you to do good things. So why do you fear before Me? And in any case, "they will not benefit you." All that I teach you is not absorbed. This is "they will not benefit you." According to what Rashi explained, it means your evil deeds will not benefit you, they will harm you. But according to the Holy One blessed be He, this returns to "I will declare your righteousness." I will teach you to do good deeds and I always do so. But it falls on uncircumcised ears. "They will not benefit you," so I speak, this is speaking to the wall. It does not help you, you do not learn from what I teach you and explain to you. "When you cry out, let your collections save you, but the wind will carry them all off, a breath will take them. But he who takes refuge in Me will inherit the land and possess My holy mountain." "When you cry out, let your collections save you." Rashi explains, those whom you collected for yourself to worship, "when you cry out," when you cry out to them, please, "let your collections save you." Cry out to them that they should come to help you. Let them save you when you cry out. But behold, "the wind will carry them all off." They cannot save, there is no substance in them, "in whom there is no breath." So where will they save you? This is an explicit verse in the Torah. "Where are their gods, the rock in whom they took refuge, who ate the fat of their sacrifices, drank the wine of their libation?" You constantly offer it fat and libations. "Let them arise and help you, let them be a shelter over you." Turn to it that it should help you. Let it protect you, let it hide you. "Where are their gods, the rock in whom they took refuge," where is the god you rely on?
Upon him. This is what the prophet says here: "when you cry out," when you cry out, oh, there are troubles, "let your collections save you." All those idols you collected for yourself, let them come save you. But they cannot save even themselves, "the wind will carry them all off, a breath will take them." "But he who takes refuge in Me will inherit the land and possess My holy mountain." Would it not have been better to take refuge in Me, says the Holy One blessed be He, for in the God, the God of gods, there is substance, and he who takes refuge in Him will inherit the land and possess My holy mountain.
The Radak explains that this returns also more specifically to the gentiles to whom you bore a gift, not only to idolatry. For we saw they relied on Assyria, they sent a gift to the king of Egypt. Says the Holy One blessed be He to her, "when you cry out, let your collections save you," the whole aerial umbrella you created around yourself to shield you from the enemies, well, cry out to them. Is not Egypt, as we said, a support of a splintered reed that even pierces the hand? Where are those you rely upon? Where is the king of Assyria whom you paid in order to be saved? He says to her, behold, they did not even save themselves, "the wind will carry off, a breath will take." For Assyria came to Jerusalem with a very heavy force, and what in the end was? The angel of Hashem in one night, 185,000 heads of legions, left nothing of them. So he says, behold, these whom you rely upon, the wind carries them off, a breath takes them. In one moment they are gone. So upon them you rely? One who cannot save himself, how will he save you? "The wind will carry them all off," says the Radak, like the wind that carries off the chaff lightly and quickly, so they all died in one moment. So upon them you rely?