Up to this point, the prophet described the destruction and exile that would befall the Ten Tribes at the hands of Sancheriv. From here onward, he turns to depict the contrasting picture: the miracle and salvation that would be granted to Chizkiyahu. Sancheriv, having finished dealing with the Ten Tribes, would assume the next stage was Yerushalayim, Yehudah, and Binyamin; but a surprise awaited him there. The king at that time was Chizkiyahu, a righteous king, and the fate of Sancheriv and his armies was to fall at the gates of Yerushalayim. Having described the Ten Tribes, the prophet now turns to describe Yehudah and Binyamin.
כִּי כֹה יִהְיֶה בְּקֶרֶב הָאָרֶץ בְּתוֹךְ הָעַמִּים כְּנֹקֶף זַיִת כְּעוֹלֵלֹת אִם כָּלָה בָצִיר׃ - "For so shall it be in the midst of the land, among the peoples: like the beating of an olive tree, like the gleanings when the vintage is done."
The Malbim explains that the clauses of the verse here are parallel. This is a common structural principle, found frequently in Sefer Iyov - which the Malbim often uses to explain the verses - as well as in other places: when there is a two-part clause followed by another two-part clause, the first part of the second clause connects to the first part of the first clause, and the second part connects to the second. Thus here: "in the midst of the land" corresponds to "like the beating of an olive tree"; "among the peoples" corresponds to "like the gleanings when the vintage is done."
Those remaining in the midst of the land will all be killed or exiled, like a person who beats an olive tree, gathering the olives one by one and leaving nothing behind. And those who will already be among the nations, in the land of their exile - in Chalach, Chavor, and by the river of Gozan - will be as few as the gleanings left behind once the grape harvest is done. Olelot (gleanings) refers to a vine on which only isolated grapes remain. In other words, even in the land of their enemies, the Ten Tribes will dwindle, be cut off, and practically nothing will remain of them.
The Radak explains the word nokef based on the traditional method of harvesting olives: sheets and nets are spread around the tree, the olive tree is shaken, and whatever does not drop is beaten with sticks, causing the remaining olives to fall. This was their practice in ancient times. Thus, nokef denotes striking, similar to nogef, from the root of plague or affliction. This is how Rashi explains the Rabbinic adage, "A person does not strike (nokef) his finger below unless it is decreed upon him from Above" - meaning that a person does not receive even a minor bruise on his finger without a Heavenly decree. Some become confused due to the colloquial idiom "refuses to lift (linkof) a finger," taken to mean stretching out a finger, but that is not the true meaning; linkof means to strike or bruise. According to this, says the Radak, here too "like the beating of an olive tree" refers to the few olives that remain even after the tree has been repeatedly beaten; only a minuscule fraction will survive.
הֵמָּה יִשְׂאוּ קוֹלָם יָרֹנּוּ בִּגְאוֹן יְהֹוָה צָהֲלוּ מִיָּם׃ - "They shall raise their voice, they shall sing; over the majesty of Hashem they shall shout from the sea."
Those who remain here, Yehudah and Binyamin, will raise their voices, sing, rejoice, and give thanks to Hashem over His majesty, just as they cried out in joy when they came up from the sea. When Yisrael came up from the Yam Suf, they sang Shirah; there was immense joy as they witnessed the destruction of the Egyptians and the greatness of the hand of Hashem. And what is the verse speaking of here? The downfall of the camp of Ashur: when they awaken in the morning to find one hundred and eighty thousand troop commanders lying as dead corpses, they will sing of the majesty of Hashem, rejoicing greatly to see Hashem strike down their enemies, reminiscent of the joy at the splitting of the Yam Suf. The Radak interprets "from the sea" (miyam) as the west, but the Malbim, as well as Rashi, explains that it refers to their ascent from the Yam Suf.
עַל־כֵּן בָּאֻרִים כַּבְּדוּ יְהֹוָה בְּאִיֵּי הַיָּם שֵׁם יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ - Therefore honor the Lord with lights, in the islands of the sea the name of the Lord God of Israel.
מִכְּנַף הָאָרֶץ זְמִרֹת שָׁמַעְנוּ צְבִי לַצַּדִּיק וָאֹמַר רָזִי־לִי רָזִי־לִי אוֹי לִי בֹּגְדִים בָּגָדוּ וּבֶגֶד בּוֹגְדִים בָּגָדוּ׃ - From the edge of the earth we heard songs: 'Glory to the righteous!' But I said: 'My secret is mine, my secret is mine! Woe is me! Traitors have betrayed, with the treachery of traitors they have betrayed!'
The two verses are interconnected. "From the edge of the earth" means from the end of the earth, like the corner of a garment, which is its edge. And what are the songs heard from the edge of the earth? "Honor the Lord with lights." When they celebrated, it was their custom to light torches and bonfires to enhance the rejoicing. Therefore, all say to one another: Honor the Lord through lights, by kindling bonfires and lighting beacons. "In the islands of the sea the name of the Lord God of Israel" - this can be understood to mean that the tidings will reach everywhere, and even in the islands of the sea they will know that the Holy One, blessed be He, displayed His signs and wonders. Alternatively, it can mean that we are addressing the distant islands of the sea as well: You, too, light beacons and bonfires as a sign of joy and thanksgiving for the great miracle of Sancheriv's downfall.
And how did word reach the distant islands of the sea? The downfall of Sancheriv became renowned throughout the world because the Holy One, blessed be He, performed a great miracle for Chizkiyahu: the sun moved backward ten degrees, an event that gained worldwide renown. We have already cited the Malbim's explanation as to why such a miracle was necessary: it was performed not merely for Chizkiyahu's sake, but for the sake of the ten tribes who had been exiled to Chalach, Chavor, and the Gozan River. They had fallen into total despair, feeling that the Holy One, blessed be He, had exiled and forsaken them. Suddenly they heard that the sun had reversed its course - the Lord, the God of Israel, was performing wonders for the people dwelling in the Land! For them, this was a greeting and a surge of encouragement: there is still hope; if we mend our ways, the Lord will return us to the Land. Yet though they saw, and perhaps were deeply moved, they nevertheless persisted in their ways and did not change, remaining in that exile to this very day, lost to our knowledge.
"Glory to the righteous" - tzvi denotes splendor and glory: let there be glory for the tzaddik, for part of the merit through which they were granted this salvation was the merit of the righteous king, Chizkiyahu. But then the prophet says, "And I said: 'My secret is mine'": further secrets regarding this matter have been revealed to me. You witness a deliverance, and it is truly wondrous, and everyone rejoices, yet I come to temper the excitement slightly: a secret has been revealed to me that this salvation is not an everlasting deliverance. For shortly thereafter, several kings after Chizkiyahu, they too were exiled from the Land. There was a deliverance, but it was not permanent, and further troubles and exiles were destined to come: the Babylonian exile and the Persian-Median exile. This is why the phrase is doubled, "My secret is mine, my secret is mine" - secret upon secret has been revealed to me; "woe is me" - when I hear those secrets about what the future holds.
"Traitors have betrayed" - I see that after Chizkiyahu, treacherous kings will arise here: Menasheh, Yehoyakim, and their cohorts. And what is added by the phrase "and with the treachery of traitors they have betrayed"? That this will not be a minor betrayal, but an egregious treachery characteristic of arch-traitors, the kind who place an idol inside the Sanctuary. Not merely an ordinary violation of the will of God, but an act whose entire purpose is to provoke the Creator of the universe. This is the "secret of mine" over which the prophet cries, "Woe is me."
פַּחַד וָפַחַת וָפָח עָלֶיךָ יוֹשֵׁב הָאָרֶץ׃ - Terror, pit, and snare are upon you, inhabitant of the land.
Through the betrayal of these traitors, the land will become subject to a succession of tribulations, and the prophet describes how each calamity propels the next. To illustrate this, he offers a parable from hunters: Hunters dig a pachat, a deep pit into which the animal falls. When it tries to climb out, there is an apparent exit where a pach, a snare, is placed, trapping it so that it cannot move. And how did they drive it into the pit in the first place? Through pachad, fear and terror: they frighten it from all sides until it flees directly into the pit they dug for it, and from there it seeks a way out on its own and is caught in the snare. Incidentally, this shows that the popular Hebrew idiom "from the snare to the pit" is imprecise, for the true order in the verse is the reverse: from the pit to the snare, which is the ultimate and more severe trap.
וְהָיָה הַנָּס מִקּוֹל הַפַּחַד יִפֹּל אֶל־הַפַּחַת וְהָעוֹלֶה מִתּוֹךְ הַפַּחַת יִלָּכֵד בַּפָּח כִּי־אֲרֻבּוֹת מִמָּרוֹם נִפְתָּחוּ וַיִּרְעֲשׁוּ מוֹסְדֵי אָרֶץ׃ - And it shall be that he who flees from the sound of terror shall fall into the pit, and he who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare; for the windows from on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.
There will be a recurring state of desolation upon the land, time and again. Initially, the earth will quake from its place, or in the Malbim's words, its pillars will shudder. The Malbim adds that while some earthquakes are caused by various natural phenomena, this will not be the case here: "For the windows from on high are opened" - the sluice gates of heaven will open, and it will be plainly recognized as a decree from Above. What will cause the foundations of the earth to shake? The windows of heaven. That is, it will be evident to all that this comes directly from Heaven and is not a natural coincidence. Through this, the prophet explains the parable: he who flees from the sound of terror will fall into the pit, and he who seeks to climb out of the pit to escape will be caught in the snare. And why? Because this comes from on high, from Heaven, from the windows of heaven.
Rashi interprets the verse as referring to the nations: one who escapes the sword of Mashiach ben Yosef will fall to the sword of Mashiach ben David, and whoever escapes from there will be caught in the snare during the war of Gog and Magog.
רֹעָה הִתְרֹעֲעָה הָאָרֶץ פּוֹר הִתְפּוֹרְרָה אֶרֶץ מוֹט הִתְמוֹטְטָה אָרֶץ׃ - The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is completely shattered, the earth shakes violently.
Here the prophet comes to describe what he meant by "and the foundations of the earth quake," stage by stage. First, "the earth is utterly broken down" (ro'ah hitro'a'ah) - an unstable, fractured state, where cracks form in it due to the tremor. Next, "the earth is completely shattered" (por hitpor'rah) - disintegrating into finer pieces. And finally, "the earth shakes violently" (mot hitmotetah) - total collapse. These are three stages in the earth's breakdown.
And why the double expressions, ro'ah hitro'a'ah and por hitpor'rah? The Malbim explains: ro'ah is the initial fracturing itself, where the blow creates instability and fractures (from the root meaning frail or broken), but at this stage the pieces still cling together; then hitro'a'ah means the pieces have separated. Likewise, por refers to the very division into small pieces from the initial impact, and then hitpor'rah means it continues to crumble completely. This is like the rabbinic term perurin (crumbs); although that exact noun does not appear in Tanach, the verb hitpor'rah does appear here, bearing the same meaning: disintegrating into tiny fragments.
נוֹעַ תָּנוּעַ אֶרֶץ כַּשִּׁכּוֹר וְהִתְנוֹדְדָה כַּמְּלוּנָה וְכָבַד עָלֶיהָ פִּשְׁעָהּ וְנָפְלָה וְלֹא־תֹסִיף קוּם׃ - The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard and sways like a watchman's hut; its transgression weighs heavily upon it, and it falls, never to rise again.
Up to this point, the verse described a tremor in a portion of the land, but here it describes how the entire land will shake. First, "the earth reels to and fro like a drunkard" - like an intoxicated person swaying from side to side, walking erratically. A story is told of a police officer who pulled over a drunk driver who was speeding and swerving, and asked him to walk in a straight line to test his sobriety. The drunk began to walk, stopped, and said, "Wait, who are you kidding? First straighten the line!" Even a straight line looks crooked to him.
Notice what causes the drunkard to sway: not an external factor, but internal vapors, the alcohol fumes rising to his brain - an internal cause. Afterward, "and sways like a watchman's hut (melunah)": melunah is related to lodging (linah), like the temporary booth that watchmen build in a vineyard, as in "like a hut in a cucumber field" and "like a booth in a vineyard," constructed from willow branches and scraps of wood. Such a structure is neither strong nor stable, and even a slight gust of wind knocks it over. Thus, the watchman's hut sways due to an external cause.
This is the parable's meaning: first there will be an internal rebellion, civil strife, which is like the drunkard staggering due to the fumes within him. Afterward, "and sways like a watchman's hut" - enemies will attack from without, just as wind strikes the booth from the outside and shakes it, and these foreign foes will cause turmoil in the land. And in the third stage, "its transgression weighs heavily upon it, and it falls, never to rise again" - a total collapse, for the sins of the people dwelling there tipped the scales, turning what was merely swaying into an utter downfall.
The Malbim notes that the prophet frames these prophecies in sets of three: terror, pit, and snare (pachad, pachat, pach); utterly broken down, completely shattered, shaking violently (ro'ah hitro'a'ah, por hitpor'rah, mot hitmotetah); reeling to and fro, swaying like a hut, and falling (no'a tanu'a, hitnodedah chimlunah, venafelah). These three descriptions correspond to the three times Nevuchadnezzar came to shake the land of Judah, until he finally succeeded in conquering it. At the end of the verse, the Malbim explains, the prophet shifts to describe events that occurred not in the days of Nevuchadnezzar, but during the era of the Greek kings in the Second Temple period, followed by the destruction of the land at the hands of Edom. Then, "she falls, never to rise again": after the first fall under Nevuchadnezzar, following seventy years of exile, they returned to the land and rebuilt the Beit HaMikdash; but in the second fall, the exile brought by the kings of Edom, her transgression weighed heavily upon her and she fell, never to rise again - the redemption would not be imminent, but deferred for thousands of years, just as we have spent two thousand years and have not yet been redeemed. This corresponds to the verse, "Fallen, no more to rise, is the virgin of Israel," indicating that the final exile would endure for "a time, times, and half a time," as we see in the prophecies of Daniel. And as for what was mentioned earlier, "and the foundations of the earth quake" - there the prophet described all the afflictions they endured up until the destruction of the Second Temple, during which they suffered fall after fall.
The Malbim explains the distinction between no'a (swaying or moving) and hitnodedah (wandering or migrating): Na refers to movement from place to place, or even movement within the same spot from side to side, right and left, forward and backward - the very state of being in motion is called na. But mitnoded, from the root of nedidah (wandering), means moving from one's place and traveling to a completely different location. And what is the difference between nod and noded? Nod, as stated regarding Kayin, "and he settled in the land of Nod" (Bereishit 4:16), related to "a wanderer and an exile (na vanad) shall you be on earth" (ibid. 4:12), denotes wandering in the vicinity; whereas noded, with the doubled letter dalet, signifies wandering a great distance away, as in "like a bird wandering (nodedet) from its nest" (Mishlei 27:8) - birds that migrate from place to place and cross continents. The bird does not merely turn its head, but migrates completely. The doubled letter indicates a far greater migration.
וְהָיָה בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא יִפְקֹד יְהֹוָה עַל־צְבָא הַמָּרוֹם בַּמָּרוֹם וְעַל־מַלְכֵי הָאֲדָמָה עַל־הָאֲדָמָה׃ - And it shall come to pass on that day, that the Lord will punish the host of heaven on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
After having said, "My secret is mine" - what harsh secrets were delivered to me! - "Woe is me" that I saw wicked kings destined to rise, and that exile is destined to come through Nevuchadnezzar, through the kings of Greece, and through the kingdom of Edom - the prophet begins to declare what will occur in the End of Days, at the close of the days of wrath, when the time of the eternal redemption arrives. He does not want to plunge the people into despair and cause a crisis, leading them to say, "Fallen, she shall rise no more" (Amos 5:2). Therefore, he clarifies that this is not forever, but only temporary; just as after the fall of the First Temple she rose again during the Second Temple, although here it will take a long time until she rises again. For this reason, he begins to describe how the Holy One, blessed be He, will exact retribution from the nations that distressed Israel.
"The host of heaven" - the Malbim explains that these are the heavenly princes of the idolaters on high, or the stars and constellations from which the idolaters draw their influence. And after He reckons with the host of heaven, the second stage is "and the kings of the earth" - the kings of the idolaters, who receive their influence from the host of heaven. As Daniel describes, when the angel told him that as soon as he leaves, the prince of Persia will arrive, and so forth. The nations have guardian angels in heaven, and these princes will fall first: "the host of heaven on high"; and afterward, "the kings of the earth upon the earth" - those idol-worshiping kings who will come to assist Gog and Magog, from whom the Lord will likewise exact retribution.
וְאֻסְּפוּ אֲסֵפָה אַסִּיר עַל־בּוֹר וְסֻגְּרוּ עַל־מַסְגֵּר וּמֵרֹב יָמִים יִפָּקֵדוּ׃ - And they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shut up in prison, and after many days they shall be punished.
"And they shall be gathered" - by the will of the Lord, all the nations will gather against Jerusalem for war, says the Malbim. And who gathers them? The Holy One, blessed be He; He gathers them here in order to cast them down, and there He will judge them with pestilence and blood, as in the prophecies of Zechariah that we read on Sukkot. Therefore, the prophet depicts this after the manner of prisoners: first they are gathered together toward the pit, and before being put into the pit they are judged. So too, the Holy One, blessed be He, will first gather them to Jerusalem to place them on trial, and once they are found guilty - "and shut up in prison," they will be locked in the pit.
"And after many days they shall be punished" - the Lord will hold them accountable for what they did over the course of many days: all that they sinned throughout the generations, all the hardship they inflicted upon Israel; for everything, they are destined to give a full accounting. This is what Rabbi Eleazar HaKalir established in the liturgical hymn of Parashat Zachor (as Ashkenazim are accustomed to reciting the piyyutim of HaKalir): "After many days to be reckoned, to calculate their accounts" - the Holy One, blessed be He, will count and reckon against them everything they did to distress us over so many days, and will punish them. And Rashi explains that "they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit" refers to Gehinnom; that is, not only will the Lord judge them here on earth, as explained according to the Malbim, but they will furthermore be punished in the seven chambers of Gehinnom, which is the meaning of "and shut up in prison."
וְחָפְרָה הַלְּבָנָה וּבוֹשָׁה הַחַמָּה כִּי־מָלַךְ יְהֹוָה צְבָאוֹת בְּהַר צִיּוֹן וּבִירוּשָׁלִַם וְנֶגֶד זְקֵנָיו כָּבוֹד׃ - Then the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed, for the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His elders shall be glory.
Rashi explains in accordance with Targum Yonatan: "Those who worship the moon shall be ashamed, and those who bow to the sun shall be humbled" - those who worship the moon will be disgraced, and this is the meaning of "Then the moon shall be confounded"; it is not that the moon itself will be disgraced, but rather the moon-worshipers. "And the sun ashamed" - those who worship the sun will be ashamed and subdued. And why? Because it will then become clear "that Hashem of Hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem"; it will become clear that their worship was futility, and behold, Hashem reigns in Zion. "And before His elders shall be glory" - the glory will be bestowed upon the elders, and not upon those people.
Radak explains that due to the immense troubles that will befall the idolaters, "the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed" - as it were, the Holy One, Blessed be He, will darken the world upon them, and the sun and moon will, as it were, dig in and go into hiding, for the world will grow dark around them from the great troubles to come. And when will this occur? In the war of Gog and Magog, when they conquer half the city, and Hashem will go forth and fight against those nations, and then everyone who remains in Jerusalem will recognize that kingship belongs to Hashem. And to whom is glory fitting? "And before His elders shall be glory" - these are the righteous, the servants of Hashem who will remain in Jerusalem; they are the ones worthy of honor.
The Malbim explains: "Then the moon shall be confounded" - that at that time, they will no longer ascribe faith, splendor, and power to the moon. The ancient idolaters believed that the moon possessed power, and from where did it receive it? From a deity higher than it, namely the sun. Even they knew that the moon merely reflects light and possesses no intrinsic power of its own, shining only when the sun strikes it. And when they see that the First Cause who bestows all abundance is the Holy One, Blessed be He, automatically "the moon shall be confounded" and they will no longer accord it splendor, for the moon receives from the sun, and the sun receives from the Holy One, Blessed be He, and they will realize that it is all utter vanity.
And why? "For Hashem of Hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His elders shall be glory." They believed that the sun was the emanation-granting force - and Scripture comes and says: it will become clear to them that the sun does not emanate, but rather Hashem reigns. And they believed that the moon was the recipient of power from the emanator - and Scripture comes and says: "And before His elders shall be glory," it is not the moon that receives, but rather the elders who receive from the supreme spiritual power, as in the matter of "and I will pour out My spirit upon them." It emerges: "the sun ashamed" - because the sun does not bestow, but rather the Holy One, Blessed be He, is the Bestower; "and the moon confounded" - because the moon is not the recipient, but rather the elders, upon whom the divine abundance descends. Through this, they will realize that their entire faith was a futile belief.
And what is the difference between chafrah ("confounded" / digging in) and boshah ("ashamed")? The Malbim says that chafirah is more severe than bushah. Even in our language, when one says "shame on you" versus "disgraceful/ignominious" - an ignominious act is worse than an act one merely feels ashamed of. The definition is: a person who feels shame hides his face and does not want to be seen, and there is an expression that he would rather the earth swallow him at that moment; this is shame, where a person wants to cover his face so his disgrace will not be seen. But chafar means that he is ready to be buried so his disgrace will not be seen, to dig into the ground and bury his head there so his shame will not be exposed. And thus the light of the sun will diminish, while the light of the moon, which is meager anyway, will be entirely hidden. According to nature as well: even if you darken the sun, it still possesses light of its own, but with the moon, if you darken it, it has nothing, as it possesses nothing of its own. Therefore, regarding the moon, the verse uses the term chafrah, representing the total nullification of light, while regarding the sun it uses boshah, meaning that the light diminishes, but not completely.
In these verses, the prophet transitions from the fall of the Ten Tribes to the salvation of Judah and Benjamin in the days of Hezekiah: the inhabitants of the land will be cut down like the beating of an olive tree, and the exiles will be few like the gleanings after the grape harvest, whereas those who remain will sing out in the majesty of Hashem like the joy of the splitting of the Red Sea upon the downfall of Sennacherib, and from the edge of the earth songs of "honor Hashem in the fires" will be heard, reaching even the distant coastlands. Yet immediately the prophet tempers the enthusiasm with "I have a secret": this is not an everlasting salvation, for great traitors will arise who will place an idol in the Sanctuary, and tribulations will follow one after another in the parable of dread, pit, and snare, in three triads corresponding to the three campaigns of Nebuchadnezzar, culminating in a fall after which there is no immediate rising - the exile of Edom that endures for ages upon ages. Finally, the prophet promises the End of Days: the visitation upon the host of heaven on high and the kings of the earth below, the gathering of the nations to Jerusalem for judgment and imprisonment and reckoning after many days, and the absolute clarity that there is no bestower other than the Holy One, Blessed be He, and none who receive the glory except His elders - "for Hashem of Hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem."