Introduction: The Final Part of Chapter 30 - The Fall of Assyria and the Light of Redemption
All of these chapters deal with a single question: what will happen when Assyria ascends and besieges Jerusalem in the days of Chizkiyahu, and how the Holy One, blessed be He, will exact retribution from him. In this part of the chapter, the prophet first describes the greatness of the light of success that will shine upon the Jewish people after the tribulations, and then the dual nature of Assyria's arrival: fire and fury outwardly, yet mercy and lovingkindness inwardly. From here onward, we will follow the order of the verses.
The Light of the Moon and the Light of the Sun - Two Stages of Salvation
וְהָיָה אוֹר־הַלְּבָנָה כְּאוֹר הַחַמָּה וְאוֹר הַחַמָּה יִהְיֶה שִׁבְעָתַיִם כְּאוֹר שִׁבְעַת הַיָּמִים בְּיוֹם חֲבֹשׁ יְהֹוָה אֶת־שֶׁבֶר עַמּוֹ וּמַחַץ מַכָּתוֹ יִרְפָּא׃ (כו) - And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, like the light of the seven days, on the day that Hashem binds up the fracture of His people and heals the crush of their wound. (26)
Rashi explains "sevenfold, like the light of the seven days" - seven sevens like the light of the seven days, that is, seven times seven sevens, forty-nine sevens, which amount to a total of three hundred and forty-three. This is the light that the sun is destined to have in the future to come.
The Malbim delves deeper into the matter. It is well known that distress is likened to night - a person going through a difficult period says, "I am in a time of darkness." "Greece - who darkened the eyes of Israel." Tribulation is always compared to night and gloom. In contrast, relief is compared to day, as the expression goes, "He brought them out of distress and gloom into great light." Now, there are two kinds of relief: relief that arrives in the midst of the distress itself is compared to the light of the moon shining in the dead of night - it is still night, yet light flickers and dispels some of the darkness. On the other hand, complete success, tranquility that does not emerge from distress at all, is likened to day and the light of the sun.
According to this, the order of the verse is explained. "And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun" - the onset of salvation, which is likened to the light of the moon, will be like the light of the sun. Naturally, when a great tribulation ends and salvation begins, people are still bleeding, still licking their wounds from the blows endured. The prophet says: it will not be so. When the salvation begins, it will not be like a moon shining in the night, but immediately like broad daylight - as though there had never been a night, as though there had never been distress at all.
And if the beginning of salvation, coming after tribulations, will be like tranquility that existed all along, what will be the nature of the success that emerges from peace and ease? Regarding this, the verse says: "and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold" - multiplied many times over, until it will resemble "the light of the seven days," that very light that served during the seven days of Creation, the Divine light that the Holy One, blessed be He, stored away for the righteous in the world to come.
The Malbim adds: After all, the luminaries did not function until the fourth day, so what is the meaning of "and there was evening and there was morning"? Where could evening and morning come from without luminaries? Rather, there was the light of the seven days - an intrinsic light, without a solar sphere, which began to shine in the morning and gradually faded toward nightfall. This light is destined to be revealed by the Holy One, blessed be He, to the righteous in the future to come. And why was it hidden away? Because it possessed unique properties, such that a person could see with it what was inside walls and what was hidden in deep recesses, and the Holy One, blessed be He, concealed it so that the wicked would not use it to break into people's homes, since they would know where the safe was and where the money was hidden. In any case, it was a tremendous light, and the light of success in the future to come will be just like it.
And when will this occur? "On the day that Hashem binds up the fracture of His people and heals the crush of their wound." The Jewish people will then be like a person who fell from a fourth floor - assuming, of course, that he survived - covered entirely in bandages and casts. Such will be their state after all the tribulations and sufferings, the aches and the wounds. First the fracture must be bound up, and then "He will heal the crush of their wound." "Fracture" refers to internal damage, broken bones; "the crush of their wound" refers to external damage, crushed flesh, shed blood, and torn skin. Both of these the Holy One, blessed be He, will heal: internal, spiritual, and emotional success will return to them, as well as external, physical, and material success. And on that day, the light of the sun will shine sevenfold like the light of the seven days - a vast and tremendous light of success.
"Behold, the Name of Hashem Comes from Afar" - Fire on the Outside and Mercy on the Inside
הִנֵּה שֵׁם־יְהֹוָה בָּא מִמֶּרְחָק בֹּעֵר אַפּוֹ וְכֹבֶד מַשָּׂאָה שְׁפָתָיו מָלְאוּ זַעַם וּלְשׁוֹנוֹ כְּאֵשׁ אֹכָלֶת׃ (כז) - Behold, the Name of Hashem comes from afar, His anger burns and the burden is heavy; His lips are full of indignation, and His tongue is like a devouring fire. (27)
Here the prophet returns to describe what will occur upon the arrival of Assyria (Ashur). "Behold, the Name of Hashem comes from afar" - the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, comes Himself from afar; He is the One who brought Ashur to Jerusalem. And we have already learned, "Woe to Ashur, the rod of My anger": when the Holy One, blessed be He, wishes to strike, a staff does not descend from the heavens to strike; rather, He has a rod, and in that era it was Ashur. And so it is in every generation: at times it is Ashur, at times Hezbollah, at times Hamas, at times the lunatic from Iran, and at times the media. We always have a different "Ashur" that serves as the rod of the Holy One, blessed be He's anger, and in such situations we must always examine what we need to rectify and what is demanded of us.
On the one hand, Ashur is depicted as entirely smoke and fire, strict judgment and fury: "His anger burns, and heavy is the burden" - his nostrils burn and smoke ascends from them, and outwardly he appears as one coming to burn everything and destroy the Jewish people. "His lips are full of indignation" - for he came and blasphemed and reviled the ranks of God, he, Shevna, and all who were with him, to taunt Chizkiyahu and the people dwelling in Zion. And it was not enough that his anger burned inwardly, but he voiced the curse outward as well. "And his tongue is like a devouring fire" - the tongue is deeper within, beneath the lips, and from sheer rage it comes to burn everything.
Yet note the opening of the verse: "Behold, the Name of Hashem comes from afar" - and the Name of Hashem denotes mercy (Rachamim). This teaches that even though outwardly everything is fire and fury, inwardly the Holy One, blessed be He, is full of mercy and compassion, seeking to extinguish that very fire. If this is the attribute of Gevurah (severity), He extinguishes it with the attribute of Chessed (loving-kindness).
"And His Breath Is Like an Overflowing Stream" - The Kindness That Extinguishes the Fire
וְרוּחוֹ כְּנַחַל שׁוֹטֵף עַד־צַוָּאר יֶחֱצֶה לַהֲנָפָה גוֹיִם בְּנָפַת שָׁוְא וְרֶסֶן מַתְעֶה עַל לְחָיֵי עַמִּים׃ (כח) - "And His breath is like an overflowing stream, reaching until the neck it divides, to sift nations with the sieve of futility, and a misleading bridle upon the jaws of the peoples."
All the fire and fury are merely external; but "His breath," the inner spirit, is "like an overflowing stream." And a stream, after all, extinguishes fire. "Reaching until the neck it divides" - as it were, from the neck up there is fire, and the stream reaches up to the neck and divides it, putting out the fire. That is to say: even though outwardly the Holy One, blessed be He, approaches in great fury, bringing Ashur to besiege Jerusalem and blaspheme, know that "God's stream is full of water," full of bountiful rain - through the attribute of Chessed He will come and extinguish that fire. And this will be the deliverance from Ashur.
Why, then, was the fire necessary at all? So that the people would awaken in teshuvah and return to Hashem, thereby becoming worthy of Chessed. Water symbolizes loving-kindness, and when Chessed arrives, the forces of kindness overcome the judgments and the strict attribute of justice prosecuting Israel, extinguishing the fire.
"To sift nations with the sieve of futility" - that entire appearance of fire and wrath was designed to mislead the nations, making it seem to them as though the Holy One, blessed be He, seeks to settle them in a beautiful landscape (nof), in Jerusalem, of which it is said, "Fair in its landscape (yafeh nof), the joy of the whole earth." They were confident: here we come to inherit the beauty of Jerusalem, here we conquer and triumph. But in truth - "and a misleading bridle upon the jaws of the peoples." How does one lead an animal? With a bridle, "with bit and bridle to hold in check," and likewise, "and I will put hooks into your jaws" - hooks in the jaws to lead the beast. The Holy One, blessed be He, wished to draw Ashur here, and to that end He gave him the illusion: the fire is burning, you are about to destroy everything, everyone is delivered into your hands, the landscape of Jerusalem is yours. And under this sway, he marched here with all his legions.
And the more troops he would bring, and the more silver and gold, the greater the salvation would be, and the more silver and gold Israel would receive. That is why they had previously gone and fought against Cush and Tirhakah, gathering immense amounts of silver and gold from there, and only then marched here - so they would not arrive empty-handed, but laden with wealth, ensuring that Israel would not merely be left with corpses, but also with silver and gold. Thus, all that imperial fervour was nothing other than a bridle by which Hashem was leading him, without him even realizing it.
"The Song Shall Be Yours as on the Night a Festival Is Sanctified" - Two Joys
הַשִּׁיר יִהְיֶה לָכֶם כְּלֵיל הִתְקַדֶּשׁ־חָג וְשִׂמְחַת לֵבָב כַּהוֹלֵךְ בֶּחָלִיל לָבוֹא בְהַר־יְהֹוָה אֶל־צוּר יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ (כט) - "The song shall be yours as on the night a festival is sanctified, and gladness of heart as when one walks with the flute to enter the mountain of Hashem, to the Rock of Israel."
When did the downfall of Ashur take place? On the night of Pesach, and it was then that Israel recited the Hallel. Rashi explains: on the night of Pesach this joy will come to you. "As on the night a festival is sanctified" - the letter chaf is comparative: just like the night on which the festival was sanctified, just as you recited the song of the Paschal offering in Egypt. For during the eating of the Korban Pesach, one recites Hallel; and just as you uttered song and praise back then, so will you have a song at the downfall of Sancheiriv. "As when one walks with the flute" - you will rejoice over the downfall of Sancheiriv just like the joy of those bringing the first fruits (bikkurim), before whom "the flute would beat." Parenthetically, from the phrasing "the flute beats" - rather than "the flute plays" - it would seem that it was a type of percussion instrument, which warrants further examination in the words of the commentators.
The Malbim explains: Just as back then, at the downfall of Sancheriv which took place on the night of Pesach, Israel sang the Hallel with immense joy and ate their Pesach offerings in thanksgiving, so on the other side turmoil spread through the camp of Assyria. At the very moment when you will have "the song as on the night a festival is sanctified, and gladness of heart as one who walks with the flute", at that exact hour the Holy One, blessed be He, will bring an upheaval upon them - "And Hashem will cause the majesty of His voice to be heard." With you, there will be the tumult of rejoicing, while with them, the turmoil of sorrow, grief, and loss.
The Malbim further explains that two distinct types of joy are referenced here. There is a joy that stems from the time itself, like the joy of the festival - the occasion inherently being a time of rejoicing, which corresponds to "as on the night a festival is sanctified." And there is a joy arising from a specific cause, like the joy of the pilgrim who merits to see the countenance of the Master, Hashem, which corresponds to "and gladness of heart as one who walks with the flute to come to the mountain of Hashem, to the Rock of Israel." So it is in our lives: there is joy that derives from the calendar season, and there is joy that stems from anticipating a meeting with someone close, attending a wedding of their child, and the like. At that hour, your celebration will combine both of these joys into one.
"And Hashem will cause the majesty of His voice to be heard"
וְהִשְׁמִיעַ יְהֹוָה אֶת־הוֹד קוֹלוֹ וְנַחַת זְרוֹעוֹ יַרְאֶה בְּזַעַף אַף וְלַהַב אֵשׁ אוֹכֵלָה נֶפֶץ וָזֶרֶם וְאֶבֶן בָּרָד׃ (ל) - And Hashem will cause the majesty of His voice to be heard, and He will show the descending blow of His arm, with furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, cloudburst, tempest, and hailstones. (30)
"And Hashem will cause the majesty of His voice to be heard" - to terrify the Assyrian camp with the majesty of His voice. "And He will show the descending blow of His arm" - the Malbim explains that there is a distinction between "His arm" and "the *nachat* (laying down or descent) of His arm": *nachat* comes from the root for resting or setting down, meaning He merely rested His arm upon them without yet striking a full blow, and that alone was enough to terrify them. "With furious anger" - with wrath. "And a flame of devouring fire" - just as they came with "His anger burning... and His tongue like a consuming fire", so correspondingly the Holy One, blessed be He, will consume them with fire. "Cloudburst, tempest, and hailstones" - He will shatter them like a torrent and like hailstones, like falling hail and a driving downpour.
And what is "a flame of devouring fire"? We have already explained how the Assyrian camp was stricken: fire consumed them from within, "a burning flame." How did this occur? They heard the sound of the angels' song, and their souls expired and were consumed from within, unable to bear the intense spirituality of hearing the voices of the angels. This is what is meant by "a flame of devouring fire" - a fire that consumed them from their inside. It is taught that this was a burning of the soul while the body remained intact, leaving the outer form unharmed: "And when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses."
"For at the voice of Hashem, Assyria will be crushed"
כִּי־מִקּוֹל יְהֹוָה יֵחַת אַשּׁוּר בַּשֵּׁבֶט יַכֶּה׃ (לא) - For at the voice of Hashem, Assyria will be crushed; with the rod He will strike. (31)
Rashi comments: He opened their ears and they heard song. Thus, the mere hearing of the voice of Hashem, blessed is He - hearing the song from the heavenly Chayyot - was what caused their death. And "with the rod he would strike" - Rashi explains: Assyria, who was accustomed to striking you with his rod.
There are two ways to understand "with the rod he strikes." One is that it refers to the Holy One, blessed be He: Assyria will be shattered by the voice of Hashem, for Hashem will strike him as with a rod. The second is that it refers to Assyria: the very same Assyria who always struck others with his rod, feared and dreaded by all, will now be shattered by the voice of Hashem. In other words, the Holy One, blessed be He, says: I do not even need to strike him heavily with My hand; the mere resting descent of His arm is enough - merely placing His arm gently upon him - and hearing the voice of Hashem alone is sufficient to break him.
"An ordained staff" - The Merit of Waving the Omer and the Joy of the Festival
וְהָיָה כֹּל מַעֲבַר מַטֵּה מוּסָדָה אֲשֶׁר יָנִיחַ יְהֹוָה עָלָיו בְּתֻפִּים וּבְכִנֹּרוֹת וּבְמִלְחֲמוֹת תְּנוּפָה נִלְחַם־בָּם׃ (לב) - And every stroke of the appointed rod that Hashem shall lay upon him will be with timbrels and harps, and in battles of waving He will fight against them. (32)
Rashi explains "with battles of waving": the waving of the Omer harvest came to Israel's defense in that war. For it was the night of the sixteenth of Nisan, and Israel's merit at that moment was the merit of offering the Omer. And where else do we find that the merit of the Omer stood for Israel? With Haman and Mordechai - when they said to him: your few shekels versus the handful of the Omer; they showed him the handful of the Omer offering and said to him: this small amount of the Omer is what triumphed over all your thousands of silver shekels.
The Malbim explains: "Every passage of the established staff" - all the crossings and strongholds of the established staff, which refers to the firm and well-founded tribe of Judah, "upon which the Lord shall lay" His might, will be "with tambourines and harps": in all those strong places, they rejoiced in the markets and streets with the celebration of the festival. And in contrast to this - "and with waving battles He will fight against them": while there was immense joy in the camp of Israel, at that very same hour the Lord waged war against Assyria.
And what is the meaning of this? That the very sound of the rejoicing terrified Assyria. The mere noise of the festival celebration taking place here in Jerusalem - for it was Pesach - was enough to fight against them. And the joy spread through all the streets of Jerusalem, for wherever they ate the Korban Pesach, they also recited Hallel. In this way, as it were, the Holy One, Blessed is He, intensified His war against Assyria: in those very places where the enemy thought to conquer Jerusalem, Israel sang the festival song over the sacrifice, and that sound alone terrified Assyria.
"For Topheth is Ordained from Yesterday" - The End of Sennacherib
כִּי־עָרוּךְ מֵאֶתְמוּל תׇּפְתֶּה גַּם־הִיא לַמֶּלֶךְ הוּכָן הֶעְמִיק הִרְחִב מְדֻרָתָהּ אֵשׁ וְעֵצִים הַרְבֵּה נִשְׁמַת יְהֹוָה כְּנַחַל גׇּפְרִית בֹּעֲרָה בָּהּ׃ (לג) - For Topheth is ordained from yesterday; indeed, it is prepared for the king; he has made it deep and wide; its pyre has fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, kindles it. (33)
"Topheth" refers to Gehinnom, and the verse states that Gehinnom was ordained "from yesterday" (me'etmol). And when is "from yesterday"? Our Sages teach: Gehinnom was created on the second day. And from where do we know this? From "For Topheth is ordained from yesterday" - a day that has a yesterday (the first day) but no day before yesterday, which is the second day of the Creation of the world. For if you were to say an ordinary Monday of any week, it has a day before yesterday, namely Shabbat; rather, the verse refers to the second day of Creation.
At first glance, this is difficult, for we learned that Gehinnom is one of the seven things created before the world was created. The commentators in the Ein Yaakov explain: these are two distinct things. There is the realm of Gehinnom, the chamber called Gehinnom, which was created from antiquity, even before the creation of the world; and there is the fire within it, which was kindled on the second day. This is "ordained from yesterday" - that they had already arranged it and set the wood in place.
The fire of Gehinnom should not be understood literally. The verse seeks to convey the magnitude of the anguish, and therefore describes it as fire. In truth, it is profound shame; and since we cannot grasp the reality of such shame, we are told: take the fire you know in this world and multiply it a hundredfold and a thousandfold - that is the magnitude of the shame experienced there.
Our Sages also expound "Tofteh" (Topheth) as related to the word pituy (temptation): anyone who is seduced by his evil inclination falls there. "For Topheth is ordained from yesterday" - its pit of burning; and there is a hint here of how a person ends up there: by being seduced by it, for through being enticed by his evil inclination, a person falls into Gehinnom.
"Indeed, it is prepared for the king" - this Gehinnom was also prepared for Sennacherib and his army. "He has made it deep and wide; its pyre." And what is a medurah (pyre)? Logs arranged on top of one another, as in the Talmudic phrase "arranges them like a pyre." Only because they would arrange the wood before kindling the fire did the fire come to be called a medurah; in truth, however, this is not the name of the fire itself, but the name of the arrangement of wood, the woodpile, just as is done on Lag BaOmer. Here too, its pyre is prepared from yesterday, "fire and much wood," and "the breath of the Lord," as it were, blows upon that pyre so that it becomes "like a stream of brimstone burning within it," an intensely scorching fire. And all of this is prepared for the king - for Sennacherib.
The Malbim follows this same line: if you ask, after describing what will befall the camp of Assyria, what will become of the king of Assyria himself? To this the verse responds: "For Topheth is ordained from yesterday." And how did Sennacherib die? He fled, and his sons struck him down with the sword.
Our Sages recount: Sennacherib asked, "What is the strength of this nation? How do they always prevail and stand against their enemies?" They told him: "They had a great forefather whose name was Abraham, and he took his son and bound him for the sanctification of God's Name, prepared to burn him and offer him up upon the altar for the honor of the Lord." He said: "Is that so? I have two sons, and I will sacrifice both of them, and achieve an even greater victory!" He was a "generous father," so he declared he would sacrifice two sons. And who were his two sons? Adrammelech and Sharezer. Adrammelech - adar from the word aderet (a mantle or royal cloak), as he was the son destined to inherit the mantle of kingship; and Sharezer - sar and otzar, who was the minister of the treasury. These were his two most distinguished sons, though he had other sons as well, such as Esarhaddon.
They stood behind him and listened as he secluded himself in his house of idol worship and pledged to sacrifice his two sons. They said, "What kind of father do we have; he is about to sacrifice us!" They thought, "We reckon it would be far better for the idol if the king himself, our father himself, were sacrificed, and thus we will eliminate him and solve the problem." And where was he at that moment? "And it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god." And who was Nisroch? His idol, which was fashioned from a plank (neser) of Noach's ark that he took and set up as an idol, and it was therefore called Nisroch.
The place where they would sacrifice their sons to idolatry was called Gei Ben Hinnom, and the fiery pyre there was called Topheth (Tofet). Why was it called this? Because they would beat on drums (tupim). And why did they beat drums? So that the parents would not hear the child's screams when they led him out to be burned, Heaven forbid, for if they heard, they might reconsider and regret their decision; therefore, they would beat drums so his outcries would not be heard, and there they would burn their children.
And this is what the prophet says: This Topheth that Sancheiriv prepared for his sons - who was ultimately delivered there? He himself. "For Topheth is ordained from yesterday" - it was prepared for his sons, but know this: "indeed, for the king it was prepared." He thought he was preparing Topheth for his sons, but they prepared it for him, for the king, as they reasoned: It is better that it be the king, for that is more honorable. He wanted to burn them, and in the end they slew him.
"He has made it deep and large, its pyre" - he enlarged the pyre there, wanting a huge fire that would be, as it were, a massive sacrifice for Topheth. "The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, kindles it" - "the breath of the Lord" (nishmat Hashem) refers to His blessed will, as in the expression "if it be your mind (nafshechem)," which means your will. It was Hashem's will that burned in it like a stream of sulfur, and the one who prepared that Topheth was himself consumed in it. So may all Your enemies perish, Hashem! Amen.
In summary:
This section of the chapter teaches us two fundamental principles. First: the light of the future Redemption will not be the faint light of a moon in the dead of night, but rather "the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun" - as if there had never been distress at all, and "the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of the seven days," on the day Hashem binds up the fracture of His people and heals both the internal and the external, in both the spiritual and the physical realms. Second: when the "Assyria" of each generation arrives, what outwardly appears to be fire and wrath - "His anger burns... and His tongue is like a devouring fire" - is merely external, while within it lies "the Name of Hashem" of mercy, and "His breath is like an overflowing stream" that extinguishes the fire. The fire was needed only to awaken the people to repentance, whereupon lovingkindness overcomes strict judgment. And all the enemy's fervor is nothing more than a misleading bridle with which the Holy One, blessed be He, leads him to the place of his downfall, until the Topheth he prepared for others is prepared for himself, while for Israel there is "song as on the night a feast is sanctified, and gladness of heart, as when one goes with the flute."