At the conclusion of the chapter, the prophet returns to the foundation upon which the entire chapter is built: the idols of the nations have no substance, and Hashem alone is God. The verses before us are a direct continuation of what was stated earlier - "Truly, You are a God who conceals Himself." As we explained, "conceals Himself" means that He hides from you, yet He sees you. Here, however, one might stumble into the mistake of the philosophers, who claimed: The Holy One, blessed be He, created the world, but since then He takes no interest in it. Who are we, after all, that Hashem should trouble His thoughts with human beings? Such was the belief of those heretics. We, however, believe that the Holy One, blessed be He, supervises every single detail and every single action. The Malbim explains: Here the prophet comes to prove this very point - that although He is a concealed God, there is necessarily full Divine Providence. And he brings three proofs: from the creation of the world, from the giving of the Torah, and from the mitzvot themselves.
כִּי כֹה אָמַר יְהֹוָה בּוֹרֵא הַשָּׁמַיִם הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים יֹצֵר הָאָרֶץ וְעֹשָׂהּ הוּא כוֹנְנָהּ לֹא תֹהוּ בְרָאָהּ לָשֶׁבֶת יְצָרָהּ אֲנִי יְהֹוָה וְאֵין עוֹד׃ (יח) - For so said Hashem, Creator of the heavens, He is the God, Former of the earth and its Maker, He established it; He did not create it for void, He formed it to be inhabited: "I am Hashem, and there is no other." (18)
Radak explains: After the prophet spoke of the idols that cannot help, cannot save, and offer no deliverance, he comes and declares - know that the Creator of the heavens is God. The Holy One, blessed be He, created everything; He is the Judge and He is the Leader, not the celestial spheres and stars. Even if it seems to you that they govern this lowly terrestrial world, the Holy One, blessed be He, says: I am above everything. And He is the Former of the earth and its Maker, and He established it - meaning, He established it so that the creatures upon it would be fruitful and multiply, as He told them, "Be fruitful and multiply."
Radak adds a point worthy of attention: If living creatures diminish, it is only through the transgression of human beings, who possess the intellect to distinguish good from evil, and through doing evil, they dwindle. If you say, "Behold, the world is not multiplying properly" - you bring this upon yourself: whether through war, through plague sent by God due to their deeds, or because people do not engage in procreation and thereby diminish themselves. But for His part, the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world so that it would grow, develop, and multiply. "I am Hashem, and there is no other" - striking and healing, putting to death and giving life, I alone.
The Malbim analyzes the precise order of terms in the verse. Note: The Holy One, blessed be He, created the heavens and the earth. In the heavens He made no changes - as they were created, so they have remained to this day, and therefore the verse uses only the term borei ("Creator") for them. And what is briyah? Bringing forth existence from nothingness (yesh me'ayin). Creation is a one-time occurrence. We have already explained the words of the Ramban, that on the first day the primary primordial matter (chomer hayuli) was created - what we might call the atom in modern terms - and from this the Holy One, blessed be He, fashioned all subsequent creation, which is no longer briyah, but rather yetzirah (formation).
Yetzirah, in the Malbim's terminology, is the fashioning of cohesive form. For example: the clay was created, and I take it and knead it into the likeness of a vessel - adhering piece to piece to create the shape of a vessel; that is yetzirah. Asiyah (making) is the next stage: smoothing it out and shaping its form. This is the meaning of the phrase, "and she shall do (ve'astah) her nails" - what does it mean to "do" nails? To groom them: filing and trimming. Similarly, "he did not do (lo asah) his beard" means he did not groom his beard. And kinun (establishing) is the completion: setting the object into its final condition so that it is fit for use - applying a coat of paint, a glaze, or decorative painting. That is the ultimate completion of the vessel.
According to this: "Creator of the heavens" - they were created ex nihilo and underwent no further change. "He is the God (HaElokim)" - all the myriad forces you observe in nature originate from Him. Elokim is in the plural form, signifying that He is the Master over all forces and that He brought all existence into being. And regarding the earth: beyond the initial creation of the soil itself, there is then "Former of the earth" - "Let the waters gather into one place, and let the dry land appear"; "and its Maker" - He brought forth vegetation, grass, and trees upon it; "He established it" - He placed living creatures upon it and formed man, which was the final completion of the work.
And what do you learn from all this? "He did not create it for void, He formed it to be inhabited." Had He no interest in the world, it would have sufficed to create an earth and leave it desolate and chaotic, as it was at the dawn of its existence. Why were formation, making, and establishing necessary? Rather, all of this was "formed to be inhabited" - His primary purpose was for human settlement here. When someone oversees and crafts everything, attending to every last nuance and detail, it proves that He has a purpose and an intention, and that He did so with complete providence. From this you can also deduce: "I am Hashem, and there is no other" - there is no other power in creation but Him, blessed be He; there is none besides Him.
Incidentally, from this verse we learn that a woman also has a mitzvah akin to the mitzvah of procreation (peryah ve-rivyah). A man is commanded in procreation, to father a son and a daughter; a woman is not commanded in this, and from the strict standpoint of that mitzvah, she would not even have to marry. Nevertheless, there is an obligation upon her - some say Rabbinic and some say an asmachta (scriptural support) - known as "He did not create it a waste, He formed it to be inhabited" (lo tohu vera'ah, lashevet yetzarah): the world was not created to be desolate, but to be settled, and by marrying, a woman adds to the settlement of the world. Thus she has a mitzvah, not from the standpoint of procreation per se, but from the standpoint of helping settle the world.
There is a story, Rachmana litzlan (Heaven spare us), of a man who raised his hand against his wife and struck her. They brought him to Beit Din and asked him: "How could you do such a thing? This is very grave!" He replied to them: "Doesn't it say, 'He did not create it a waste, lashevet yetzarah'? Lashevet - for the rod (shevet) He formed her..." Heaven spare us.
לֹא בַסֵּתֶר דִּבַּרְתִּי בִּמְקוֹם אֶרֶץ חֹשֶׁךְ לֹא אָמַרְתִּי לְזֶרַע יַעֲקֹב תֹּהוּ בַקְּשׁוּנִי אֲנִי יְהֹוָה דֹּבֵר צֶדֶק מַגִּיד מֵישָׁרִים׃ (יט) - I did not speak in secret, in a place of a land of darkness; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, "Seek Me in vain"; I, the Lord, speak righteousness, declaring things that are right.
Rashi explains: "I did not speak in secret" - when I gave the Torah. "I did not say to the seed of Jacob, 'Seek Me in vain'" - I did not ask you to serve Me for nothing; rather, I told you in advance that you would receive an immense reward. "I, the Lord, speak righteousness" - only after I opened with My word of righteousness, informing them of the bestowal of their reward, did I give them the Torah and mitzvot. Where do we see this? Even before the Giving of the Torah, it was said: "And now, if you will diligently obey My voice... you shall be My treasured possession among all peoples... a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." All the promises came first, and only afterward did I ask you to act. That is to say: I do not impose labors upon you like a king who imposes labor upon his subjects without reward and without redress; rather, even before I assigned you work, I announced your reward. "Declaring things that are right" - I promised you that your reward would come in full justice.
According to the Malbim, however, this verse serves as the second proof of Divine Providence: the Giving of the Torah. Whoever has studied Sefer HaKuzari knows that one of the foundations, perhaps the foundational pillar of our faith, is the event of the Giving of the Torah. Here, the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed Himself not to an isolated individual, but to millions of people. We all saw it and no stranger, we all heard it and no other - "You have been shown to know that the Lord is God." This is the steadfast, immovable foundation, the likes of which no other religion in the world possesses.
Not only that, but the Torah itself guarantees that no religion in the world will ever claim to have witnessed a similar spectacle: "For ask now of the days of old that were before you... Has a people ever heard the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and lived? Or has God ever attempted to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, with trials, signs, and wonders... before your eyes?" The Holy One, blessed be He, says: This, you yourselves saw - not other nations, and not mere stories recounted from previous generations, but a Divine revelation before the eyes of millions.
The Rambam explains that Israel did not believe in Moshe Rabbeinu because of the signs and wonders he performed, for signs and wonders can be performed through sleight of hand and sorcery. We have no difficulty believing what the Christians recount, that "that man" walked on water - so what? To this day in India there are people who perform all kinds of wonders; does that make them men of God? Wonders can be performed through occult arts and sorcery. What is more, Chazal reveal to us that that man entered the Beit HaMikdash and took the Ineffable Name from there, and through its power performed sorcery and led people astray. We have no problem acknowledging sorcery; we know such forces exist and that they challenge the heavenly retinue. But what nation ever claimed to have experienced a Divine revelation before the eyes of millions? That cannot be denied.
The Holy One, blessed be He, opened heaven and earth, and you heard the voice of the Lord speaking to you from the midst of the fire, and you lived. What pyrotechnics could fake the spectacle of the Revelation at Mount Sinai? "Moshe would speak and God would answer him with a voice," the sound of the shofar growing continually stronger, a cloud descending upon the mountain - none of this could be fabricated. Moreover, Moshe announced in advance exactly when it would take place, on what day and at what time. And all this, you yourselves saw and no stranger, your own ears heard and no other. This is the supreme proof of the truth of the Torah. And since then, there are further wondrous proofs: prophecies delivered throughout the generations, whereas no other religion in the world dares claim prophecies foretold in advance that were fulfilled. And there is no greater providence than this: that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave us His instruction manual on how to live.
Among the nations of the world, "holy" occurrences always take place in concealment: it is a secret, a matter of modesty - could such things take place in public? Consequently, everything must happen in a dark place, in a cave, in hiding. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: I was not in a place of a land of darkness. With Me, everything is open - "I did not speak in secret," nor in a place of a land of darkness; rather, everything took place in an open and clear manner. This is how Divinity is made manifest, unlike the tales of those people. We have noted in the past that Christianity deliberately built a model that is inherently unprovable, so that no one could come and demand, "Prove it" - so they could instantly retort: "You want me to prove such sacred things? Shame on you, these are private, modest matters." In this way, they constructed a framework impervious to challenge, from which no evidence could be demanded.
The third proof, says the Malbim, is the mitzvot themselves. The Torah and the mitzvot that God set before the Jewish people testify on their own that He watches over the people of Israel with a unique, individual Providence (hashgachah peratit). After all, the pagan nations of that era also had commandments and rituals ordained by their idolatry, yet all their rites were futile and devoid of real purpose. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: With Me it is not so - "I did not say to the seed of Jacob, 'Seek Me in vain (tohu)'"; I did not give them commandments of futility, rituals without reason or logic, but rather a Torah that guides man toward true perfection. And it contains two broad categories: mitzvot between man and his fellow, and mitzvot governing core beliefs and perspectives (emunot ve-de'ot).
Mitzvot between man and his fellow cultivate justice and upright conduct. The term "tzedek" (justice/righteousness), according to the Malbim, consistently refers to interpersonal matters - as in "in righteousness (tzedek) shall you judge your fellow," and all matters of tzedek are interpersonal guidelines. The Torah is endlessly rich in such commands: "Love your neighbor as yourself," "You shall not hate your brother in your heart," "If you see the donkey of your enemy," "If you lend money to My people," the prohibition of interest, "You shall not steal" - an endless array of social laws. Regarding this it is said, "I am the Lord, speaking righteousness (tzaddik)": My commandments are not futile, unlike the rites of idolatry, where one is told to go burn incense before an idol. What did that accomplish? What personal perfection was achieved? What did one change within himself? Nothing at all. They were commandments of futility.
Furthermore, says the Holy One, blessed be He: I also commanded you mitzvot between man and God, which align man in his beliefs and outlook - "declaring things that are upright (maggid meisharim)." "Meisharim" refers to truths that straighten and align a person's inner convictions. From this one can see that the Holy One, blessed be He, actively reveals the correct path to man, showing him how to be upright both in his worldview and in his deeds, in his interpersonal conduct and in his relationship with the Almighty - actions that have profound impact and alter reality in the upper realms.
Thus, explains the Malbim, the previous verse addressed the work of Creation and Providence over physical life, whereas this verse addresses the mitzvot - which are the Providence designed to align man so that he may merit eternal life. Both physical life through the very creation of the universe, and spiritual life through the giving of the Torah - all of this God provided. In contrast, the idols and pagan deities - what do they offer their adherents? Mere futility; there is no substance to them.
Notice that the verse uses both "speaking" (dibbur) and "declaring" (haggadah): "I have not spoken in secret," "I am the Lord, speaking (dover) righteousness," "declaring (maggid) upright things." The Malbim explains the distinction: "haggadah" generally introduces something new that a person did not previously know, whereas "dibbur" can refer to a familiar topic that is being elaborated and clarified in greater detail. When someone says, "I want to tell you something," he means something novel; when he says, "We need to talk," he refers to an existing matter that must be examined and discussed. And "meisharim" - foundational beliefs and proper perspectives - are truths that cannot be deduced on their own; they require Someone to reveal and declare them to us.
As the Malbim explains at length in his commentary on Mishlei, many verses emphasize this fundamental principle: in matters of morality, there is no purely human "intellectual key," no inherent rational formula. Indeed, one of the greatest sources of division among philosophies, ideologies, and political movements is the definition of morality. Consider the extreme right and the extreme left: each claims absolute ownership of morality, asserting that the other side's policies are cruel, contrary to every ethical standard, and fundamentally unjust. Human morality and justice cannot be definitively proven by human logic; they must be received through revelation from the Creator. Only what the Creator has transmitted as moral and just constitutes genuine truth, beyond the limitations of personal speculation.
The starkest proof of this is that Hitler himself claimed to be acting morally. Not only did he profess to be moral, but he argued that the Jewish people were insolent and immoral. According to his twisted logic, true morality reflects the laws of nature, where the strong conquer and subdue the weak. Here was a vulnerable nation that stubbornly insisted on surviving for thousands of years in defiance of these "natural laws" - hence, its very existence was branded immoral. In that ideology, the "moral" act was to eradicate this nation so that the stronger race could elevate itself. Just as nature weeds out the weak, leaving the strong to survive, so too it should be among human beings; and in his view, only the Jews were an immoral people clinging stubbornly to life and corrupting humanity with their traits, while the oppressors viewed themselves as the pinnacle of morality.
This perverted philosophy went further: regarding psychiatric facilities housing the mentally ill and disabled - why should society bear their burden? Why pay taxes to support someone from whom society derives no practical benefit? Indeed, the very first individuals sent to the gas chambers were mentally ill patients in Germany; that was where the horrors began, paving the way for the "Final Solution" against all peoples deemed inferior. And how could one debate him using human reason alone? When a person defines morality through his own subjective intellect, there is no objective ground on which to refute him.
At a lecture once delivered in Be'er Sheva, a young man came forward claiming that he lived a moral life and strictly observed the Ten Commandments. He was asked: "First of all, the Ten Commandments explicitly state, 'Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy' - do you keep Shabbat?" It came as a complete revelation to him that the Ten Commandments even include keeping Shabbat. This illustrates how easily people speak without understanding what they are saying: claiming to observe the Ten Commandments without ever having read them, yet remaining convinced of their own righteousness.
A person was once asked: "Are you a moral person?" He answered, "Yes." He was then asked: "Let me ask you a question. Suppose your girlfriend tells you that an accident happened and she is pregnant - what do you do?" He thought, and thought again, and thought once more. Finally, he was intelligent enough to admit: "You caught me in a corner." He realized that whatever answer he gave would be challenged, leaving him with no defense. For what could he say? "It is an unwanted pregnancy, she will suffer her whole life, she will give birth to a child she does not want, the poor child will end up in orphanages, turn to crime, and society will suffer from him" - and for that, should we murder him? Simply because one assumes someone might not enjoy the best life, should we murder him? He understood that this is no answer.
And if one were to argue: "Indeed, she must give birth and raise such a child" - the counterargument immediately arises: Aren't you ashamed to bring a child into the world under such circumstances? Don't you see that the mother does not want him, that it is entirely against her will, and what is there right now anyway? Just a bit of fluid, nothing yet. And for that, she should suffer her entire life, followed by lifelong pangs of conscience over a child she abandoned? And if she raises him - a fifteen-year-old girl raising a child? How does one resolve this dilemma? One cannot. The only solution is if there is a Creator of the world Who decreed what must be done - that is morality, and that is justice. Even if it seems counterintuitive to you, the One Who formed man and the world also established morality, and He determined what is right and what is wrong. It is utterly impossible to reach moral conclusions without the Torah, because you can decide that your position is the most moral, someone else will prove the exact opposite, and the debate will never end.
After all, the political left argues that one cannot rule over another nation, that they suffer and that we oppress them, while the political right argues the very same point regarding our own people. Who is right? We know who is right - but can you prove it? On the opposing side stand people who are intelligent and educated in their own estimation, yet they hold those views. One sees, therefore, that in such a state of affairs we must have a heavenly, spiritual plumb line to determine what is moral and what is not.
And this is what the verse means: correct perspectives, *meisharim* (upright principles), cannot be reached on one's own. What is upright, what is moral, what is decent - this cannot be attained independently; rather, "I am Hashem... declaring upright things" (*maggid meisharim*). The word *maggid* denotes the declaration of something fundamentally new. What constitutes the upright path and what is the moral path - there must be a supreme, spiritual authority to tell you, and without that instruction, you would never know what is decent and upright. However, regarding "speaking righteousness" (*dover tzedek*) - matters of justice between man and his fellow are understood even by the nations: they understand "Do not murder," they understand "Do not steal," and in certain respects they understand "Do not commit adultery." In those areas, there is no need for a novel revelation (*haggadah*), but merely for speech (*dibbur*), elaboration, and clarification. But with *meisharim*, upright principles - here a Higher Power is required to act as *maggid meisharim* and lay out the true and upright path.
הִקָּבְצוּ וָבֹאוּ הִתְנַגְּשׁוּ יַחְדָּו פְּלִיטֵי הַגּוֹיִם לֹא יָדְעוּ הַנֹּשְׂאִים אֶת עֵץ פִּסְלָם וּמִתְפַּלְלִים אֶל אֵל לֹא יוֹשִׁיעַ׃ (כ) - "Assemble and come, draw near together, you survivors of the nations; they have no knowledge, those who carry the wood of their graven image and pray to a god who cannot save." (20)
To whom does this refer? To the remnant that will survive in the End of Days from among the nations who worshipped graven images, molten gods, and idols. The prophet calls out to them: first, "Assemble and come" - each person from his land; and then "draw near together" (*hitnagshu yachdav*) - gather together to consult and investigate the truth. And then you will see: "They have no knowledge, those who carry the wood of their graven image" - those who carry their wooden idols and worship them have no understanding at all of whom or what they are serving.
This stands in direct contrast to the Torah, regarding which it is said, "And this is the Torah that Moshe placed (*sam*) before the Children of Israel." What does *sam* mean? Our Sages explain: that the teachings should be as clear as a garment (*mechuvarim kesimlah*) - lucid, fluent upon their lips, so that they possess clear knowledge in all their deeds. "I did not say to the seed of Yaakov, Seek Me in vain" - I did not ask them to seek emptiness; rather, I teach them and explain every mitzvah, its reasons, its themes, its secrets, and its inner depths. It is not like idolatry, where the one carrying the idol has no grasp of what it is about.
This applies equally to those who direct their prayers through the idol toward the celestial bodies, who are considered seemingly more sophisticated. For as noted previously, there were two classes of idolaters: there were those who believed the idol itself possessed real power and substance, and there were those who believed the idol was merely an intermediary between themselves and the stars - these were the classic astrologers and star-worshippers, who viewed the image as a conduit to appeal to the constellations and draw down their influences. These were considered more advanced, whereas the former were utter fools: a person carves an idol five minutes ago and then declares to it, "You created me" - pure absurdity and folly.
Yet even those who treated it merely as a conduit - the talismans mentioned by Ibn Ezra and others, instruments intended to draw down spiritual forces to rest upon them, much like the act of the *Eirev Rav* (mixed multitude) with the Golden Calf, proclaiming "These are your gods, O Israel," as if His glory resided within the calf and they had succeeded in channeling spirituality down here - even they will find that they are "praying to a god who cannot save." Notice that Scripture refers to them as an *el* (a power), because in truth these celestial agents possess real power, but it is power apportioned to them by the Holy One, Blessed be He, and they themselves are entirely sustained by the Infinite One, *Ein Sof*, Blessed be He. As explained at length in the lessons on *Nefesh HaChaim*, "There is none else besides Him" means that whatever power and existing reality one perceives in creation derives entirely from a Higher Power Who sustains the stars, the constellations, the sun, and the moon - and they possess no independent power of their own. Therefore: assemble, come, and draw near together, and you will see that you are praying to a god who cannot save, and that there is no efficacy whatsoever in the wood of their idols.
הַגִּידוּ וְהַגִּישׁוּ אַף יִוָּעֲצוּ יַחְדָּו מִי הִשְׁמִיעַ זֹאת מִקֶּדֶם מֵאָז הִגִּידָהּ הֲלוֹא אֲנִי יְהֹוָה וְאֵין עוֹד אֱלֹהִים מִבַּלְעָדַי אֵל צַדִּיק וּמוֹשִׁיעַ אַיִן זוּלָתִי׃ (כא) - Declare and bring near, let them even take counsel together: Who announced this from aforetime, told it from then? Is it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God beside Me; a righteous God and a Savior, there is none besides Me. (21)
Rashi explains that He turns to them and says: Tell Me, which of these idols ever proclaimed salvation to you in advance? Has an idol ever come forward and announced beforehand that it would save its believers? Yet I proclaim in advance the salvations that I am destined to bring upon the people of Israel. And Radak offers an example: Before I brought Assyria against the people of Israel, I gave forewarning; and when I removed Assyria from them, I also announced it in advance, making it known to Yeshayahu. I proclaim prophecies before they even come to pass. Has an idol ever announced anything? So how can you attribute your salvation to it? If it can save, let it state beforehand that it will save you from something. "And there is no other God beside Me" - what other deity announces matters in advance and remains faithful to its word? There is no power other than the Lord.
And Malbim explains: "Declare and bring near" - if you have arguments against the Creator or in defense of your idolatry, state your claims and present them before Me. And if you have no arguments, at the very least "let them even take counsel together" - let them confer amongst themselves and see what the path of truth is and who the true God is. "Who announced this from aforetime" - which of your deities proclaimed a Torah long ago, as I proclaimed the Torah to Israel? Who gave a law to the nations? And at least "told it from then" - who has ever told, even privately to themselves without public fanfare, any Torah and commandments? Suppose your deity is modest, avoids publicity, and operates in secret - fine, tell Me even in secret: what mitzvot did it command you?
The Holy One, blessed be He, says: "Is it not I, the Lord, and there is no other God beside Me." What I spoke was in public, not in secret, but before everyone, and you saw firsthand that there is no God beside Me. As it says, "And you shall know this day and lay it to your heart that the Lord, He is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other" - through what? Through opening the seven heavens and the depths for them, through revealing Himself before the entire nation at Mount Sinai. "You have been shown to know that the Lord, He is God, there is none beside Him." And from the fact that I did not tell the seed of Jacob to seek Me in vain, but rather all the mitzvot are intended to refine and align man, both on the interpersonal plane and in straightening his beliefs, conduct, and morality - from this you must conclude that He is "a righteous God and a Savior, there is none besides Me." I am the only One Who gave you mitzvot to vindicate and save man. And this refers to his personal salvation, not national redemption: that a person finds salvation through proper conduct, derech eretz, and interpersonal ethics - I vindicate him, make him righteous, and bring him to salvation and success in all his endeavors.
Malbim analyzes two pairs of expressions here. First: *mikedem* ("from aforetime") versus *me'az* ("from then"). *Mikedem* does not necessarily mean a vast amount of time; rather, it is always relative to that which follows it: if one thing arrived first and the next followed two minutes later, the first is called *mukdam* (earlier). But *me'az* always refers to a distant historical era, an unbounded past, as in "Your throne is established from of old (*me'az*)" and "before His works of old (*kedem*)". *Me'az* adds an element of ancient antiquity beyond *kedem*.
And second: *maggid* ("teller") versus *mashmia* ("announcer"). The *maggid* reveals the future - an entirely new matter of which you were unaware; I tell (*maggid*) you what is to be. The *mashmia*, on the other hand, acts like a shofar or a loudspeaker: he publicizes the message and makes it heard to all. In those days, news could not travel across the globe within minutes as it does today; rather, people were needed to voice the matters and carry them from place to place, actively broadcasting them. As Scripture states, "Indeed, there is none that tells (*maggid*), indeed, there is none that announces (*mashmia*)" - the *maggid* is the first to disclose the matter, and the *mashmia* is the one who publicizes it.
And here, Malbim explains, the order is inverted: "Who announced this from aforetime" - who publicized the matter even before it occurred, making it widely known prior to its arrival? And not only that, but "told it from then" - do not even speak of widespread publication; at least privately, did anyone among you predict something that was to be, conveying knowledge of a future event? Therefore the verse says *me'az*, because telling (*haggadah*) is always from a distant time: I do not merely inform you that an exile will begin a minute from now; rather, I already informed Avraham that hundreds of years later there would be an exile and the people of Israel would suffer in Egypt. Disclosing and predicting always happen long beforehand. Proclamation (*hashma'ah*), by contrast, applies to news that has just emerged and needs to be broadcast, which is why it is paired with *mikedem*. Only a prophecy uttered long before an event occurs allows one to know that the words are true; announcing something a mere moment beforehand does not qualify as true foretelling at all. So let the graven images come forward to foretell matters and proclaim them - yet none of this exists among them.
פְּנוּ אֵלַי וְהִוָּשְׁעוּ כׇּל אַפְסֵי אָרֶץ כִּי אֲנִי אֵל וְאֵין עוֹד׃ (כב) - Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is no other. (22)
Turn to Me and forsake your idols, all ends of the earth, and through this you will find salvation. Radak explains: Just as you saw the people of Israel saved - and in what merit? Because they turn to Me - so too, all the ends of the earth, turn to Me. "Ends of the earth" refers to the furthest reaches of the globe, all the nations from every corner of the earth. And Malbim explains that this is a continuation of the preceding verses: He addresses those who came from the far corners of the earth and still cling to their idols, saying: Why do you turn to them when you gain no salvation from them whatsoever - neither spiritual salvation for the soul nor physical salvation for the body? This stands in stark contrast to the Torah, which we saw guides man both interpersonally and in relation to the Omnipresent. Turn to Me and then you will be saved, for I am God and there is no other, and I alone can save. Do not think that you cannot turn to Me simply because I did not give the Torah and its commandments to you, but only to the people of Israel.
בִּי נִשְׁבַּעְתִּי יָצָא מִפִּי צְדָקָה דָּבָר וְלֹא יָשׁוּב כִּי לִי תִּכְרַע כׇּל בֶּרֶךְ תִּשָּׁבַע כׇּל לָשׁוֹן׃ (כג) - "By Myself I have sworn, righteousness has gone out of My mouth, a word that will not return, that to Me every knee shall bend, every tongue shall swear." (23)
To address this concern, He states: "By Myself I have sworn" - I have sworn by My great Name, and by My great Name I will never retract My oath. Furthermore: "Righteousness has gone out of My mouth" - even without an oath, the mere fact that a word of righteousness has issued from My mouth is already reason enough that I will not retract it. For the Holy One, blessed be He, never retracts a good decree He has spoken. From an evil decree He can retract (except for one instance cited by the Gemara, "and set a mark [tav]") - "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown," and in the end they repented and Nineveh was not overthrown. That is why: how do we test a true prophet? By having him prophesy a good thing that is destined to occur, to see whether it comes to pass. But if he prophesied evil and it did not come to pass, he can always say that Hashem relented from the evil because He saw that they repented.
The Holy One, blessed be He, says: A word of righteousness has gone out of My mouth - a matter of justice and chesed that I have promised, and if I promise a matter of righteousness, I will not retract it under any circumstances. Thus, we have an oath here, and not just any oath, but by My great Name; and beyond that, there is a word of righteousness, which is a promise of good. And what does all this teach? That it is "a word that will not return" - it will not change in any way.
And what have I sworn? "That to Me every knee shall bend" - I will accept all the nations under the faith of Israel, the true faith. I will accept them all and will not discriminate between Israel and the nations regarding the very acceptance of faith in Me. And do not think this will only be occasional or sporadic - "every tongue shall swear": all will take an oath upon themselves to serve Me and no other god, which means constant, perpetual service. Not a one-time bending of the knee, but an oath to serve Me continually. If so, "Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth" - and what else do you have to seek among the idols, when the prophet has demonstrated to you that there is no benefit in them whatsoever, but only from Hashem, may He be blessed.
The end of the chapter builds three proofs for the Creator's Divine Providence over the world despite Him being a "God Who hides Himself": the Creation of the world (Ma'aseh Bereishit) - that the Holy One, blessed be He, did not create the earth as chaos (tohu), but formed it, made it, and established it "to be inhabited," which is proof of purpose and Providence; the Giving of the Torah (Matan Torah) - a public revelation before the eyes of millions, "I have not spoken in secret," the likes of which exists in no other nation; and the mitzvot themselves - which are not futile commandments like the rituals of idolatry, but rather He is "One Who speaks righteousness" in matters between man and his fellow, and "declares things that are right" in matters of belief and outlook, since in matters of morality man does not possess an autonomous rational compass and must have a heavenly spiritual plumb line. From here the prophet turns to the survivors of the nations: Gather together and take counsel, see that your gods have never announced or made known anything, and turn to Hashem and be saved - for He has sworn by His great Name and a word of righteousness has gone forth from His mouth that will not return, that every knee shall bend to Him and every tongue shall swear, and Israel is saved by Hashem with an everlasting salvation.