Chapter 49 of Yeshayahu is a chapter of consolation and redemption, and in its second part it centers around a dialogue between the Holy One, Blessed is He, and Tzion. Tzion sits desolate, does not feel that the redemption has begun, and laments: "Hashem has forsaken me, and my Master has forgotten me." To this, the Holy One, Blessed is He, responds with a series of assurances and answers, systematically dispelling each of her claims and wonderings one by one. We will follow the order of the pesukim according to the commentary of the Malbim.
מִהֲרוּ בָּנָיִךְ מְהָרְסַיִךְ וּמַחֲרִיבַיִךְ מִמֵּךְ יֵצֵאוּ׃ (יז) - Your children have hastened; your destroyers and those who laid you waste will depart from you. (17)
The Holy One, Blessed is He, says to Tzion: If your children had hurried to repent, your destroyers and those who laid you waste would immediately have departed from you. Long ago, the enemies who ruined you would have left and moved far away, and long ago you would have been redeemed. The delay until now is your own doing. Do not ask why the redemption was so late in coming; had the children hastened to turn back from their sins, they would have immediately merited eternal redemption.
This verse is a prime example of a derashah that becomes so entrenched among people that it causes them to forget the literal meaning (peshat) of the text. Ask someone: What is the meaning of "your destroyers and those who laid you waste will depart from you"? They will immediately answer you: Those who destroy the Jewish people emerge from within it, the fifth column in our midst. This is a very nice homily, but it is not the peshat of the verse. Look at all the commentators: the simple meaning of the text is a promise that those destroyers and devastators, who are generally the nations of the world, will leave us - that is, the Holy One, Blessed is He, will remove them from upon us. Remember the peshat and not only the derashah.
שְׂאִי סָבִיב עֵינַיִךְ וּרְאִי כֻּלָּם נִקְבְּצוּ בָאוּ לָךְ חַי אָנִי נְאֻם ה' כִּי כֻלָּם כָּעֲדִי תִלְבָּשִׁי וּתְקַשְּׁרִים כַּכַּלָּה׃ (יח) - Lift up your eyes all around and see, they have all gathered, they have come to you; as I live, says Hashem, you shall surely clothe yourself with all of them like an ornament, and bind them on like a bride. (18)
Eretz Yisrael is likened to a solitary widow, and because nothing has changed yet in her own physical surroundings - she still stands in her desolation and ruin - she does not feel that the redemption has begun, which is why she claims, "Hashem has forsaken me, and my Master has forgotten me." The Holy One, Blessed is He, replies to her: Open your eyes and see that the redemption has already begun. Even though you yourself have not yet been rebuilt, lift up your eyes all around and see. And do not look in only one direction, but all around, for they will suddenly arrive from the four winds of the heavens. There are two wondrous phenomena here: first, the gathering from the great dispersion - "they have all gathered"; second, that they will arrive from great distances - "they have come to you," traveling directly to you from a distant land.
Yet perhaps you might still be troubled and ask: Master of the Universe, where will I have room to contain all my children? How will Eretz Yisrael suffice for all those returning from exile? To this He answers: "As I live, says Hashem, you shall surely clothe yourself with all of them like an ornament." The Malbim explains that this is an allegorical expression: the place that was bereft of inhabitants is now getting dressed. The garment is the people of Israel. The land is bare of its inhabitants, and when we dwell upon it, it is, as it were, clothed, as in the phrase, "the meadows are clothed with flocks." Eretz Yisrael will be clothed with its inhabitants.
However, after putting on clothing, there are still the dignitaries and prominent individuals, and in the mashal they correspond to the "ornament" - the jewelry adorning the garment. That is to say, all your children will be to you for honor and glory, like fine jewelry worn over clothing. And what is the meaning of "and bind them on like a bride"? The Malbim explains that a bridegroom would give the bride a special ornament for her hand as kiddushin (the act of betrothal) - presumably referring to the wedding ring - which served as the sign of the bond between her and her husband. In the same way, the children will be bound to you in an enduring bond, like the bond between a woman and her husband who never parts from her, and they will never go into exile again. This is the meaning of "And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness" - a complete betrothal of faithfulness, a bond that cannot be severed or undone.
כִּי חׇרְבֹתַיִךְ וְשֹׁמְמֹתַיִךְ וְאֶרֶץ הֲרִסֻתֵךְ כִּי עַתָּה תֵּצְרִי מִיּוֹשֵׁב וְרָחֲקוּ מְבַלְּעָיִךְ׃ (יט) - For as for your ruins and your desolate places and your destroyed land, for now you will be too cramped for inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away. (19)
Do not think that your space is too narrow to hold all the children arriving to be redeemed. You will clothe yourself in them precisely in the ruined and desolate places. The Malbim explains the precise distinctions in terminology: "your ruins" refers to the cities; "your desolate places" refers to the entire land that turned into a wasteland. Moreover, destruction is more severe than ruin, for destruction is always deliberate - someone went and actively demolished it - whereas ruin can also happen on its own over time. Yet even so, even the places that were intentionally and actively destroyed will all be rebuilt and rise anew.
"And those who swallowed you will be far away" is, according to the Malbim, a parenthetical phrase. The straightforward syntax flows: "For your ruins, your desolate places, and your destroyed land - for now you will be too crowded with inhabitants, and the children of your bereavement will yet say in your ears, 'The place is too narrow for me.'" What does this parenthetical phrase come to teach us? That the crowdedness will be "from inhabitants" - from the people settling you, from the Jewish people. Not from gentiles, nor from destroyers and devastators, for concerning them it was already promised, "they shall depart from you." Do not think space will be tight because of a proliferation of Arabs or the realization of the "right of return" and other such afflictions - it has already been promised that all of these will depart and be driven far away. The crowdedness will stem solely from the multitudes of the children of Israel returning to settle here.
עוֹד יֹאמְרוּ בְאׇזְנַיִךְ בְּנֵי שִׁכֻּלָיִךְ צַר לִי הַמָּקוֹם גְּשָׁה לִּי וְאֵשֵׁבָה׃ (כ) - The children of your bereavement shall yet say in your ears: "The place is too narrow for me; make room for me that I may dwell." (20)
"The children of your bereavement" refers to the children of whom you were bereaved until now, like a bereaved mother whose children are gone and seemingly will never return. Yet they will yet say in your ears: "The place is too narrow for me; Eretz Yisrael is too small for us." The Malbim offers an original interpretation of "make room for me that I may dwell" (literally, "approach for me that I may settle"): since the Jewish people will be so numerous that the Land of Israel will not be able to contain them, the Land will be compelled to expand its borders. As it were, the Land approaches those standing outside and says to them, "Come, here is additional territory." We say to the Land, "Approach me and allow me to settle here," for there is overpopulation and I cannot enter - and she approaches us, expanding her borders so that we may enter and settle.
This is the meaning of what is written, "Enlarge the place of your tent": in the very place where your tent stood until now, you will expand, and in the areas into which you spread - that is where we will dwell. In the prophecies of redemption in Daniel, the future Jerusalem is described as vastly expanded, many times larger than it is now, and the entire reality of Jerusalem will be completely transformed; this will also be accompanied by the expansion of Eretz Yisrael itself. Our Sages called it *Eretz HaTzvi* (the Land of the Deer), and the reason for this name is: like the skin of a deer. As long as the skin covers the deer, it holds it, but once it is flayed, it shrinks, and one wonders: How did an entire deer fit inside it? So too is the Land of Israel: at present it appears small, but in the future it will expand to contain the entirety of the Jewish people returning to it.
וְאָמַרְתְּ בִּלְבָבֵךְ מִי יָלַד לִי אֶת אֵלֶּה וַאֲנִי שְׁכוּלָה וְגַלְמוּדָה גֹּלָה וְסוּרָה וְאֵלֶּה מִי גִדֵּל הֵן אֲנִי נִשְׁאַרְתִּי לְבַדִּי אֵלֶּה אֵיפֹה הֵם׃ (כא) - And you shall say in your heart: "Who has borne me these, seeing I was bereaved and solitary, exiled and wandering? And who raised these? Behold, I was left alone; where have these been?" (21)
Jerusalem does not yet realize that the redemption has begun, for she is still desolate. When she sees her children beginning to return to her, she will ask three questions. The prophet compares her to a woman whose children died, who was left solitary without a husband, wandering from place to place with no rest for the sole of her foot, with no one to gather her home. Suddenly, children arrive from across the sea, from a distant land, and say to her, "We are your children." She wonders: How is this possible?
The first question: "Who has borne me these, seeing I was bereaved and solitary?" It cannot be that they were born from me - for I am bereaved, my children died. And if you say that new children were born to me - I am solitary, without a husband, and without a husband, it is impossible that new children were born.
The second question: "Exiled and wandering; and who raised these?" Even if they had been born, who raised them and who nurtured them? I myself was in exile; I was exiled from my place and could never rest in one location, lacking the stability needed to raise children. Furthermore, she is "wandering" (*surah*) - from the root meaning turning aside from place to place without rest. Exile (*golah*) implies being displaced to a single location, but *surah* means that even after being exiled, I continued wandering incessantly from place to place. How could I have had any possibility of raising children?
The third question: "Behold, I was left alone; where have these been?" Even if we could imagine that they were born to me, and even if we could imagine that they grew up on their own, who brought them here? I did not bring them, for I was left all alone, far away from them. "Where have these been?" - where are they from, from what place did they come, and who brought them here?
And the meaning of the parable: Bereaved Yerushalayim, whose children were killed and taken captive before the enemy, has sat solitary ever since, seemingly distant from the Master of the Universe. She wonders in amazement: I was certain that the moment my children left me, it was over - they all died, were taken captive, and were killed, so who bore me these? And even if some remnant survived, they were exiled and impoverished; how could they have survived two thousand years, and who reared them? It is difficult for her to conceive such a reality - that the Jewish people, who went out beaten, bruised, and captive before the foe, survived, and suddenly, after two thousand years, her children are returning to her! Furthermore: even if they managed to endure until now, who gathered their scattered remnant, who set them free, and who brought them to Tziyon?
כֹּה אָמַר אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה הִנֵּה אֶשָּׂא אֶל גּוֹיִם יָדִי וְאֶל עַמִּים אָרִים נִסִּי וְהֵבִיאוּ בָנַיִךְ בְּחֹצֶן וּבְנֹתַיִךְ עַל כָּתֵף תִּנָּשֶׂאנָה׃ (כב) - Thus said the Lord God: Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations, and raise My banner to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. (22)
The Malbim explains that the Holy One, blessed be He, answers the three questions in order, but in reverse: first the last question, and finally the first. Regarding your question, "These, where were they?" - meaning, who gathered them and who brought them - the answer is: "He Who scattered Yisrael will gather him." The One Who scattered and dispersed them is the One Who ultimately gathers them. "I will lift up My hand to the nations" - I will signal to them to bring the children of the exile back to the Land. And a "nes" (banner) is a sign for gathering, as in "and like a banner on a hill": one takes a pole, hangs a cloth upon it, and raises it high, what we call a flag today. This is the meaning of "Raise a banner toward Tziyon" - lift the banner and the flag showing that we are going up to Tziyon, and after this the town of Nes Tziyona was named.
And why the repetition: "My hand to the nations (goyim)" and "My banner to the peoples (amim)"? The Malbim explains that there is a difference between goyim and amim. Goyim are of lower standing than amim: amim are organized, structured nations governed by religion, jurisprudence, law, and order, whereas goyim are an amorphous mixture of people who are not necessarily ordered. In Africa, in large parts of it, there are goyim; in Europe and America there are amim, for they are organized under law and justice; in Syria there are goyim. Thus, for the goyim, it suffices that I lift My hand, and they will immediately release the Jewish people and return them to their Land. But the amim will not accept this immediately, not until I raise a banner to them - and when is a banner raised? In war, when armies march out to battle carrying their standard. With them it will not be simple, and there will have to be a war, namely the war of Gog and Magog, the final war. I will raise the battle standard, and they will fall there, and only then will Yisrael return to their Land.
"And they shall bring your sons in their bosom (chotzen)" - Radak explains chotzen as either an arm, or the fold of a garment, as in the phrase of Nechemyah: "I shook out my lap (chotzni)" (when he saw Yerushalayim in ruins, he shook out his lap, girded his loins, and began rebuilding the walls of Yerushalayim). The Malbim explains that chotzen is the sedan chair in which dignitaries are carried, that magnificent palanquin on poles used for dignitaries. And why are the daughters not carried on a chair, but rather "shall be carried on their shoulders"? The Malbim says: because the daughters are frightened to sit in such a chair, afraid of falling; therefore, they will carry them on their shoulders and bring them to the Land.
וְהָיוּ מְלָכִים אֹמְנַיִךְ וְשָׂרוֹתֵיהֶם מֵינִיקֹתַיִךְ אַפַּיִם אֶרֶץ יִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לָךְ וַעֲפַר רַגְלַיִךְ יְלַחֵכוּ וְיָדַעַתְּ כִּי אֲנִי ה' אֲשֶׁר לֹא יֵבֹשׁוּ קֹוָי׃ (כג) - Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers; with their faces to the ground they shall bow before you, and lick the dust of your feet; and you shall know that I am the Lord, that those who wait for Me shall not be put to shame. (23)
This is the answer to the second question: "And these, who reared them?" To raise a child requires two stages: first nursing until weaning, and afterward a guardian or tutor to care for the child until maturity. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: Kings will be your guardians and their queens your wet nurses. They will watch over you and shield you from harm until you grow up, like a guardian caring for a ward until adulthood. And through this - "with their faces to the ground they shall bow before you." Naturally, a caretaker expects the one being raised to bow in deference to him, yet here it will be reversed: they will consider it such a tremendous privilege to have raised the Jewish people that when Yisrael reach maturity, they will bow before them.
And regarding the third question, which was originally the first - "Who bore me these?" seeing that I was bereaved and solitary - about this it is said: "And you shall know that I am the Lord, that those who wait for Me shall not be put to shame." I am the Lord Who has the power to do this, and whoever hopes and waits for Me will never be put to shame.
And from here we learn: everything said about the future era, that anyone who grasps tzitzit will have tens and hundreds of servants, does not mean importing slaves from Africa. The servants spoken of are those very "kings [as] your foster fathers and their queens your nursing mothers." The great world leaders themselves will be the servants. Obama will come to mop your floors and ask if he should clean the windows and shutters too; Mrs. Clinton will ask if the child has eaten yet and if everything is ready for Pesach. They are the kings and nobles, and they will plead with you, taking hold of "the corner of a Jewish man's garment," saying, "Let us go with you." They will plead with the Jewish people once they understand the greatness of their stature.
הֲיֻקַּח מִגִּבּוֹר מַלְקוֹחַ וְאִם שְׁבִי צַדִּיק יִמָּלֵט׃ (כד) - Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or can the captive of the righteous escape? (24)
Zion wonders: How can such a thing be possible? After all, Israel was captured and taken as slaves, and in whose hands are they held? Not in the hands of the weak, but in the hands of mighty warriors. Can booty truly be taken from a mighty warrior? "And can the captive of the righteous escape?" - can a captive taken justly, that is, in accordance with the law, ever be rescued?
To understand this, a brief introduction is needed. The Malbim explains in Sefer Bamidbar, as he will explain here as well, that both captivity (shevi) and booty (malko’ach) apply to human beings, whereas animals are only subject to booty - animals are not taken into captivity, but as plunder. What is the difference? One who takes a person captive captures him as a prisoner of war, in order that others come to redeem him and pay money for him, but he does not acquire monetary ownership of him. "Booty" (malko’ach), on the other hand, comes from the root for a purchase (mekach): he takes him as monetary property, to sell him into slavery or to use him for himself, just as Israel was taken after the destruction of the Temple and sold as slaves. Therefore, malko’ach also applies to animals, since animals are not held as captives of war, but are acquired as monetary property.
כִּי כֹה אָמַר ה' גַּם שְׁבִי גִבּוֹר יֻקָּח וּמַלְקוֹחַ עָרִיץ יִמָּלֵט וְאֶת יְרִיבֵךְ אָנֹכִי אָרִיב וְאֶת בָּנַיִךְ אָנֹכִי אוֹשִׁיעַ׃ (כה) - For so said Hashem: Even the captive of the mighty warrior shall be taken, and the booty of the tyrant shall escape; and with your adversary I will contend, and your children I will save. (25)
Let us first introduce Radak's commentary: "Even the captive of the mighty warrior shall be taken" - I am mightier than the nations and can take from their hands the captivity they captured; therefore, do not wonder, "Can booty be taken from a mighty warrior?" And as for the nations' claim that they are righteous in taking captives and booty from us, the Holy One, blessed be He, says: They are not righteous, but tyrants; therefore, "and the booty of the tyrant shall escape" - I will extract from the hand of the wicked tyrant the booty he took without righteousness and without justice. Radak cites this in the name of his father.
Now let us turn to the Malbim's explanation, which presents an intricate chain of thought that requires close attention. Booty (malko’ach) - it is difficult for him to escape on his own, because he was taken as a slave, and slaves are dispersed among people's homes, each slave in the house of his master, under constant personal surveillance and a watchful eye; this is not a prison from which one merely needs to break out. However, it is possible for someone stronger than the captor to arrive and take the slave from him by force, because holding him as a slave is contrary to law: the custom among nations was to take a captive into captivity, but turning him into a slave was unjust. There were tyrannical kings who did this freely, like Nebuchadnezzar, because law meant nothing to them - just as law means nothing to Assad. Under normal circumstances, however, the "Geneva Convention" of that era dictated that a conquered nation was taken into captivity, not into slavery. Therefore, it is enough for someone to be stronger than you to wrest the slave from your hands, since you did not take him justly. Yet all this applies only if the captor is weak; if he is a mighty warrior, try taking anything from him! He will stand against you, wound you, strike you, and wage war against you. This is the meaning of "Can booty be taken from a mighty warrior?"
With captivity, the reverse is true. Extracting a captive by force is not feasible, because the captivity was legal: the law maintained that a nation that conquered another and took captives held them legitimately, and if you want to free them, you must arrange a prisoner exchange and pay in kind. On the other hand, it is possible for the captive to escape on his own, because he is not under individual surveillance; captivity means a large compound where all the captives are held together, and if he is resourceful enough, he can slip away and flee. This is the meaning of "and can the captive of the righteous escape?" - since he was captured justly, he lacks the merits needed to escape. While escape from captivity is technically possible, it requires divine merit; if you were captured justly, because the Holy One, blessed be He, delivered you into his hands - allegorically, on account of our iniquities and sins - there is no way to escape. Thus, on both fronts there is no hope: taking the slave from the mighty warrior is impossible, and an escape for a justly held captive is likewise impossible. Hence Knesset Yisrael's dismay: How can we ever leave exile? We have no chance.
To this, the Holy One, blessed be He, responds. The Jewish people were both in the category of captives (shevi) - captured by the nations - and in the category of booty (malko’ach) - enslaved under them. Notice the inversion of language: in the question, the prophet asked, "Can booty be taken from a mighty warrior" and "the captive of the righteous", whereas in the answer it says, "Even the captive of the mighty warrior shall be taken, and the booty of the tyrant shall escape" - the exact reverse! The Malbim explains: As noted, it is naturally easier for a captive to escape, since he is not under individual surveillance like a slave. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: Not only will the captive escape, but "even the captive of the mighty warrior shall be taken" - even one who is held captive by a mighty warrior will be taken by force. Why? Because this is not truly a "captive of the righteous"; he was not captured justly, but through sheer force and might. And the Holy One, blessed be He, says: I am mightier than he, and I have the power to wrest the captive from the hand of the mighty warrior. On the other hand, "and the booty of the tyrant shall escape": not only can booty be taken by force from the mighty, but contrary to nature, the slave - who finds it nearly impossible to escape due to his master's close watch - will escape on his own from the tyrant, even though a tyrant is even more formidable than a warrior. Thus, with the Holy One, blessed be He, the redemption operates against nature in both directions.
And lest you worry: After all, an escaped slave is ultimately extradited, and perhaps, Heaven forbid, they will hand us back over to them? To this the verse states, "And with your adversary I will contend." Do not fear that you will be summoned to court like a runaway slave; I will advocate on your behalf and argue against them: What right do you have to take My people as slaves? "For to Me the Children of Israel are servants" - and not servants to servants. I will litigate against them in judgment until they can no longer justify their actions. And corresponding to "even the captive of the mighty warrior shall be taken," the verse adds, "and your children I will save" - I will take them from captivity and bring them out of the house of their captors.
וְהַאֲכַלְתִּי אֶת מוֹנַיִךְ אֶת בְּשָׂרָם וְכֶעָסִיס דָּמָם יִשְׁכָּרוּן וְיָדְעוּ כׇל בָּשָׂר כִּי אֲנִי ה' מוֹשִׁיעֵךְ וְגֹאֲלֵךְ אֲבִיר יַעֲקֹב׃ (כו) - And I will feed your oppressors their own flesh, and they shall become drunk on their blood as with sweet wine; and all flesh shall know that I, Hashem, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. (26)
"Your oppressors" (monayich) - the commentators universally explain this from the root of oppression or grievance (hona’ah), those who cause you suffering, as in "do not wrong (lo tonu) one another," one who mistreats his fellow, which often refers to verbal abuse (hona’at devarim). And what is meant by "their own flesh"? Rashi explains that the verse is elliptical: "And I will feed your oppressors their flesh" - without specifying to whom, meaning to the beasts of the field. "And they shall become drunk on their blood as with sweet wine" - those accustomed to drinking blood will become drunk on their blood as if from sweet wine, namely the birds of the sky, as Rashi cites from Targum Yonatan. Thus, the text omits the identity of the eaters and the drinkers; it refers to the beasts of the field and the birds of prey that will devour the flesh and drink the blood of the nations that tormented us.
Radak interprets differently: "And I will feed your oppressors their own flesh" - the enemies who torment you will eat their very own flesh, as the verse says, "every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm." This is a poetic way of saying that they will devour themselves from within. There is a saying: so-and-so was eating his heart out. And someone once remarked: What kills a person is not what he eats, but what eats him; what churns inside a person is far worse and cuts his life short. Their eyes will pine away when they behold the greatness of Israel and say: How could we have tormented such a people, how could we have done such things? Scripture states that in the future, the Holy One, blessed be He, will resurrect the dead, "some to everlasting life, and some to reproach and everlasting abhorrence." It is asked: Why resurrect them to reproach and everlasting abhorrence? Because there is no greater torment for Hitler, may his name and memory be blotted out, than to arise and behold the Jewish people in their full splendor and elevated stature, to realize how foolish and futile his deeds were, and to consume himself in agonizing grief. There is no greater shame and disgrace than this, and that is the most terrible punishment of all for those nations.
In this regard, the Dubno Maggid offers a parable concerning "a tzaddik who suffers and a rasha who prospers," where we see the wicked enjoying this world. What is this comparable to? To a man who rebelled against the king. This man was a close personal friend of the king, who had revealed all his secrets to him and trusted him completely, and suddenly it was discovered that he was undermining him and acting against him. The king's fury was terrible and immense, and he sought the most creative punishment to illustrate the severity of the betrayal. He said: "Any execution I inflict on him will be too quick and easy, and I want him to die in prolonged suffering." What did he do? He locked him in a transparent glass booth in the town square, with neither food nor drink, so that he would slowly waste away before the eyes of all, so that people would see and fear. The man reached such terrible depths of desperation that, out of madness born of sheer starvation, he began cutting off pieces of his own flesh and eating them. One day, a bystander passed by, saw him eating meat, and said: "Look at that! Why are you pitying this man? He is eating meat!" They told him: "My friend, he is eating his own flesh." So too, says the Maggid, a person looks at the wicked and says: "Look, that one has a fleet of ships, this one has private jets, another has a villa, another has wealth and success - is it not worthwhile to be a tzaddik?" Do not envy him: he is eating his own flesh; he is consuming his portion of the World to Come right here in this world, and there is nothing about him to envy.
A story is told about one of the great Torah leaders, presumably the Rebbe of Gur, to whom a wicked man came and said: "Honorable Rabbi, I have violated every sin in the Torah, yet see how wonderful my life is - I have a home, a swimming pool, a luxury car, I have this and I have that." The Rabbi asked him: "And where is your Olam Hazeh (This World)?" He replied: "What do you mean? I just listed it all!" The Rabbi answered him: "No, no; all of that is your Olam Haba (World to Come). Your World to Come was thrown at you here; they tossed you a few bones in this world - but where is your Olam Hazeh?" For a God-fearing person and a tzaddik, what he possesses here is his Olam Hazeh, while his Olam Haba is preserved for him Above; but for the wicked person, his entire World to Come has been thrown at him down here. (Incidentally, that same man once told the Rabbi: "I have committed every transgression in the Torah except one - committing suicide." The Rabbi replied: "That is no longer a transgression; the moment you take your own life, you will fulfill the mitzvah of 'And you shall purge the evil from your midst.'")
The Malbim offers a third interpretation. "Your tormentors (monayich)" - these are those who have harassed and grieved you until now, saying: "There is no hope, the Jewish people will never be redeemed, the Holy One, blessed be He, has abandoned you and chosen another nation, and you will remain forever in your wretched state." And if in the past this took the form of words alone, today all the UN Security Council resolutions and their like are directed against the Jewish people; the Goldstone Report and all such libels - these are our tormentors. We have become the leper of the nations: all the world's problems are blamed on us, we are portrayed as the instigators and the root problem. Assad can slaughter seventy thousand people and not a soul utters a peep, and there are even nations that assist him and supply him with weapons; but with us, it is enough for a single child to be killed, and even if it turns out later that we did not kill him but rather they did - it makes no difference, they already have their narrative and refuse to be confused by the facts. Over this they make an international uproar, and to this day we suffer from the damage inflicted; and if not that, they will fabricate a new accusation.
Regarding this, the Holy One, blessed be He, declares: "And I will feed your tormentors their own flesh" - they will devour the flesh of your adversaries, along the lines of "And I will incite Egypt against Egypt." They themselves will wage war against our enemies; they will be the ones to fight against those who rise up against us, so that we will not have to wage the war and none among us will fall in battle, for they will fight one another. And why? "For I am Hashem your Savior" - I deliver Am Yisrael supernaturally, for My power is supreme and omnipotent. "And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Yaakov" - I also maintain a bond with Am Yisrael through Yaakov, meaning through their ancestral merits; "Mighty One (Avir)" connotes strength, mastery, and fortitude, the spiritual power of Yaakov who overcame every challenge and served Hashem. In that merit, it is guaranteed that the nations will turn against one another and Am Yisrael will be saved.
Finally, what is the meaning of "and as with sweet wine, they will become drunk on their blood," and what is this word asis, which also appears in "and the mountains shall drip sweet wine (asis)"? The Radak explains: Asis is the juice that flows from pressed grapes and pomegranates, as in the phrase "from the juice of my pomegranates (me'asis rimoni)." And how is it extracted? By taking the fruit and subjecting it to a process of kneading, crushing, and pressing, as in the expression "and you shall trample (va'asosem) the wicked." Since it is extracted through crushing and pressing (isui), the liquid that flows forth is called asis.
In this section of the chapter, the Holy One, blessed be He, answers Zion regarding all her grievances: the delay in the redemption depends upon our own repentance ("your children shall hurry"), and those who destroy and lay you waste are destined to depart and be removed. Her sons will return from the four corners of the earth and will be to her like fine garments and bridal ornaments, bound to her in an unbreakable bond; the Land will expand its borders until "you will be too narrow for the inhabitants" - crowded by an abundance of children, not by foreign occupiers. And to her three bewilderments - who bore them, who raised them, and from where did they come - the Holy One, blessed be He, replies in reverse order: He who scattered Israel is the One who gathers them, with a signal of His hand to the nations and a battle banner to the peoples; kings and princesses will serve as her foster fathers and wet nurses and bow before her; and "those who hope in Me will not be ashamed." Even when it seems there is no natural escape - neither from the grip of a mighty conqueror nor from the shackles of captivity - the Holy One, blessed be He, promises that everything will unfold supernaturally: "Even the captive of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant shall escape," "and with your adversary I will contend, and your children I will save," until "all flesh shall know that I am Hashem your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Yaakov."