Introduction
In this section of Chapter 2, Yirmiyahu continues his great rebuke concerning idolatry, delving deeper into the root of the problem: this is not merely about the sin itself, but about how sin became a way of life, a methodology, and an ideology for the people of Israel. Malbim, in his characteristic manner, reveals a profound psychological layer here: the distinction between one who sins incidentally and one who sins essentially, and between remorse over the consequence versus remorse over the act itself. From this point forward, Malbim divides the people into three factions, with a distinct rebuke addressed to each.
"As the shame of a thief when he is found" - The Professional Thief Is Not Ashamed of Stealing
כְּבֹשֶׁת גַּנָּב כִּי יִמָּצֵא כֵּן הֹבִישׁוּ בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל הֵמָּה מַלְכֵיהֶם שָׂרֵיהֶם וְכֹהֲנֵיהֶם וּנְבִיאֵיהֶם׃ - As the shame of a thief when he is found, so are the House of Israel ashamed, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets.
Malbim explains: when an ordinary thief is caught, his shame does not stem from having stolen, but from his wrongdoing being discovered. He is not ashamed of stealing. Some people go to the bank by day and others go by night, each to his own line of work. This is his trade, this is his livelihood, and the act itself is not flawed in his eyes at all. What shames him is the exposure, being caught red-handed, being seen by everyone. "When he is found" - that is the shame, not the theft itself.
It is related in books in the name of the Alter of Slabodka that in Warsaw there was a guild of thieves. There was a widow whose entire savings had been stolen from her, including the dowry for her children, to the point that she could not marry them off, and her grief was immense. People with connections in the underworld tried to negotiate with the band of thieves, hoping they might return at least part of it. They sat down with them, and among those present was a woman representing the thieves. She listened to the pleas and said: "Wait, I don't understand you. What do you think, that we should return everything? Do we work for free? People here risked their lives, people worked for this money, and now you come asking for it all back? What a lack of basic decency! Who makes such a demand of a thief? Does he not deserve to earn a living with dignity?" Thus, for them this is a legitimate livelihood, and they feel no shame whatsoever in stealing. If they are caught red-handed, it is merely an "occupational mishap," an embarrassing blunder - after all, a professional works cleanly, knowing how to enter and leave without anyone noticing. The shame is solely in being caught, not in having stolen.
The Essential Sinner Versus the Incidental Sinner
Here, Malbim explains, one can distinguish between an essential sinner and an incidental sinner. An incidental sinner feels remorse over the sinful act itself. An essential sinner feels no remorse over the act itself, because for him, the act is backed by an ideology. A person who defines himself as a thief is not ashamed of theft, only of being apprehended. By contrast, an honest person who is not a thief by nature, but who finds himself in desperate need of money to avoid being evicted from his home, and goes and steals - that person is deeply ashamed of the theft itself. For him, stealing is neither a system nor a goal, but merely an incidental means to obtain funds; had he been able to secure an honest, long-term loan, he would have done so. As the verse says, "Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his soul when he is hungry" - for such a person, the theft itself is a source of great shame, whereas for the professional thief, the shame lies only in being caught.
The same applies to a harlot: if she engages in immorality purely for hire, and it happens that she is stripped bare and denied her food and water, she feels shame over the act itself - how could I have committed such a repulsive deed for money, only to end up with nothing? But if the promiscuity itself is her principle and purpose, it makes no difference whether she received payment or not, for she achieved what she truly sought.
So it was with the people of Israel: had they served idols merely for utility - in the hope that the idol would help them or make them wealthy - then upon seeing that not only did they fail to profit, but they suffered harm, sorrow, and anguish, they would have repented of the act itself. But since their idolatry was not merely a means to achieve something else, but was itself the cause and the goal, it is "as the shame of a thief when he is found": the shame is only over "when he is found," over the fact that the idolatry ultimately failed to deliver the goods. Regarding the worship itself they feel no shame, and they will persist in it.
This is the meaning of "so are the House of Israel ashamed, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets": not one of them felt ashamed of the corrupt path itself, but only of the failure and the damage that resulted from it. Yet this does not lead them to change their ways, for the corrupt path remains their system and their goal, and they will continue upon it.
"Your own wickedness shall correct you" - That the Evil Itself Shall Teach You
תְּיַסְּרֵךְ רָעָתֵךְ וּמְשֻׁבוֹתַיִךְ תּוֹכִחֻךְ וּדְעִי וּרְאִי כִּי רַע וָמָר עׇזְבֵךְ אֶת ה' אֱלֹהָיִךְ וְלֹא פַחְדָּתִי אֵלַיִךְ נְאֻם אֲדֹנָי ה' צְבָאוֹת׃ - "Your own wickedness will chastise you, and your backslidings will reprove you; know and see that it is evil and bitter that you have forsaken Hashem your God, and that My dread was not upon you, says the Lord, God of Hosts."
Based on this, the Malbim resolves the verse: The Holy One, blessed is He, decreed that the evil itself should be the cause of the rebuke - "and that My dread was not upon you," meaning that fear of Me will not prompt the rebuke, but the evil deed itself. And why? Because as long as you regret only the shame and the fact that you did not attain what you sought, this is not true repentance over the sin of idolatry itself. Says the Holy One, blessed is He: "Your own wickedness will chastise you" - perhaps when the idolatry itself brings suffering upon you, it will lead to remorse over the act itself, rather than merely over its outcome.
"Who Say to Wood: You Are My Father" - The Idol as an End, Not a Means
אֹמְרִים לָעֵץ אָבִי אַתָּה וְלָאֶבֶן אַתְּ יְלִדְתָּנוּ כִּי פָנוּ אֵלַי עֹרֶף וְלֹא פָנִים וּבְעֵת רָעָתָם יֹאמְרוּ קוּמָה וְהוֹשִׁיעֵנוּ׃ - "Who say to wood, 'You are my father,' and to stone, 'You gave birth to us'; for they have turned their back to Me and not their face, but in the time of their trouble they will say, 'Arise and save us!'"
The Malbim explains: There were idolaters who worshiped idols as an intermediary, as an instrument through which to attain spirituality and connect themselves to it. They fashioned talismans, terafim, and various forms that they believed absorbed spiritual influences, through which they felt they were forging a bond with the spiritual realm. We explained the Golden Calf in this manner as well: "These are your gods, O Israel" - they were certain that the Holy One, blessed is He, would invest His presence within the calf, and since they no longer had Moshe to serve as their intermediary, the calf would serve in his place.
Here, however, the prophet says that this is not the case. "Who say to wood, 'You are my father'" - they believe that the wood itself created and formed them. "And to stone, 'You gave birth to us'" - the stone is what birthed us. This is not an instrument devised to attain spirituality; rather, the stone itself is the god and the wood itself is the god, meaning you have made them an end in and of themselves.
"They Have Turned Their Back to Me and Not Their Face" - The Parable of the King and the General
At first glance, this expression is puzzling: If one turns his back, it is obvious that he is not facing forward, so why does the verse need to add "and not their face"? The Malbim explains that it is possible for a person to turn his back and turn his face simultaneously. Picture a person standing between the king and the army general, with the king behind him and the general before him, and he faces the general. Technically, he is turning his back to the king, which on the surface appears offensive and disrespectful. But if he says to the general: "Please, approach the king on my behalf so that he may favor me and grant me such-and-such" - then turning his face to the general is ultimately an act of facing the king, since his entire appeal to the general is only as an intermediary between himself and the sovereign. To truly turn one's back to the king means saying: "My lord king, I do not want you and I have no need for you; I have the general."
Says the Malbim: Had you turned your back to Hashem and your face toward the idol merely as an intermediary between yourselves and Hashem, it would have been a back that is essentially a face, for your ultimate aim would still have been directed toward the Holy One, blessed is He. But when you worship idolatry as an independent power - as if there is no Creator of the world, or that the idol itself is the creator - that is "the back and not the face," a turning away that has no intention of ever reaching Him. This is the meaning of "for they have turned their back to Me and not their face": once you said to the wood, "You are my father," and to the stone, "You gave birth to us," you turned your back completely. Had you said to the wood, "You will merely help me attain a connection to the Master of the World" - that would have been a back that is fundamentally a face.
"But in the time of their trouble they will say, 'Arise and save us!'" - when misfortune strikes them, they turn to Hashem, yet they feel no remorse whatsoever for having abandoned Him for an idol. They merely desire salvation: Master of the World, we have a problem, solve it for us - and once it is resolved, we will have no need for You again, for we have an idol. How terrible it is to utter such words, yet this is what Scripture conveys: even when they require salvation from Hashem, it does not bring them to renounce their idolatry or acknowledge that it possesses no power and cannot save them. They completely abandon God and turn to the idol as though it gave birth to them, directing their entire focus toward it; and salvation from Hashem is treated as something purely temporary - a "use-and-discard" relationship, as difficult as such an expression is to utter.
"And Where Are Your Gods That You Have Made for Yourself?"
וְאַיֵּה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר עָשִׂיתָ לָּךְ יָקוּמוּ אִם יוֹשִׁיעוּךָ בְּעֵת רָעָתֶךָ כִּי מִסְפַּר עָרֶיךָ הָיוּ אֱלֹהֶיךָ יְהוּדָה׃ - "And where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble; for as the number of your cities are your gods, O Yehudah."
The Malbim explains: Since you made them, they are the work of your hands, and if they had any power, they certainly would rise up to repay their makers and save you in your time of trouble. Nor can you claim that they are far from you, for "as the number of your cities were your gods, O Yehudah" - in every single city you made yourself a god. You did not rely on the god of another city, but made yourself a local god, a resident of the area. If so, says the Holy One, blessed be He: let them arise and save you in your time of distress.
"Why Do You Contend with Me?"
לָמָּה תָרִיבוּ אֵלָי כֻּלְּכֶם פְּשַׁעְתֶּם בִּי נְאֻם ה'׃ - "Why do you contend with Me? You all have transgressed against Me, says Hashem."
How can you come to argue with Me and say we have not sinned? "You all have transgressed against Me." Rashi points out that this phrasing seems to imply that even the righteous are included, and he quotes Chazal: "This is what people say: together with the thorn, the cabbage is struck" - when one hoes out the thorns, part of the cabbage is inadvertently hoed away with them. This is an analogy for the fact that when the wicked are stricken, the righteous are stricken alongside them, as in the verse: "If fire goes forth and finds thorns, and a stack of grain or standing grain is consumed." The fire goes forth because of the thorns, because of the wicked, but what is consumed first? The stack of grain and the standing grain, which symbolize the righteous. There are several reasons for this, as discussed at length elsewhere.
Radak explains "Why do you contend" as meaning that they supposedly have complaints: when the enemy arrives, against whom do they complain? Against Hashem. Why has He forsaken us? Why does He not save us and protect us? The Holy One, blessed be He, says to them: Why do you contend with Me, when you yourselves have transgressed against Me? And according to Radak, "all of you" means both your great ones and your small ones, from the greatest among them to the least. If so, why do you ask that I save you? I am under no obligation to you; if you made gods for yourselves, turn to them - "your gods that you made for yourself, let them arise if they can save you." After you made yourselves gods and they brought troubles upon you, to whom can you come with complaints?
"In Vain Have I Smitten Your Children"
לַשָּׁוְא הִכֵּיתִי אֶת בְּנֵיכֶם מוּסָר לֹא לָקָחוּ אָכְלָה חַרְבְּכֶם נְבִיאֵיכֶם כְּאַרְיֵה מַשְׁחִית׃ - "In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction. Your sword has devoured your prophets like a destroying lion."
"In vain" - for nothing, for the smiting did not help them accept correction. Rashi explains "your sword has devoured your prophets" - you killed Zechariah and Yeshayahu. Yeshayahu was killed by Menasheh, as is known, in the episode where he was swallowed within the cedar tree and they sawed through the cedar. And Zechariah - this is Zechariah ben Yehoyada, who came and prophesied prophecies that were unpleasant to hear, and for this they cast stones at him and stoned him in the Temple Courtyard, as it says, "Shall priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of Hashem?" His blood bubbled on the floor of the Courtyard until Nevuzaradan came and slaughtered many prominent people over it, until the blood rested from its bubbling. One who wishes can look in the book BeMishnat HaGilgulim, where many stories are brought about that thrower, the first one who cast the stone at the prophet Zechariah, how many reincarnations he underwent and how many great figures tried to rectify him over the generations, which are astounding matters.
Radak finds difficulty with this interpretation, since the plain meaning of the expression "your prophets" implies the false prophets that you fabricated for yourselves, rather than the true prophets who are "My prophets." Therefore, Radak leans toward the explanation of his father: "your prophets" refers to the false prophets, and the verse does not mean that you killed the prophets, but rather that your prophets caused the sword to devour. Their prophecies corrupted the people "like a destroying lion," from soul to flesh: from soul - for the false prophets encouraged them to engage in idolatry; and to flesh - for they caused the sword to devour and strike them. That is, the sword of your prophets devoured the people like a lion that destroys flesh and tears it to pieces in its prey; in this way, the false prophets destroyed the people both in their souls and in their bodies.
The Malbim explains along the lines of Rashi: My smiting of your children because they did not receive correction was in vain, for the children are not to blame - they had no one from whom to receive correction. Once your sword devoured your prophets like a destroying lion, once you killed Zechariah and Yeshayahu, from whom could the children receive rebuke? "In vain have I smitten your children."
"O Generation, See the Word of Hashem"
הַדּוֹר אַתֶּם רְאוּ דְבַר ה' הֲמִדְבָּר הָיִיתִי לְיִשְׂרָאֵל אִם אֶרֶץ מַאְפֵּלְיָה מַדּוּעַ אָמְרוּ עַמִּי רַדְנוּ לוֹא נָבוֹא עוֹד אֵלֶיךָ׃ - "O generation, see the word of Hashem: Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness? Why do My people say, 'We wander freely, we will come to You no more'?"
"Behold the word of Hashem" - Radak explains that there is a seeing that takes place in the heart, as in "and my heart saw much," and "see, your words are good." Our Sages expound: he showed them the jar of manna - he brought out the jar of manna before them and told them: See here what the word of Hashem accomplishes, for when the Holy One, blessed be He, willed and decreed sustenance, manna descended for Israel in the wilderness. Radak notes with precision: it says "behold" and not "hear," implying that he showed them a tangible, physical object, the jar of manna, so that they would see and trust in the Holy One, blessed be He.
"Was I a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness?" - formulated as an exclamation of astonishment: Was I like a wilderness to them, or like a dark land where a person cannot find his needs? After all, when they were in the desert they had manna, they had sustenance, they had all their needs met. And can the One Who was capable of providing them with all of that back then not take care of you today?
And what is the meaning of "radnu"? It carries two meanings. Radak interprets it as an expression of rule and dominion, as in "Binyamin ruled [rad] with God," and "and let them have dominion [ve-yirdu] over the fish of the sea and over every beast of the earth." That is to say: when I rebuke them, they reply: We have our own government, there are judges in Jerusalem, legislators sitting in Givat Ram; we have no need for You, Master of the Universe, we do not need Your laws, we have laws of our own and have no need for religion or Torah. Says the Holy One, blessed be He: But as long as they walked after Me, all their needs and sustenance were provided and secured. Was the desert truly a wasteland for you? Did you suffer there? Was it a land of thick darkness? If so, why do you take dominion for yourselves and say that you have no need for My sovereignty?
Rashi interprets "radnu" as: We have separated ourselves from You, we will no longer come to You. And what is the root connection? From the expression "one who scrapes bread from the oven" [ha-rodeh pas min ha-tanur], extracting the bread from the oven; so too here, "radnu" means we have departed from You, we are no longer bound to You.
The Three Factions Among the People
The Malbim takes an approach here that will guide him through the subsequent verses as well: in that generation, there were three factions among the people, and the prophet rebukes each of them individually. The first faction argued: Why do we not follow the path of Hashem and the path of ethics and awe? Because that earlier generation was a generation of fear of Heaven, a generation of righteous people, a generation in whose midst the word of Hashem shone brightly; but we have already drifted far away, we have descended very far from the mountain of Hashem. "Who may ascend the mountain of Hashem, and who may stand in His holy place?" - that is not for us; we are on a debased level.
The second faction claimed the exact opposite: the earlier generations were not consummate enough in their service of Hashem, and we are inventing ways and methods to strengthen divine service even more than they did. And the third faction made neither claim, but simply forgot the Torah and the mitzvos entirely. This is the archetype of the child who does not know how to ask: he is unconcerned with what this group says or that group says; Torah and mitzvos do not interest him at all. He remains on his own course and pursuing his vanities, drawn after the desires of his heart, having completely forgotten the Torah.
Now, explains the Malbim, the prophet begins to respond to each of them. To the first faction, which claimed that the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed Himself only to the holy and great earlier generations, while we live in a lowly and degraded final generation, he says: "O generation, behold the word of Hashem!" - even you, the latter generation, behold the word of Hashem, for the Holy One, blessed be He, appears among you and clings to you just as in the earlier generations. "Was I a wilderness to Israel?" - as though the prepositional letter bet were missing here: was I to Israel only in the wilderness? Was it only there that I showed them the way and was close to them? "Or a land of thick darkness?" - was I God to them only in a land of thick darkness, and not to those who dwell in the settled land and to the people who are here today?
"Why does My people say, 'Radnu'?" - according to the Malbim, "radnu" is from the root of descent [yeridah], not from dominion [ridui], nor from scraping bread from an oven. Why does My people say: We have descended into the depths of a pit, we have sunk to lowly levels, we are unworthy of a divine bond, the Holy One, blessed be He, does not reveal Himself to us as He did to earlier generations, His commandments are too burdensome for us, and we are incapable of achieving the perception that existed then, for He too is no longer close to us. The Holy One, blessed be He, says to them: Your words are false, for I appear to your generation just as I appeared to earlier generations - and without question, prophecy and a divine connection still existed in those days. If so, how can you say "radnu"?
The Malbim notes a fine distinction: there is the verb "yarad" [to descend] and there is the verb "rud", as in "arid be-sichi" [I am distraught in my complaint] and "ve-yaradti al he-harim" [and I will lament upon the mountains], and there is a difference between them. "Yarad" always refers to a descent of the body, whereas "rud" refers to a descent of the soul. Here it says "radnu" and not "yaradnu" because it refers to the realm of the soul, that the soul, as it were, has declined.
"Can a Maiden Forget Her Jewelry?"
הֲתִשְׁכַּח בְּתוּלָה עֶדְיָהּ כַּלָּה קִשֻּׁרֶיהָ וְעַמִּי שְׁכֵחוּנִי יָמִים אֵין מִסְפָּר׃ - Can a maiden forget her jewelry, or a bride her adornments? Yet My people have forgotten Me days without number.
Kishureha ("her sashes" or "her adornments") refers to kinds of ornaments that were tied onto a bride. Radak explains that the Jewish people were likened to a bride on the day of the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. If so, how is it possible that this bride forgot her ornaments and her bridal sashes, all the jewelry and adornments she received at Mount Sinai? "Yet My people have forgotten Me days without number" - this is an exaggeration, meaning endless days. According to Radak, "Can a maiden forget her jewelry" and "[can] a bride [forget] her sashes" are a poetic repetition of the same idea in different words, for a bride adorned with jewelry and sashes is none other than a maiden, and an adorned maiden is none other than a bride.
However, as is well known, according to the Malbim there is never mere repetition of an idea in different words; each phrase comes to express a specific concept. The Malbim explains that here the prophet is contending with the faction that abandoned Hashem out of forgetfulness - those who are neither for nor against, but for whom the Holy One, blessed be He, does not exist, nor do the Torah and the mitzvos; they simply live in their own world in utter denial. Against them he says: How could you forget your glory, how could you forget your honor? "Can a maiden forget her jewelry?" And even if it were to happen that a maiden forgets her jewelry, can a bride forget her kishurim? The Malbim defines kishureha as the items the groom gave her to signify the strong bond (kesher) between them, like our engagement rings today, or what the bride gives the groom, such as a watch and the like - items customary only between a groom and bride that testify to the bond between them. Even if a maiden might forget her jewelry, a bride would certainly not forget her tokens of betrothal, the sign that she is bound to her groom. This was especially true in their times, when the bride was already betrothed prior to the chupah, and it had already been said to her, "Behold, you are consecrated to me with this ring," such that there was a literal binding bond between them.
The analogy is clear: the Torah is the bond between us and Hashem, and through it the Holy One, blessed be He, is our God. How could we forget this? "Yet My people have forgotten Me" - and not just for a brief period, but "days without number." How is this possible? After all, a bride does not forget her bridal tokens, and the Jewish people at Mount Sinai were like a bride. How could this bride forget her connection with the Holy One, blessed be He?
"How well you prepare your way to seek love!"
מַה תֵּיטִבִי דַרְכֵּךְ לְבַקֵּשׁ אַהֲבָה לָכֵן גַּם אֶת הָרָעוֹת לִמַּדְתְּ אֶת דְּרָכָיִךְ׃ - How well you prepare your way to seek love! Therefore, you have even taught the wicked women your ways.
Radak explains that the expression teitivi does not necessarily denote goodness. One can say of a person that he "does well" in meticulously executing the transgressions he commits, meaning he performs them with great precision and zeal. Similarly, "Are you exceedingly angry (hayeitev charah lach)?" - anger is negative, yet the term heitiev is used, meaning intensely or thoroughly, not necessarily good. Likewise, "if my father resolves to do you harm (ki yeitiev avi es hara'ah alecha)" - meaning he will bring much harm upon you. In other words, it means executing an act in its most thorough and complete manner, not that the act itself is positive. Here too: you refine and groom your ways in the most consummate manner in order to seek love.
And what does "to seek love" mean? Rashi explains: to greet your paramours, as in the phrase "and dressed her hair (vatteitev roshah)" regarding Jezebel. The paramours here are the idols and false gods after which the community of Israel strayed. They are called "your paramours" because the community of Israel is like a bride to the Holy One, blessed be He, and when she pursues the Baals, Scripture consistently uses the phrase "and strayed after the Baals" - an aspect of infidelity and adultery, where she abandons the husband of her youth, the Holy One, blessed be He, and chases after idolatry.
"Therefore you have even taught the wicked women your ways" - Rashi explains: you reviewed every evil path in order to learn the most corrupt among them all. It is horrifying: you searched for the most depraved ways among the nations, adopting all these corruptions and incorporating them into your own conduct.
Someone once quoted from a travel guide describing cities around the world and what can be found in each city. The descriptions of Tel Aviv were appalling and shocking - praising the city's permissiveness and highlighting that one could find there vices found only among the most corrupt and degraded nations; that was the author's song of praise for it. Horrifying! "You have even taught the wicked women your ways" - you went and learned from the nations their most depraved and degraded ways, adopting and embracing them all.
However, it must be emphasized: these words refer to a marginal and misguided fringe that unfortunately makes a great deal of noise in the media, which is what is reflected in such descriptions of Tel Aviv. But when one looks at the totality of the Jewish people - "And Your people are all righteous" - we see a spiritual strengthening and a greater dedication to the path of Hashem than in years past. Even in Tel Aviv, even in places once considered strongholds of secularism, it is incredible: there is now a kollel in Savyon, an awakening in North Tel Aviv and Ramat Aviv and in the most far-flung places; there are heritage centers, values organizations, outreach programs, and so much more. Thus, even in the most distant places there is spiritual renewal, and what is described here applies only to the fringes.
Radak explains "How well you prepare your way to seek love" as referring to the yearning of the Jewish people after the foreign nations, trusting in them to save us. The prophets frequently rebuke the people for turning toward Egypt for aid, yet Egypt is nothing more than a crushed reed of a staff - anyone who leans on it is pierced and bleeds, gaining no benefit but only suffering harm, as stated earlier: "What do you have to do with the way to Egypt... and what do you have to do with the way to Assyria?" Thus: you perfect your ways to seek the love of the nations so that they will help and rescue you. And what came of this? "You have even taught the wicked women your ways" - you taught the wicked nations your ways. You became worse than them, to the point that they learned their evil ways from you. While Rashi understands that you learned the corrupt deeds of the nations, Radak takes it a step further: you became the guide for the nations, such that when the nations seek to do evil, they imitate us. Instead of being a light unto the nations, we became the spotlight of all that is evil, for the nations to come and learn from us.
The Malbim's Explanation: The Faction That Considered Itself Superior
The Malbim explains that here the prophet is contending with the middle faction - those who claimed: "Our fathers did not serve Hashem completely, and we are more righteous than they." As is well known, when someone attempts to be holier-than-thou without following an upright path, it often leads to disaster. They fabricated mitzvot of their own and added their own innovations, seeking through this to supposedly increase love of Hashem, so that He would be closer to them and cleave to them more. To this he says: "Why do you improve your way" - why do you think you are improving your way more than your ancestors, "to seek love" - that you are attaining Hashem's love more than they did, serving Him at a higher level than theirs?
And the examples: Achaz built an altar in the Beit HaMikdash, modeled after the altar he saw in Damascus. That is to say, our traditional altars are not enough; in Damascus I saw an extraordinary altar, the latest design, unmatched - and he brought craftsmen to build an altar like it in the Beit HaMikdash, as if through this we serve Hashem on a higher plane. Similarly with the high places (bamot): the Torah forbade bamot, yet each person builds an altar in his courtyard - as if to ask, were earlier generations really pious enough? We are far more meticulous: by the time you travel all the way to the Beit HaMikdash, I have already built an altar in my backyard and am offering sacrifices to Hashem all day long! They feel, as it were, that they are more righteous, yet this is shechutei chutz (slaughtering outside the Temple), a grave sin, and bamot were strictly forbidden. But he has his theory, and do not confuse him with facts; he pursues his own agenda. "Therefore you have also taught the evil ones your ways" - in order to improve your path you adopted the evil practices learned from the nations, like the altar brought from Damascus, imagining that in this way you were following a better, more meticulous, and more elevated path in the service of Hashem.
"Also on your skirts is found the blood of the souls of the innocent poor"
גַּם בִּכְנָפַיִךְ נִמְצְאוּ דַּם נַפְשׁוֹת אֶבְיוֹנִים נְקִיִּים לֹא בַמַּחְתֶּרֶת מְצָאתִים כִּי עַל כׇּל אֵלֶּה׃ - "Also on your skirts is found the blood of the souls of the innocent poor; you did not find them breaking in, but because of all these."
"On your skirts" (bikhnafayikh) - the hems of your garments, as in "and their lifeblood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all my clothing." And just as during Tashlich we shake the hem of the garment, as though sins cling to the edges of the clothing. Targum Yonatan interprets: "Even in secret it was found that you spilled innocent blood"; kanaf connotes covering and concealing, as in "he shall not uncover his father's skirt," which refers to the privacy of his father, meaning his wife. And "is found the blood" (nimtze'u dam) is as though it said damim - the blood of the souls of innocent poor people was discovered.
"You did not find them breaking in" - for it is written, "If a thief is found breaking in, and is struck and dies, there is no blood-guilt for him." If a burglar comes tunneling into your home to steal, the Gemara states that it is permitted to kill him. Why? Because if you do not kill him, he has come prepared to either take property or kill, and if anyone stands in his way he will kill them; thus he possesses homicidal intent, invoking the principle, "If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first." The verse says to you: You cannot hide behind this justification, for "you did not find them breaking in" - you did not catch them tunneling into your house and strike them down in self-defense. If so, they are "the blood of the souls of the innocent poor," so why did you kill them?
The Metzudat David explains differently: "You did not find them breaking in" - you did not do these deeds in secret. When a person sins in secret, there is at least one redeeming quality: at least there is shame, at least it does not become the accepted norm. But you committed these deeds openly and publicly, which demonstrates outright rebellion against Hashem - I am no longer ashamed of my sins, and I commit them in plain sight of everyone.
The Malbim continues here by addressing that self-proclaimed "meticulous" faction, which erected bamot and imported an altar from Damascus. He says to them: "Also on your skirts is found the blood of the souls of the innocent" - through your distorted worldview, when the prophets came to rebuke you, you told yourselves: This prophet belongs to the sitra achra (the forces of impurity); he has come to alienate me from the service of Hashem, failing to grasp how meticulous and observant I truly am! For if I am the righteous one, what is this prophet? An instigator and enticer, seeking to tear me away from my piety and good deeds.
Hence the difference between the factions: the group that felt the path of the prophets was too demanding for them - that we are incapable, that Hashem was with our ancestors in the past but is no longer with us today - has no reason to kill the prophets. On the contrary, they concede that Hashem's path is the truth, only that it is too difficult for us. But specifically the faction that considers itself more meticulous views the true prophets as false prophets, since the prophet has come to turn me away from the service of Hashem at the very moment I am strengthening myself in it! This is very reminiscent of zealous fringe groups; whom do they attack? The leading Torah sages (Gedolim). There were those who spoke out against Rav Elyashiv - why? Because he was supposedly not zealous enough, perhaps a bit too moderate - Rav Elyashiv, who was universally recognized as the absolute pinnacle of uncompromising fidelity to halachah! If they deem themselves more righteous, then the prophets are no longer good enough; on the contrary, they are seen as coming to subvert the truth. And what is done to the true prophets? They kill them, for they are perceived as preventing the people from being like us - the truly righteous who are far more meticulous than earlier generations.
And this is the meaning of "you did not find them breaking in, but because of all these." The Malbim explains that they likened the prophets who came to turn them back from their path to a burglar caught breaking in - like a thief who comes to deprive them of good and rob their possessions, to strip them of their righteousness, their piety, and the upright path that they observed more strictly than earlier generations. The Holy One, blessed be He, says to them: You did not find the prophets breaking in; they did not come to steal your possessions. Rather, "because of all these" - it was on account of all these improper ways that you clashed with them; you killed them solely because they sought to turn you away from what seemed to you the upright path and to dismantle your self-styled righteousness.
Thus their wickedness was threefold: First, the corrupt practices you adopted remained with you, and you added further deviation and ruin to them, even claiming that this is what Hashem desires. Second, when the prophets came to rebuke you and declare that this is not Hashem's will, you went and killed them, for in your eyes they were the ones obstructing you from the path of righteousness and integrity. And third, the audacious claim: "Because I am innocent."
"Because you say: 'I have not sinned'"
וַתֹּאמְרִי כִּי נִקֵּיתִי אַךְ שָׁב אַפּוֹ מִמֶּנִּי הִנְנִי נִשְׁפָּט אוֹתָךְ עַל אׇמְרֵךְ לֹא חָטָאתִי׃ - "Yet you said: 'I am innocent; surely His anger has turned away from me.' Behold, I enter into judgment with you because you say, 'I have not sinned.'"
What does Kenesset Yisrael say? "I am innocent" - on the contrary, we are far more righteous than previous generations, and I am clean and purified from any sin. "Surely His anger has turned away from me" - and precisely now, through these deeds that I perform, His wrath will depart from me, for I am meticulous in His service. The Holy One, blessed be He, responds: Is that what you think? "Behold, I enter into judgment with you because you say, 'I have not sinned'" - I will give you a special punishment, separate from the sin itself, for the very statement "I have not sinned," and for that alone I will bring you to trial.
And what is the meaning of "Behold, I enter into judgment with you [hineni nishpat otach]"? The Malbim explains that they, as it were, come with complaints against the Holy One, blessed be He, summoning Him before a third party as if He, Heaven forbid, were in the wrong. "Nishpat otach" is like nishpat itach (I will enter into litigation with you): the Holy One, blessed be He, says, I will go to court with you and prosecute you - for what? For your saying, "I have not sinned."
And the masters of Mussar, for whom this verse is the foundation of many discourses, ask: Either way - if she did not sin, let Him not judge her; and if she sinned, let Him judge her for her sin! What is the meaning of "Behold, I enter into judgment with you because you say, 'I have not sinned'"? Rather, explain the masters of Mussar: Had you sinned and acknowledged the sin, even if you had not yet repented, there would still be hope and a chance for teshuvah - if not today, then tomorrow; if not tomorrow, in a month, in ten years - for at least you are aware that your deeds are corrupt. But saying "I have not sinned" is worse than the sin itself, because it locks the sin into an irreversible state. For one who says "I have not sinned" is essentially saying: "I am so righteous, why even speak to me of teshuvah?"
Therefore, precisely those who have an ideology behind their actions, supposedly for the sake of Heaven, are the most problematic, and it is hardest to bring them to teshuvah. It is impossible to reason with them, because such a person is convinced that what he is doing is a mitzvah, that he is the one being meticulous and scrupulous, and that you are not good enough for him. The attitude of "I have not sinned" locks him into the position where he stands, and from there he will not budge at all. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: For this alone you deserve to be judged.
In summary:
In these verses, the prophet exposes the root of the corruption: not an incidental sin, but a systematic one. "As the shame of a thief when he is found" - like a professional thief who is not ashamed of stealing, but only of being caught, so too Israel were not ashamed of the idolatry itself, but only of not having benefited from it. Therefore, "Your own wickedness will chastise you" - let the evil itself teach them a lesson. They treated the idol as an end rather than a means, and therefore "they turned their back to Me and not their face," and even in times of trouble they sought only temporary salvation. And there were three factions among the people: those who fell from their spiritual stature and gave in to despair; the pseudo-scrupulous who invented new paths, going so far as to murder the true prophets; and those who forgot entirely. To all of them the prophet replies: Hashem reveals Himself even in your generation, a bride does not forget her adornments, and no new path is better than the way of the Torah. And the gravest claim of all is "I have not sinned," which locks the gates of teshuvah, and concerning that alone: "Behold, I enter into judgment with you."