Sefer Yechezkel, chapter 4. "And you, son of man, take yourself a brick, and set it before you, and engrave upon it a city, Yerushalayim." Here we will see a command in which the Holy One, blessed be He, commands Yechezkel to do things in a metaphorical manner, meaning certain external actions that come to serve as a parable for the things that the Holy One, blessed be He, wishes to convey in His message. This is something that appears many times in prophecy, that the prophet would perform certain actions in order to present the nation with parables, to explain the matter to the people. As we saw that Tzidkiyah went and made himself horns of iron, even though he was a false prophet, but in this he wanted to resemble the true prophets, so he made himself horns of iron and said, "Thus said Hashem, with these you shall gore Aram." That is to say, we see that they would perform some tangible action so that this tangible action would become an expression of the divine idea.
So too here, Hashem says to the prophet, to Yechezkel, "And you, son of man, take yourself a brick, and set it before you, and engrave upon it a city, Yerushalayim." So first of all, why is he called son of man, we will not repeat this again and again, we already saw it in the previous chapter. Why does He command him to take a brick, and why does He not tell him to draw a siege on a board? For what does He tell him: take a brick, and upon this brick engrave the form of Yerushalayim. On a board it is much easier to engrave and draw than on a brick.
The Radak says, since they would build the cities with bricks or with stones, the brick is really a parable for Yerushalayim, for Yerushalayim was built with stone. And the brick is something made of clay, dried in the sun or fired in a kiln, as it is written, "let us make bricks," and the brick in itself is more convenient to engrave. That is to say, it is not truly a stone, but rather a molded brick, so it follows that it is easier to engrave upon it and to draw Yerushalayim on it.
What really is the message here in this matter? The Malbim says He wanted to teach him: know that Yerushalayim, its reality, its existence, has no existence of its own. Rather it exists only by the power of Hashem's providence. Only by the power of the will of the Creator, blessed be He. That is, in itself it is like a brick. Like a brick, as if you would say a piece of block. There is nothing in it. If you see that there is engraving here, and there is a drawing here, and there is a city here, know that it is the divine providence that maintains it, and it is that which creates this reality that there is here a place called Yerushalayim.
And this is what "and set it before you" means. The intention is: place this brick before you, meaning that just as Hashem, Yerushalayim is before Him. Hashem observes Yerushalayim, and by the power of the observation of Yerushalayim, the providence over Yerushalayim, that is its existence, so too you place this brick, after the engraving, place it before you.
"And lay siege against it, and build a siege wall against it, and cast up a mound against it, and set camps against it, and set battering rams against it round about." "And lay siege against it," that is, part of the action that Hashem wishes to use as a parable to Yechezkel about what is destined to happen in Yerushalayim, He tells him: all of this you shall do on this drawing, on this picture, on this engraving that you made on the brick. First of all, lay siege against it. This means, through her sins, says the Malbim, the Holy One, blessed be He, brings upon her enemies who will be in a siege around her in order to destroy her. And here too He wishes to tell you: come and see, Hashem builds Yerushalayim, and Hashem also placed the siege to destroy Yerushalayim. Hashem, as it were, now commands the prophet to do this, this is by the power of Hashem. The One who built Yerushalayim is also the One who placed it under siege. All of this comes to express that Yerushalayim has no existence of its own, its entire existence is only by the power of divine providence.
"And build a siege wall against it." What is this dayek? Rashi explains that this was an instrument with which they would hurl stones into the city. They had a kind of catapult with which they would throw stones into the city. The Radak, on the other hand, explains that this was a wooden tower that they would build opposite the city in order to conquer it. This is the dayek.
Afterwards he says "and cast up a mound against it." What is a sollelah? The city is surrounded by a wall. It is impossible to breach it except by one of two methods. Either they cast up a mound, or they use an iron ram, as we will soon explain. One option is to cast up a mound. Sollelah means from the word for earth which they would strike with sticks and pack down, like a paved road (derekh selulah). Therefore it is called "and cast up a mound." Why is it "cast up"? Because they would bring the earth from a more distant place and pour it there. This is called a mound. What did they gain by this? A ramp would be formed for us, and by means of this ramp we can climb and reach the wall. For if we climb by means of a ladder one by one, that is very difficult, and those above would also pour boiling oil on them and throw catapult stones at them, it was very difficult. But by managing to create such a ramp, by means of this a mass of soldiers would come and climb up on the mound, and in this way they would reach and conquer the wall. So this is the other option, "and cast up a mound against it."
"And set camps against it." The camps would besiege around the city, and this is in order to conquer the city, the camps that come to breach the wall. "And set battering rams against it round about." What are these karim? Rashi brings one interpretation, apruron, as Targum Yonatan says, these are villages, says Rashi, that they would make, the conquering king would make from the four directions of the city a kind of villages. That is, a place and a camp for his soldiers who would besiege the city. And Rashi explains that karim means officers appointed over the army. Apparently since Rashi wishes to give an additional interpretation, because according to the first interpretation these are villages, and the intention is, as we said, like a camp, each camp is like a village on one side of the city. Rashi gives another interpretation, that these are those appointed over the army, each appointee was responsible for one direction, so that the people of the city would not flee from there and the siege would not be broken.
The Radak brings an additional interpretation that explains what karim are: "the sheep were clothed (karim)," "with the fat of rams (karim)," that the intention is rams. What do rams have to do here? "Set karim against it round about," the intention is an iron ram to batter the city. This means, in order to batter the city they would make an iron ram. What does this mean? They would take and make, they would build for themselves a kind of beam against beam at a diagonal, forming a triangle. This triangle would be planted, say, in the ground, when one beam leans against another beam, we created a kind of triangle where the apex of one touches the other. Afterwards they would make another such beam, where the apex of one touches the other, and this too they would plant in the ground, say at a distance of four meters ahead. There are those where all of this was mobile, but I am speaking with you now about one planted in the ground. From each of them a chain descends, and in the middle they would place a huge lying log between them. And it hung from this chain. Say each chain would grip the log about half a meter before the end. And on the other side, half a meter before the end, a chain hung down and descended. And then this log was like a swing. There are such gardens and parks where you see such children swinging on a swing of this type. Now such a thing, when it is heavy and you bring it close to the city, and people forcefully move it and swing it, it is a boom that pushes the stones in the wall, knocks down the stones in the wall. In this manner they would go and push the stones, the lower stones would fall, the upper stones would collapse, and in this way the wall would fall and collapse. This was a way to batter the city walls, it was called an iron ram, since usually the central pole was a very heavy iron pole with which they would batter the city. So he explains that this is what is written here, karim. Karim is like rams, rams meaning an iron ram with which he will batter the city.
"And you, take yourself an iron griddle, and set it as an iron wall between you and the city, and set your face against it, and it shall be in a state of siege, and you shall besiege it; this is a sign for the House of Israel." There is here an additional command. He commands him now to take an iron griddle, and with this iron griddle to make an iron wall. A griddle, as the Radak says, has no capacity to contain, but is more flat than a pot and other iron vessels, to make it resemble a wall. That is, He could have told him to take a pot, but that is not the idea. The idea is that it should have the aspect of a wall. What vessel is closest to a wall? It is a griddle. And the griddle can also be a griddle with no capacity to contain at all, right? So the griddle resembles a wall, therefore He tells him: take yourself an iron wall, in order to symbolize with the iron wall, He says Yerushalayim will be under siege. Note, he is still beside that same brick upon which he engraved the form of Yerushalayim, and now He says: place an iron wall which symbolizes, place the griddle which symbolizes an iron wall, that Yerushalayim will come under siege.
The Radak says that there are two allusions in this matter. First, this comes to say: know that just as iron is very strong, so too know that the heart of Israel is strong as iron. Hashem speaks with them, Hashem sends prophets, Hashem tries to persuade them, and their heart is like brass. Their heart is strong as iron, they are not willing to change, not willing to accept, this is the matter of the iron. Another thing, iron is black, which is an allusion to the blackness of their sins. The intention is like "their faces were blackened like the bottom of a pot." It is very possible that this is also connected here to the matter, because the griddle becomes blackened on its bottom. "The bottom of the pot" is the base of the pot. And it is that which is upon the fire, and therefore it is black. So too in our matter, the bottom here is black, this comes to show their sins which are black, as we saw elsewhere that he compared their sins to black figs. The black figs come to express the blackness of the sins. Or as we say in Shir HaShirim, "Do not gaze upon me because I am blackened," that there too the intention is that the blackness is the corner of the sins, no, it is only that the sun has tanned me. And therefore there is no expression here of my sins. In any case we saw that blackness is an expression of sins. And this is what separates between them and God, and this is an iron wall that intervenes between us and Hashem.
"And set your face against it." What is this setting of the face, "and set your face against it"? As we saw, the Radak, we really explain that the intention of the matter is that everything you do, this whole procedure, is as it were the gaze of the Holy One, blessed be He, toward Yerushalayim, as the Malbim explained above. So he says: know that there is here a setting of the face. What is a setting of the face? The setting of the face is in two ways. That is, in two possibilities. "May Hashem lift His face toward you," so the setting of the face is for mercy. There is a possibility of "and I will set My face against that man," and then the setting of the face is for anger. The face of Hashem, right, the intention is a face of judgment. He says, "set your face against it," that is, if they repent it will be a face of mercy, like "may Hashem lift His face toward you," and if they do not repent then there will be here a face of judgment, like "and I will set My face and I will set My face against that man."
And afterwards he says "and you shall besiege it." He already said before "and it shall be in a state of siege." Why is it necessary to say again "and you shall besiege it"? Rather he wishes to say: hold firm in the siege until her walls come down. This is the intention. That is to say, what you began earlier as a siege, do not think that it will be a temporary siege, but rather it is a siege that will remain until her walls come down. And this is the sign that the enemies will besiege Yerushalayim in this way until they breach it. That is, do not think that they will come and go, they will come and remain until they succeed in breaching the city walls.
The Malbim explains that after he described and depicted for us the matter of the enemies besieging her by means of the dayek, by means of the mound, by means of the iron ram, by means of the villages they made around and the heads of the army who as it were surround the city, He tells him: take yourself now an iron griddle and this will be a sign that in fact, note, He places here an iron wall between the prophet and the city. Not as we understood earlier, that the intention is that there is here an iron wall between them and Hashem. No, rather the Malbim explains that there is here an iron wall between you, the prophet, and the city. And what the Malbim says fits better here with the plain meaning, for he places the iron wall between himself and the brick. So it follows that the iron wall comes to express some barrier that exists between the prophet, who is Hashem's messenger, and the city. And this is what he wishes to hint, that their sins would separate like an iron wall between the people of Israel and the Holy One, blessed be He. And what is the allusion here? For the prophet does not come by his own power, he is Hashem's messenger. So the iron wall here intervenes between you and the prophet, the intention is that it also intervenes between you and Hashem, for the messenger of Hashem, as it were, has no access to you.
And along with all this, "and set your face against it." That is, He wishes to tell them: know, even though there is an iron wall, Hashem as it were sets His face toward it. How? Behold, you see, He sends prophets. That is to say, He still has not despaired of them. There is still hope. So even though there is here an iron wall, an iron wall implies disconnection, Hashem says, no, it is not so. I am still "the voice of my Beloved knocking." Even through the iron wall. The Holy One, blessed be He, still awaits them, and Hashem says: set your face toward it by means of the prophets, day by day, rising early and sending, and then it follows that they are now in a double siege. On one hand, the spiritual siege. Day by day there are prophets who come and strike them upon their heads, repent, change your ways, there will be trouble, the city will be destroyed, the Beit HaMikdash will be destroyed. This is the spiritual siege. On the other hand there is also the physical, material siege, that the enemies besiege. And this is what he says, by means of the iron wall she was under siege from the enemies because Hashem's providence departed from them, and by means of Hashem setting His face toward the city, by means of this you will besiege it. And then what do we gain here, note? Siege instead of siege. It is unpleasant, it is hard to hear the words of the prophet, this is a siege. But this siege of the iron wall of the prophet is worthwhile for you, if his unpleasant words, because if not you will need a different siege. And the other siege will be the siege of the enemies. This is really what he comes to tell them. This siege of the prophet who comes to return you to good is preferable for you, and if you do not accept that siege, then that other siege will prevail and by means of this you will be in exile, the Beit HaMikdash will be destroyed and all the troubles will come.
Like that woman who came to the Steipler and told him that she suffers greatly in pregnancies and she wants to stop conceiving. She already has several children and she wants to stop conceiving, she came to receive permission from him. So he told her: know that for every person it is decreed what the measure of his sufferings will be. How much suffering he will receive. Just yesterday someone asked me that his wife wants to undergo a cesarean section, she can give birth normally, in the previous birth she had trauma, a large one, the birth was prolonged, she wants to undergo a cesarean section. Is she permitted or not? There is always a preference not to let the birth be at a time other than when the Holy One, blessed be He, set it, the time that Hashem set, and therefore it is also often preferable not to induce unless medically necessary, but if not, not to do it, because again you are changing the time that was set for the fetus to come into the world, and the Holy One, blessed be He, created every person at the precise hour, at the precise time set for him. There is such a preference, but certainly a person should not be stringent at the expense of his wife and so on, here where it is certainly great pain. But I told him: tell her just one thing, that she should know what the Steipler said. That the Steipler said that for every person a measure of sufferings is set. If she goes through it in birth, then it will be in birth. And if not, she will receive her measure of sufferings, one cannot escape from it. The Steipler said it is like the story of a woman who was pregnant and suffered great pain in pregnancy. Some so-called wise man came and told her, a change of place is a change of fortune, move perhaps to another city. The Steipler said, is this not ridiculous? When she moves to another city, will she not carry her belly between her teeth? There she will not have the pain of pregnancy? He says, one must know, so too every person, the troubles you take with you. What is decreed must be accepted. Now the Holy One, blessed be He, does it in a good way, you merit, you bring a child into the world, you will have from them satisfaction in the end. So this is a good way. And if not, may Hashem have mercy, running to hospitals, problems with children, may Hashem protect us, these and other troubles. So is it not preferable to accept it in this way? Something like this he tells them here. Know that there are two kinds of siege. There is a spiritual siege, there is a physical siege. The spiritual siege of the prophet is preferable to the physical siege of the enemies. And note, with this the Malbim resolved the difficulty upon which the Radak dwelt. We saw it is written "and it shall be in a state of siege, and you shall besiege it." The Radak asked, what is the redundancy? So the Radak explained that the intention is: persist. "It shall be in a state of siege," not temporary, but persist in it. On the other hand, according to the Malbim he says "it shall be in a state of siege" from the enemies, but I propose to them "and you shall besiege it," you will besiege it. You will rebuke them, tell them harsh things, and then by means of this your siege will replace "it shall be in a state of siege." There are here two options, and it is in their hands to choose which siege they prefer.
"And you, lie on your left side, and place the sin of the House of Israel upon it; for the number of days that you lie upon it you shall bear their sin." "And you, lie on your left side." We will already preface that we will see shortly that He tells him to lie on his left side, perhaps let us already read the following verses, for it is one matter. "And I have given you the years of their sin according to the number of days, three hundred and ninety days; and you shall bear the sin of the House of Israel. And when you have completed these, you shall lie on your right side a second time, and you shall bear the sin of the House of Yehudah forty days, a day for a year, a day for a year I have given it to you."
Let us explain. At first He tells him to lie on his left side 390 days, and afterwards to lie on his right side 40 days. And we will try to understand what the left side is, what it symbolizes, why here 390, what the right side is and what it symbolizes and why there only 40. Rashi explains that the matter of the left side is to suffer the pain and afflictions corresponding to the number of years that they provoked Me until they angered before Me. And we will see this later, that the people of Israel angered Hashem for 390 years. The Holy One, blessed be He, tells the prophet: you will be afflicted by lying on your left side 390 days. A day for a year, a day for a year. We will soon try to understand why it is done in this reckoning, but in any case this is what He tells him.
The Radak explains that this matter is a sign for them. And the sign and mark for them, He tells them: come and see, for a person lying on his left side is most of the time. That is, most of the time a person lies on his left side. And He tells them: you lie in this manner corresponding to Israel. For when I examine the tribes, the tribes are divided into Yehudah and Israel. Yehudah is Yehudah and Binyamin. Israel means the ten tribes or the nine and a half tribes. This is the division of the tribes. And regarding Israel, we know there were always wicked kings. There was not even one righteous king. On the other hand, in the period of Yehudah, which is Yerushalayim and Binyamin, there were periods of wicked kings, there were periods of righteous kings. Israel went into exile without return, there were the calves, there Yeravam ben Nevat made his calves, and afterwards the wicked kings Achav and their like ruled there supreme, and in the end they went into exile first.
Now 390, as we explained, these are the years of the sins, note, He speaks here about the years of the sins in general. We will soon do the reckoning precisely to understand exactly how we arrived at 390. But it is clear that here we have the sins, note, of Israel. Israel means the ten tribes. Afterwards He will tell him: lie on your right side 40 years, 40 days, and this corresponds to 40 years of the sins of Yehudah. What does this mean? It means that after Israel went into exile, there were another 40 years of sins for Yehudah. For Binyamin. That is to say, the 390 speaks generally about all of Israel, which includes within it also Yehudah. But the main part is Israel. And the last 40 years, the main part, right, is Israel. For the last 40 years Israel had already gone into exile. So if so, who remains for us? There remain 40 years for Yehudah. And how is this really built, upon what is the left and the right built? Rashi explains, since Shomron was to the left of the land of Yehudah. As it is written, "and your elder sister is Shomron who dwells on your left." Since this is so, it corresponds to Israel, Shomron, He tells him lie on your left, it is to the left of Yehudah.
And then He tells him "you shall bear their sin." What does "you shall bear their sin" mean? Lying on one side causes pain. One who cannot turn over in his sleep, this thing causes him pain. One who observes, I once saw someone made a film of a sleeping person. I saw it perhaps 30 years ago. Someone filmed a sleeping person, but he did not film him in continuous filming, it is possible that he filmed it continuously and sped it up, but it is more likely that he filmed, say, every two minutes. And afterwards he made a film out of it. And then you see the person like a boxer in his sleep. All his movements are sharp, because really he took the time of a whole night, say for eight hours he slept, so they sped up the film, you see him all movements, turning over all the time. A person cannot sleep all the time on one side. It is hard for him, he has movements, he has shifts, it is hard for him. And here the Holy One, blessed be He, demands of the prophet to lie on one side. That is to say, there is here some element of suffering, of afflictions. And this is what He wishes to tell them: come and see that all these years that you did not serve Hashem, all these years have in them an aspect of suffering. Suffering for them and pain for the Holy One, blessed be He. And where does this come to expression? In the suffering that the prophet suffers now for 390 days when he lies on his left side.
The Radak holds that this lying is not in actuality but rather in the vision of prophecy. And we have already had occasion to speak at length about the approaches in understanding the verses in several places, whether the verses describe an existing reality or the verses describe things that the prophet saw in the vision of prophecy. The Rambam's approach in many places, even an extreme approach in places where almost all the commentators do not agree with him, is that the things did not happen in actuality but rather in the vision of prophecy. Such as the entire matter of the divine revelation to Avraham Avinu and the guests who came to him and the slaughter of the cattle and so on and the angels who appeared to him, the Rambam says it was all in the vision of prophecy. Hashem revealed Himself to him and there He showed him everything. But as I said, many disagree with the Rambam, almost all do not agree with him in these examples, but there are examples in which there are indeed other commentators who hold that it was in the vision of prophecy, and here too the Radak says it was in the vision of prophecy. If you remember, we studied this matter at length when we spoke about Hoshea, that the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded Hoshea, where we saw that there was a command to take Gomer bat Divlayim who was a well-known and famous harlot, to beget from her sons and so on, and he would call these sons and so on, and this was as a punishment for the fact that he told the Holy One, blessed be He, Hashem told him your children have sinned, he told Him replace them with another nation. And there too we dwelt at length on the dispute among the approaches, that there are those who hold that he really had to marry that woman and it was Hashem's command, and there are those who say no, it was all in the vision of prophecy. Thus Hashem told him and he sees all of this in the vision of prophecy, how he takes her and how he begets sons from her and how the Holy One, blessed be He, tells him afterwards to divorce her and how he tells Him how can I divorce her, for I have children from her and so on. That is to say, it was all in the vision of prophecy. So you see that there are here two approaches in how to explain the verses, and here the Radak says that it was all in the vision of prophecy.
Let us continue with the Malbim. The Malbim says, He tells him lie on your left side and place the sin of the House of Israel upon it. That is, he wishes to say that the main cause of the sin of the House of Israel is the ten tribes. They are the left side. And why? He does not follow the line that Rashi explained, that Shomron is to the left of Yehudah. It is not for this reason that it is the left side. The Malbim explains a deeper matter, he says: we know that the Holy One, blessed be He, sometimes acts with the left and sometimes acts with the right. Yes, "Hashem swore by His right hand," "You stretched out Your right hand," we see that sometimes there is an action that is with the right and sometimes there is an action that is with the left. What is the difference between them? The Malbim says, always an action with the left indicates the natural conduct. It is conduct according to judgment. It is conduct that is thus fitting. The left is judgments. It is the natural conduct. On the other hand, the conduct of the right is the conduct of loving-kindness. It is conduct above nature. "The right hand of Hashem does valiantly," "the right hand of Hashem is exalted," this is conduct of doing valiantly, this is conduct that is above nature. The left shows the natural conduct, it is judgment, it is conduct according to judgment, according to nature. The Holy One, blessed be He, conducted Himself with the ten tribes with the manner of judgment and nature. The natural conduct. Hashem did not increase for them signs and wonders, and Hashem also did not always send them the prophets to rebuke them. The main rebuke of the prophets was to the people of Yehudah. And therefore they had the sin of idolatry, and then it follows, note, that there is here an advocacy of merit for the people of Israel. So according to the Malbim's explanation, the matter of lying on the left side is an expression of advocacy of merit for them, that with them the conduct was on the side of the left, which is on the side of judgment, which is not conduct above nature, it is natural conduct, prophets were not sent to them to rebuke them and to do for them signs and wonders, it is natural conduct, and it follows that by means of this there was advocacy of merit for the ten tribes, in that they became corrupt because they did not merit conducts and wonders above nature. In practice we saw indeed that one was sent, that one was sent, the altar was torn and Yeravam ben Nevat said seize him, but apparently this comes to say that the rebukes were few. Eliyahu too we saw acted there among the ten tribes and came to rebuke Achav in the kingdom of Shomron, "have you murdered and also inherited," but in any case this was a minority of a minority compared to the rest of the prophets whose main activity was in Yehudah and Yerushalayim, which means the supernatural conduct, the more spiritual conduct.
"And I have given you the years of their sin according to the number of days, three hundred and ninety days, and you shall bear the sin of the House of Israel." "And I have given you the years of their sin." What does "I have given you the years of their sin according to the number of days" mean? That is, you, if you had to lie the years of their sin, you would have had to lie 390 years. But I have given you the years of their sin, the years of the sins, according to the number of days. I have granted you that you will need to lie them only as days and not as years. I have eased upon you the acceptance of the pain that I suffered for the number of years that they sinned before Me, I have turned them for you into a number of days. So it follows that what is written here "shenei avonam" means the years of their sin. On the other hand, "shenei" according to Targum Yonatan means two. Targum Yonatan says "and I have given you for one, two of their sins." That is, I have given you for one, two, meaning double. And the Radak wonders about the interpretation of Targum Yonatan, for it is really difficult to understand where the double is, that is, that they deserve 180 and I told you sit and do this, that is 185, I told you 390. How is this really the reckoning? This is puzzling, as the Radak wondered, and we will remain with the interpretation that says that it is 390 days corresponding to 390 years that they angered before Me.
Where is the reckoning of 390 years? Note, one must pay very close attention to this reckoning, since this reckoning will also help us later, we will need it. So follow the reckoning of how we arrive at the reckoning of the years of their sin, 390 years. The Radak says, this is a reckoning that almost everyone does, the Radak and Rashi and the Abarbanel. The Radak says, most of it we found explicitly. The days of subjugation between judge and judge, we speak already from the beginning, the period of the Judges, they would do evil in the eyes of Hashem, and during this time of subjugation when they were subjugated to the nations, from Yehoshua until Shimshon, go through chapter by chapter there and check the years that they were subjugated, you arrive at 111 years. In the time of the kings of Israel they did evil in the eyes of Hashem, they were subjugated to the kings of the idolaters, check from Yeravam until Hoshea ben Elah, you get 241 years. We had another 111 years of the days of the Judges, we arrived at 352 years. 352 years in which they were placed under the yoke of the enemies. We are looking for 390. We are missing another 38 years. Add to them another 20 years of Shimshon in which the Pelishtim ruled over them, as it is written, "do you not know that the Pelishtim rule over us," and even though Shimshon saved them, it is written that the salvation was not complete, and so too we explained when we studied there in the prophet that the salvation was not complete, and therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, brought the salvation by means of a single man, by means of Shimshon, so that there would not be here a complete salvation by means of all of Israel, but rather as if a single man fought against them. And then they could not come and fight against the whole, for what do you want with us, here there is one, seize him, deal with him. And by means of this there was no salvation for the whole, but only that the nations, as they say, removed the yoke from upon them, but there still was not here a full salvation. So it follows that in that generation, in which there was no full salvation because their heart was not complete with Hashem, so from the 38 years we have another 20 years in which they were subjugated, there still remains a shortfall of 18 years. These years were the days between the days of Shamgar ben Anat, it is written, "in the days of Shamgar ben Anat, in the days of Yael, the roads ceased." That is to say, they would not travel on the road out of fear of the enemies. You understand then that also then there was the rule of the enemies over them. And in the days between Shimshon and Eli, for there too it is written, "in those days there was no king in Israel, each man did what was right in his eyes," and then the idol of Michah was made. It follows then that these 18 years are subsumed within these years. The Radak says, behold, according to the reckoning we received 390 years in which they defied the word of Hashem.
The Malbim says, why really did He count for them the years that they sinned as days? The Malbim explains, because both the days and the years have some resemblance. They have some similarity. For in both we see a revolution of the sun, a full revolution. As is known, the seasons of the year are set according to the sun. And this is 365 days in a year. 365 days in a year is the count of the solar days. That the sun returns to its point, like the point, as they say, that it was at in the beginning of the year. It follows then that the sun completes a full cycle in a year. But this is not exact, since we also have a daily cycle. The sun rises and sets. I am not entering now into the question of whether the earth revolves around the sun or the sun around the earth, in any case according to our view we see a daily cycle. So it follows then that both the year and the day have in them a cyclicality of the sun. Therefore one can say a day for a year, a day for a year. Since both speak about the same cyclicality of the sun, so indeed there it is a large revolution, here it is a small revolution, but in any case this is the cyclicality of the sun. And this is what He tells him, "and I have given you the years of their sin according to the number of days." Since they have merit, as we said, that they were placed during all this time under nature, under the array, under the wheel of the sun, that is to say, as we explained according to the Malbim there was here advocacy of merit for them, they did not have prophets, they did not have rebukers, I did not conduct Myself with them in a supernatural way, and therefore I count for you the years, I count them for you as days. And therefore He tells him: 390 years, count them as 390 days.