Their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, wasting and destruction are in their highways. Their feet run to evil, says the Malbim: evil has already become for them like second nature, so that their feet, of their own accord, out of habit, run to evil. And they hasten to shed innocent blood. Beyond their zeal to reach the place of murder, in the act itself they are also swift. They hasten to shed innocent blood. They murder quickly. Now, what does he mean to say? Sometimes it happens that a person runs to do something, but just before he carries it out, he pauses to think whether it is fitting or not fitting. But he says that with them, both they ran to do it, and once they did, they did it immediately. Sometimes a person does something quickly before his conscience strikes him. He does not want it, perhaps my conscience will strike me and then I will refrain, God forbid. So he does it quickly, that is it, done with. So he says, this is how it is with them: their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed innocent blood.
And do not say that perhaps in their minds they are not certain it is fitting to act so, which would actually be some point of merit for them, that a person is not at peace with what he is doing. He says no, not only did they run to sin, not only did they do it in haste, but their thoughts too are thoughts of evil. That is to say, they are completely at peace with what they did. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, to the point that wasting and destruction are in their highways. Their thought, as it were, is a paved way, beaten toward wasting and destruction, and toward this their ideas and thoughts constantly incline. It has already become for them a highway, a way of life. If so, we see that their wickedness is a great wickedness.
To such a degree that the way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their tracks; they have made their paths crooked for themselves, whoever treads in it does not know peace. The way of peace they have not known. The way of peace and completeness they did not know. That is to say, since he says that wasting and destruction are in their highways, the paved way for them is the way of wasting and destruction, so a way of peace they do not recognize. And not only that, but there is no justice in their tracks; they have made their paths crooked for themselves. Crooked (ikesh) comes from the sense of distorted. A fox whose teeth are ikushot means his teeth are bent. So their reality has made their paths crooked. Their way is twisted, warped, bent.
The Malbim explains the difference between derech (way) and nativ (path). Several times and in several places the Malbim explains his interpretation, that a derech is the fixed road for the many. A highway. The nativ is the place leading to the city, or a more private road, which is called a nativ. Says the Malbim: so the way, which is the fixed road for the many, this they did not know. What is the meaning? Says the Malbim, the many have a way of conduct, law, etiquette, that they follow. There is always some law for the many, some conduct by which they live, by which they run their lives in a way of peace, so that people do not oppress one another. He says, even this way they do not know. The general way in which the collective has basic rules for proper behavior in the public sphere, this they do not know. Way, for derech is the general road, the way of peace, they did not know.
There is a circle (ma'gal). The circle, says the Malbim, is always a circuitous route. There is no justice in their circuits. What does this mean? Says the Malbim, even among criminals there is etiquette, there is some law, there are rules. The criminals, among themselves, even have their own court. And their court is a court of the underworld. It is someone who knows the rules of the underworld, and they have their own rules. For it cannot be that among criminals there would be a dispute over, for example, the percentages of the loot. Yes? I arranged a theft for you, and now you did not give me the percentage owed to me according to law. What law? The law of the underworld. But there is a law. And we were partners in the theft, and during the theft you pocketed for yourself money you thought I did not know about, some ring from some inner room you thought I would not notice, and now it turns out that you actually robbed me. You are just a thief, a corrupt thief. I sue you in the court of thieves. Even in the underworld they have a court, and this court is their judge. By the way, it is so to this day. When? When complications begin, then they get entangled with one another. Because suddenly one gang against another, I do not know, who else is there? Alperon. Abergil. Do you understand? And then things start flying. Because they did not manage to reach agreement, apparently the arbitrator could not reach a compromise, and then, yes, missiles, bullets start flying, in short, an unpleasant situation. So he says, look, even the circle, which is the circuitous route, even there, though it is a bent way, they have their rules, they have their boundaries. So he says, even this they do not do. Even these codes, they walk in a circular loop that deviates from the straight path. Their way is a winding one. They do not walk the straight way, and even among criminals, as we said, where it is accepted that there is some minimum of law and justice, even this they do not have.
He tells you, come and see that they have no justice in their circle. What does "in their circle" mean? Perhaps today the concept of ma'gal will be clearer to us, because a circle today means a group. That is to say, there are people who at least have justice within their own group, within the group of criminals, they have their own judge. He says with them, even the judge of their own group, of the criminals, of their gang, is also not accepted by them. There is no justice in their circuits. At least let there be a private law of yours that you would follow. He says even this they do not have. And not only that, they have made their paths crooked for themselves. What does this mean? A nativ, as we already said, is the individual's road. At least if you had some self-morality. Forget it, you do not have any, the court of the criminals does not decide for you. There is no justice in their circuits. The way of peace of general conduct, who even mentioned it, that too does not speak to you. But at least for yourself, for your private life, is there no path? Say no one decides for you, but you yourself need to have some path, some minimal morality. You give an account to yourself. That you have some rules, that you have some grounded way where you know this I do, this I do not do. Some self-morality, without anyone from outside. This is called a nativ. So it says, they have made their paths crooked for themselves. Each one's private path is crooked. There too, whoever treads in it does not know peace. Each one ruins and corrupts himself, his home, his family, his children. Because even for their private lives there is no path. Say no one decides for you, but you yourself need to have some path, some minimal morality. You give an account to yourself. And even this they do not have.
And the result: therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we wait for light, and behold darkness, for brightness, but we walk in gloom. And therefore justice is far from us. We cry out against violence from the enemies, says Rashi, and the Holy One, blessed be He, from whom we would expect to judge and rule, the Holy One, blessed be He, does not judge to take vengeance. The Holy One, blessed be He, does not exact payment from the nations that harm and oppress us. And righteousness does not overtake us. For the Holy One, blessed be He, promised good consolations, and these consolations do not come and do not reach us. And we walk in gloom.
The Radak explains, if you noticed, the prophet here shifted from speaking in the third person to the first person. At first he said the way of peace they have not known, they. There is no justice in their circuits, they. That is third person. Now he says therefore justice is far from us, from us, we, first person, I. Righteousness does not overtake us, I. What is actually happening here? Says the Malbim, says the Radak, these verses until "and He saw that there was no man," all of this is the words of the prophet, expressing, as it were, how the members of that generation speak. What do the people of the generation say? So he, as it were, now serves as a mouth for them. They say, therefore justice is far from us, and so on. All of this is what the people of the exile say. They are really saying: through the iniquity of the fathers, together with the iniquity of the sons, as a result of this we went into exile. Most of Israel did not return from the first exile. How many returned in the days of Nehemiah and Ezra? About fifty thousand people. Do you understand what fifty thousand people is? That is a quarter of one tribe. That is what returned. That is to say, the entire return of the Second Temple, fifty thousand people. It is accepted that the Yemenites did not return. Anyone who examines the numbers, hardly anyone returned. It is not just that the Yemenites did not return. How much is fifty thousand people? That is a neighborhood. Only a neighborhood returned here. Although none of the Yemenites returned, since they had a tradition that the Temple would be destroyed, but in principle the Babylonians did not return either. Because however many returned, it was a minority of a minority. How much is fifty thousand people? And so, most of the people of Israel still had not returned after the exile of the First Temple. And then Yirmiyahu says, the people of the exile as it were say, our fathers sinned and are no more, and we have borne their iniquities. We remained here in exile, bearing the iniquities of our fathers. And do not be surprised that the prophet suddenly begins to speak in their name, serving here as their mouth. He says, look, David too said, do not remember against us former iniquities. He is not speaking of himself individually, he is speaking of the people of the exile. There are other expressions where "our fathers sinned and are no more" appears. Yirmiyahu the prophet said, our fathers sinned and are no more, and we have borne their iniquities. Again he serves as a mouth for the people of the exile. So here too, Yeshayahu serves as a mouth for those people of the exile, and he says, therefore justice is far from us, righteousness does not overtake us, we wait for light, and behold darkness.
The Malbim explains, the Radak explains, that the Holy One, blessed be He, judges us measure for measure. Since we distanced ourselves from peace, the way of peace they have not known, there is no justice in their circuits, we did things that were not upright, therefore justice is far from us. We did not conduct justice, so the Holy One, blessed be He, also does not conduct justice to exact payment from our enemies, to judge us in righteousness. If among us there were justice, law and righteousness, then the Holy One, blessed be He, would exact payment and judge in righteousness our enemies and oppressors. And righteousness does not overtake us. Says the Radak, it is among the attributes of the Creator to visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons. When? When they hold to the deeds of their fathers in their hands. If the sons are a continuation of the deeds of the fathers, then the Holy One, blessed be He, visits upon them also the iniquity of the fathers. Seemingly this is not justice. What, my own iniquities are enough for me, why do I need also those of my father and grandfather? Rather, the holy Arizal explains, that the grandchildren and great-grandchildren are actually already reincarnations of the fathers. And then it turns out that the right people receive the punishment. Since they themselves sinned, then you wonder to think that they sinned and are no more. They are not gone, they are here. They returned in reincarnation, and now in the third generation they are punished for what their fathers sinned, because it is really they themselves. And as is known, the holy Arizal brings that what is written "fathers" in the Torah, many times hints at reincarnation. Yes? Many times it hints at reincarnation. When it is written, for example, a righteous man son of a wicked man. A righteous man who suffers, what is "son of a wicked man"? That in the previous incarnation he was wicked. His father is considered his previous incarnation. A righteous man son of a wicked man, a righteous man who suffers. I will not elaborate on this, on the doctrine of reincarnations; through it one can understand God's providence in the world. In any case, behold, you see that righteousness does not overtake us. And why? Because God visited upon us the iniquity of our fathers, and we still hold to their deeds, and consequently we pay for what we ourselves sinned in previous incarnations. The Radak does not mention reincarnations here; I only added this incidentally to the words of the Radak.
The Malbim says, we say therefore justice is far from us. What is the definition of justice? Says the Malbim, justice is what God pays out according to our deeds and merits. That is what is called what we are owed by justice. What the Holy One, blessed be He, gives not according to law, beyond what we are owed, is called righteousness. Just as I give charity to a poor man, I owe him nothing, and yet I give to him. This is called righteousness. So regarding justice, which arrives according to merits, they say justice is far from us. Why far? Because indeed we have no merits. As we just explained, we have no merits. So for it to reach us in justice, in law, justice is far from us, we have no merits by which we would receive in judgment. Fine, in any case, what will you say about righteousness? Righteousness is given even if not owed. Why, why does righteousness not reach us in any case? Seemingly even if we do not deserve it, righteousness comes from lovingkindness. Says the Malbim, although righteousness is not according to a person's deed, and although it is not measured by whether we are worthy or unworthy, one cannot say that it is far from us because we do not deserve it, for righteousness pursues a person even if he is unworthy. That is the very essence of righteousness. Says the Malbim, righteousness does not overtake us, why? Righteousness does not overtake us, because we flee from it. What can be done? Says the Holy One, blessed be He, I want to bestow lovingkindness upon you, not according to law, but we flee from it, we, as it were, do not want to sit in its shade at all.
We wait for light, we expect the light of salvation, and behold darkness. Let us hope that at least there will be brightness for us. Brightness (nogah), for the brightness exists even in the time of darkness. But that does not help, because we walk in gloom. We are in the state of gloom, for gloom is worse than darkness. What does this mean? The Malbim explains that light is anything that is a source of light in itself. Light's definition is always that it is a source of light of itself. Like the sun. The sun is a source of light. By contrast, nogah, what we today call nogah (glow), means some halo around, and actually nogah is something that goes forth from the source of light. For example, what the moon gives is called nogah. Why is it nogah? Because the moon does not have its own light. The moon is a mirror, it reflects the light of the sun. And now he says, look, incidentally, also in Yechezkel. In Yechezkel it is written, like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness (nogah) round about. Why nogah? Because indeed the rainbow has no light of its own. The rainbow is a reflection of the sun's light, and it reflects light in this fan-like way of colors. That is to say, it has no light of its own, but reflects another light. So here you see, regarding the rainbow it says nogah. Regarding the moon it is fitting to say nogah. When the light of the sun is absent, You make darkness and it is night. There is a state of darkness. But then there is still nogah. Because the moon still shines. And then one can still see something by means of the light, though not its own light, but the light of the moon. Says the Malbim, but when there is gloom, real darkness, then even the nogah of the moon is gone. And then there is a state of complete gloom. And then he says, understand now what is written here. Here it is very orderly. He says, there was darkness, we hoped for light. Instead of light there was darkness. But fine, in darkness we said there is the moon. And the moon gives nogah. And then he says, we hoped for brightness, that this would be even in the darkness. But instead of that came gloom. Gloom, like the verse written in Amos, is not the day of God darkness and not light, gloom with no brightness in it? That is to say, when there is gloom then even the nogah is not seen. And really what they mean to say is that the light was denied us completely. To the point that we are already in a state of gloom, and even a little nogah from the moon, that too was not left to us.
What does this cause? We grope like the blind along a wall, and like those without eyes we grope; we stumble at noon as at twilight, in the dark places like the dead. We grope like the blind along a wall. The blind man, when he wants to go from place to place, needs to grope. We were like the blind, and here we speak of blind in the eyes of the intellect, yes? We grope like the blind along a wall. As it is written about the affliction that would be, so it is brought in the prophecy of rebuke, and you shall grope at noon. It is noon, there is light. But you are in the state of a blind man, groping, feeling about. So what is written here, negasheshah (we grope), the meaning is from the sense of feeling about. We were groping like the blind at noon. And like those without eyes we grope. Like people who have no eyes, so we were groping. At twilight, in the dark places like the dead. At noon like twilight. What does "like twilight" mean? Like night. In the dark places like the dead. What is ashmanim (dark places)? It is an expression that appears only once in Tanach. By the way, look, in the old printings of the Tanach there is the Masorah. You will see, for example, ב, meaning two in the Masorah, that it appears two more times in Tanach. ג, three in the Masorah. If you see ל, ל means "there is none," among the Yemenites or Sefaradim. It means it is unique. None, as Rashi often writes, and I found no companion for it in Scripture. And it has no companion in Scripture. So we have a very difficult problem, because I want to see the interpretation of the word, and I have no concordance to show me this in other places so that from the context I could understand what is being discussed. And therefore each one tries to break down the word and see what the word hints at.
So one says that it is from the root asham (guilt). By contrast, Rashi brings that Dunash interpreted it from the sense of shemen (fat). Ashmanim from the sense of shemanim (fats). How, so what is the aleph doing here? Do not be surprised, in the holy tongue many times we see an extra aleph. Like nachal achzav (a deceptive stream). What is achzav? From the sense of kazav (deceit), whose waters do not deceive. What is achzav? The aleph is added. The people passed through the way of the atarim (the spies). What is atarim? Atarim from the sense of tarim (spies). A place where the spies of the land go. So here you see an added aleph. Or hiznichu (they neglected), we see it written ha'aznichu. And more, there are quite a few places where we see there is an added aleph, so here too. It is as if written bishmanim like the dead, and the meaning is ba'ashmanim, from the sense of shemanim (fats). What is the meaning? He says, among the ashmanim, the meaning being among the living, we are considered like the dead. The dead man shrivels and is in a bad state, right? He dries up. By contrast a living man, his face is vital, his body is alive, he has fat in his body. So we were among the ashmanim like the dead. That is to say, like a walking dead man. Alive, plump, but like the dead, that is how we were. Groping like the blind.
By contrast, the Targum Yonatan explains what the Radak brought as the first interpretation, that it is from the sense of a lock. "Held in gloom as the graves hold the faces of the dead." So what is the meaning of "in the dark places like the dead"? Shut up like the dead. It is not entirely clear to me how the Targum Yonatan finds this in the word ashmanim. That is to say, whether he explains it according to context, or whether the connection to a lock is found within the word itself. Because asham and shemen we see are connected to the word. By contrast "shut up," it is not so clear where we find a word with a similar or close conjugation to this, but in any case so the Targum Yonatan explains, that it is from the sense of a lock.
The Malbim explains, continuing from what we saw earlier, how he described the magnitude of the darkness in which they walk. He said that they are in darkness, and not only in darkness, for sometimes there is nogah, but even nogah we do not have. To the point that there is truly a state of gloom. He says, come and see, besides its being gloom and darkness, we are also blind. Woe and alas. This is blow upon blow. Because there is anyway darkness and I still see, so what will that help you? It is total gloom. What does it help us anyway? Because if there is darkness, then there is someone who perhaps can still see and still recognizes the thing. Or perhaps let us give another example. Say there is darkness, no one sees. But I once saw. And once there was light. So I more or less know the way. Since the place is already familiar to me. I know here there should be more or less a turn, there the door is on this side. A person who once saw, though he now has darkness, this darkness does not lock everything before him, but he still has help from what he remembers from the past. So he says, come and see, besides there having been gloom and darkness here, we are also blind. And the blindness, the blind here, says the Malbim, we lack the light of salvation. Salvation always symbolizes some light, some ray of light in the gloom. It always expresses salvation. We are in a state of complete darkness, we do not even have a ray of light. Divine abundance from above, we do not see even something that hints at it. And we are also not worthy to receive this light, even if it existed in reality. Because if there were now light, what would it help, you are blind. So that is to say there is here blow upon blow. We are not worthy of the divine light, and even if divine light were to come, we would have no vessels with which to receive it. That is to say, our situation is so bad, to the point that it is both darkness and our eyes are blind.
Now he adds and says, and like those without eyes we grope. Here he brings in what I explained earlier. What is "like those without eyes we grope"? Like a person who never had eyes in his life, we grope. For if we had eyes again, then, now when I walk, then as I said before, I still remember, something remains for me of the direction, I still know something. But we are like those who never had eyes. Like people who never had eyes, and consequently we grope and have no way to know the entrance of the city. He says, behold see, the blind man who walks by day, someone else can still show him the way. And therefore the blind man recites the blessing, Blessed are You, God, who forms the luminaries. Who forms the luminaries, what do the luminaries help you? He never saw luminaries in his life. It helps me, because the one who sees leads me in the place where I do not see. So then, the blind man can indeed be helped by others when there is light. But by contrast here, where he is both blind and there is darkness, then this reality also cannot conceive of there being a light of salvation, so he says we still remained blind. And therefore when there is a situation where we are both blind and there is darkness, then even someone else cannot show me. And then consequently, in the dark places like the dead. We lie in a lock like the dead who cannot move at all. If so, it turns out that there is really here addition upon addition upon addition. Both darkness, and no nogah, and gloom, and we grope like the blind, and there were never eyes, and through this we stumble at noon as if it were night, and consequently we are locked in our grave like the dead.
We all growl like bears, and moan sorely like doves; we wait for justice, but there is none, for salvation, but it is far from us. We all growl like bears. We growl and moan, this is a language of wailing. Like the bears, who mourn with a sound of moaning and wailing. Like the dove, which is a moaning dove. So too like doves we moan sorely. This symbolizes the wailing, it symbolizes the magnitude of the bad situation in which we are. We wait for justice, but there is none. We would expect that the Holy One, blessed be He, would exact payment and execute justice on our enemies, but there is none. And the Holy One, blessed be He, did not judge them. So the Radak explains. The Malbim explains that here the halves of the verse are parallel. We all growl like bears, we wait for justice but there is none. And like doves we moan sorely, we wait for salvation but it is far from us. What does this mean? Says the Malbim, at first we moan like a bear. A bear comes with strength, with force. So too we expect justice. We explained earlier that justice is what is owed to me according to law. That is to say, see the magnitude of the impudence and the magnitude of the lack of understanding of their negative situation, that they were still certain they were worthy of having justice done for them. That they still had not at all grasped the terrible situation they were in, to the point that the Holy One, blessed be He, has fierce anger toward them, and they still have complaint after complaint, Master of the world, why do You not do justice to our enemies? So at first we growl like a bear, with strength, with force. And this is, we all growl like bears, why? The continuation is, we wait for justice. We would expect justice according to law, with a strong hand, we are worthy. But then we discover, but there is none. What is "but there is none"? Because there are no deeds in us. We suddenly discover, sir, you are not worthy, you are not fit for God to do justice for you. And therefore, by the way, a person must not request judgment from above. Master of the world, You saw what so-and-so did to me, Master of the world, You exact payment from him. First of all, the Holy One, blessed be He, is not, with a thousand thousand distinctions, like some dog that you sic on someone. Settle the score with him. What is this thing? Does the Holy One, blessed be He, not know what He is doing? Is He waiting for instructions from you? You give Him operating instructions? What to do, against whom to act? One thing. Second thing, since there is justice in the land, you need to turn to a court. And in the court they will act. And if you turn to the Master of the world, you are as if saying, Master of the world, I am surely righteous. I am surely righteous, and it only remains now to exact payment from him. Ah, you are righteous? Let us examine your ledgers. Let us see what your situation is. The most terrible fear of every self-employed person, that the tax authority will put him in an audit sample. Let us check, what is this check? Wait, where is it recorded? Ah, this is only a deposit. Yes, a deposit from whom? For what? In short, there are people, whoever knows the Katz confectionery in Bnei Brak, that is a man who had a tax audit, suffered a heart attack, and that same day was his funeral. Terribly, terribly. So you understand what a fear of whom? Of the tax authority. And here it is the Master of the world saying, let us examine his ledgers. By the way, the same value applies also to one who prays alone. Are you such a righteous man that you do not need a minyan? You do not need it, you can do it alone, right? Let us see your ledgers. What, what are your merits that you think you have such a highway route to the Master of the world? You do not need other people, you do not need a minyan, you have a direct line with the Holy One, blessed be He. Let us see. And then woe to the person whose ledgers will be examined. And therefore he says, when we came at first, we thought judgment is owed to us. And then it became clear to us, but there is none. But there is none, we are not fit, we are not worthy, there are no deeds in us. And as a result, like doves we moan sorely. We no longer came like bears to whom justice is owed, judgment is owed, exact payment from them. Rather we came now like doves moaning sorely. A weak dove, Master of the world, there are no deeds in us, we are not worthy, we are not fit, but we answer, moaning sorely, a voice of faint answering. On what basis? What we mentioned earlier, on the basis of lovingkindness. On the basis of righteousness. Master of the world, we are not worthy, but do righteousness with us. And righteousness, we said, is done even to one who is not fit. But he says, salvation is far from us. Salvation, we explained, exists in reality, because the Holy One, blessed be He, is abundant in salvation, and we explained that the Holy One, blessed be He, His salvation is always present, since it is a state of righteousness, and righteousness is given even to one who is not fit. But it is far from us, why? Because of the evil of our deeds. And that is the next verse. For our transgressions are multiplied before You.