Before we begin the words that Chizkiyahu says, let us first note that what he says here is expressed in somewhat deep language, language meant to convey the greatness and loftiness of the matters he wishes to speak about, and therefore we will try to explain the words according to the Malbim. "I said, in the noontime of my days I shall go to the gates of the grave, I have been deprived of the rest of my years." "I said, in the noontime of my days I go..." Anyone who reads this certainly understands the words according to their simple meaning, as people today express it, that a person "passed in the prime of his days." "Passed in the prime of his days" means that he died young. But listen and hear how the Malbim explains it. The Malbim explains, in principle, the concept of time. It is well known that this is a subject that has been discussed a great deal. What in fact is time? Has any of you ever met time? Is it something you can touch, see, smell? And what is the very essence of time? Is time something someone invented as a concept, or does it exist in nature? The Ramban states a principle that it took Einstein 800 years to arrive at, but in the end he too reached it. The Ramban writes that time, says the Ramban, applies only where matter applies. A place where matter does not apply, time does not apply. This means that the essence of time is really an abstract essence, but it is an essence that operates upon a physical thing. That is, if there is a physical thing, then time applies to it. What in fact does time do, for example? The wearing away of the thing. Every day that passes over it, this thing gradually wears away and undergoes change, that is an example of the essence of time. But if there is in fact no matter in nature at all, no matter whatsoever, then time does not apply either. By the way, based on this theory particle accelerators are built today, and based on this theory the whole concept of the atom, as is known. In reality, by the way, according to Einstein's determination, if for example they were to take an infant and fly him at the speed of light in a spaceship, and leave his twin brother here on earth, Einstein says that in ten years you land the spaceship, and you will see two twin brothers, one a day old and the other ten years old. The one who stayed here on earth grew up. And the one who was in the spaceship, Einstein claims that at the speed of light time comes to zero. That is, something that reaches the speed of light, time simply stands still for it. This is entirely theoretical, since there is nothing that can bring it to the speed of light. There is nothing that can be brought to the speed of light, and according to what Einstein says it is also not possible, because a thing brought to the speed of light would turn from mass into energy. It would really already turn into some kind of light waves, it would no longer be a material thing. At the speed of light the existence of matter does not apply. But nowadays in any case, practically speaking, people who reach a high speed, two Mach, I am speaking of the speed of sound, or people who fly in a spaceship at a very high speed, their clock begins to slow. It does not run at the speed at which our clock runs. That is, you actually see that the concept of time is dependent on the concept of space and place. It depends on matter, and in a place where there is no matter, as the Ramban says, there is no time. By the way, this is also an answer to that question that many ask: what did the Holy One, Blessed be He, do before He created the world? A week before, a month before, a year, a million years. It does not even begin, because the world is matter. Before there was matter there was no time. From where does time begin? Time always depends on the existence of matter. When there is no existence of matter, there is also no existence of time.
Now, when a person is alive, moving, when there is, so to speak, the movement of life, not necessarily his own, but let us take the example of a person since that is what he is speaking about here, then in fact we say that time is in motion. When the person is already dead, then we would say that time has gone silent, but we still cannot say that there is no time. There is a corpse, there is a body, that is still matter. When this body decomposes, let us say nothing remains of it, then we would say time has come to zero. Time has no meaning anymore, if there is no matter, time has no meaning. So now, according to this, let us explain what he says. "I said, in the noontime of my days I shall go to the gates of the grave." Chizkiyahu says, I thought that in the "noontime of my days" (demi is from the root of silence, damam), when time will be silent for me, and we said, when is time silent? When the person is a corpse. He has no movement, time is not dynamic, time, so to speak, stands still, there is time but it is in the aspect of "the noontime (silence) of my days." "I shall go." What is meant by "in the noontime of my days I shall go to the gates of the grave"? He is saying, you understand from here that he has not yet reached the state of absolute nothingness, he is still at the gates of the grave, he has only just died. As it were, he reached only the gate. He has just now passed away. He says, I thought that I would already reach such a state that I am in the "silence of my days," meaning that my days would be in the aspect of being silent, quiet, not moving, for when a person is alive his days are in motion, and when a person dies, as it were, his days are already silent. And then I said I shall go to the gates of the grave with the silence of my days, meaning before the grave wears me out, the grave that wears out the body, so that my days would, as it were, be silent. But after the grave has already worn me out, I will no longer be at the gates of the grave, rather the grave will bring me to a state of absolute nothingness, so to speak it will decay the body and there will be nothing, and then time, as it were, will stand still. And not only stand still but, as it were, come to zero, time has no meaning when there is no matter. So, as it were, relative to me, although general time continues to move, but if I, as it were, check my own clock, my clock has come to zero, because that is it, I have already come to zero from my own standpoint, I am no longer matter, there is nothing, decayed, nothing remains. "I have been deprived of the rest of my years." Consequently the rest of my years will be lacking to me. For if so and so many more years had been decreed for me and I have now reached a state of absolute nothingness, then there is also no time, so "I have been deprived," I have been made lacking of the rest of my years. As it were, those years that I was supposed to live have now been subtracted from my life.
"I said, I shall not see Kah, Kah in the land of the living, I shall no longer look upon man among the inhabitants of the world of cessation." There is an addition here in Rashi, I want to look at it first. "I said, I shall not see Kah," I shall no longer use the name Kah. The name Yud-Kei. "In the land of the living." Why only in the land of the living? Because only the living use it. But the dead are not permitted to. As it says, "The dead do not praise Kah." As it were, this is a name that the dead person is unable to mention. Therefore if a person met some figure and hears from him the name Yud-Kei, it is written in Sefer Chasidim that he should know it is not from a dead person. And if a dead person appeared to him in a dream and said the name Yud-Kei, he should know that it is not the dead person. It is a demon or something of that sort, but it is not the dead person. Because the dead person is unable to say the name Yud-Kei. "The dead do not praise Kah." It is a law for the dead that one never mentions a name of two letters. So I said I shall not see Kah, I already said that I will no longer...
The name Kah will no longer apply to me. That is, I am about to transition to a state of death. There is another explanation, brought by the Radak in the name of his father, that "I shall not see Kah" means I shall not see the dwelling of Kah. That is, the Beit HaMikdash. As it were, I will no longer be able to come to the Beit HaMikdash. "I said, I shall not see Kah." Which Beit HaMikdash? The Beit HaMikdash here, the lower one. "I shall not see Kah in the land of the living," which is the dwelling of Hashem here in this world.
"Among the inhabitants of chadel" (chedel), chadel meaning like keves/kesev (lamb), salma/simla (garment), among the transposed forms. So "inhabitants of chadel" means like inhabitants of cheled (the world). And why is it called chadel? It comes to mark, to symbolize this world which is a world of cessation. Yes? It is a world whose end is to reach cessation. In contrast, the spiritual reality exists forever. But "for six thousand years the world will stand and one will be destroyed," right? The seventh millennium will be destroyed. So therefore it is called chadel, from the term cessation (chidalon).
Good, let us see what the Malbim says. He now describes, says the Malbim, the state he would be in after death. He says, I said that then, after death, I shall not see Kah. The Malbim explains: the intellect's perception when it is still joined to the body is completely different from what the intellect perceives when it is separate, when it is parted from the body, when matter does not limit it. That is, if you were to ask a person what his perception of the Holy One, Blessed be He, is while within a body, it would be something completely different from his perception when he has already left the body and his soul is more spiritual and capable altogether of grasping spiritual concepts.
Now, at present he has no possibility of grasping this. Why? Because it is exactly like trying to explain to a blind person what the color white is. What the color green is. What the color red is. Someone blind from the womb, from birth. What will you explain to him about what white is? White like milk, he will tell you that is wet. No, no, that is not related. White, white, I tell you white, like snow, then he will tell you that is cold. No, not related to cold. It is... Why does he not understand? Because there is no such concept of color with him at all. The moment there is no concept at all, then he does not even have a starting point. For all our understanding depends on something prior. When I want to explain something to you, do you know what this resembles? Do you know what a cracker resembles? Are you familiar with bread? Imagine that they dried it and made it thinner and it became crisp and... you have a beginning of perception, because bread you know. And what it is to dry it, you know. So I can begin to speak, because our world is a world of comparisons. I want to explain something, I compare it to something else. But if I want to explain to you an additional dimension that does not apply at all, that is unfamiliar to your consciousness, I cannot explain it to you. Because I have nothing to compare it to.
Therefore, whenever one wants to depict spiritual concepts, the Sefirot, what does one speak of? Lights. But what, are there lights above? Heaven forbid. It is written that one who thinks so and reflects so is corporealizing the Divine. "You saw no image whatsoever." This is a warning, one of the warnings that they warn people who engage in Kabbalistic matters that, Heaven forbid, they should not corporealize the matters, the spiritual concepts. Not to think that there is a hand and a foot and light there and... rather what? Since we have no perception at all, they tell me: what is the highest abstract concept you can understand? That is light. Because light is a somewhat spiritual concept, since it is a thing that is not tangible. Everything that I explain to you, I say to you earthenware, then you know, here I touch, this is a plate. Wood, I touch, this is physical. But who has ever grasped light? Since this is so, then when I want to depict something the highest, the highest thing you can understand is light. But do not think that it is talking there about lights. So too here.
"I said, I shall not see Kah." The meaning: I will no longer see Hashem in the conception and perception and understanding by which I see Him today while I am within a physical body. For my perception today is a coarse one, of a person who is within a body, a person who is in darkness. And then, "Kah in the land of the living." Which Kah will I not see? Hashem as He truly is, "Kah in the land of the living." As one grasps Hashem the way a person sees Him in the land of the living. The meaning is: here in this world we grasp and perceive Hashem, may He be blessed, in a manner completely different from His true reality. "I shall not see Kah" that is in the land of the living, that I will no longer see. Rather which Kah will I perceive? The Kah of the spiritual world, of the truer perception, of a person after he has already parted from the body.
For we explained several times that the body is a screen. The body is a murky matter that creates a separation between us and Hashem. What separates, what causes us not to grasp the Divine in its full essence? It is the body, it is the physical part of a person. The more a person elevates his body, meaning purifies it, he can grasp the Divine without screens and partitions. But the more physical the body is and immersed in desires, so too his spiritual perception diminishes, becomes dwarfed. So I said I shall not see Kah, I will no longer see Kah, which Kah? Kah as one grasps Him in the limited form in the land of the living. Rather I will now see Hashem at a much higher spiritual level, because I am already about to part from the body. I already said, I am about to part from the body, I am about to die.
"I shall no longer look upon man among the inhabitants of the world of cessation." Another matter: the souls, what are called the intellects, after death, do not attain sensory perception as we said. Their perception is an intellectual perception. That is, when I see here, I need the organ of sight in order to see. I need eyes. When I taste, I need the organ of the sense of taste in order to taste. When I speak, I need the organ of speech. A person whose organs of speech are impaired will not be able to speak, even though nothing is impaired in his soul, nothing is lacking. Therefore, when his soul departs from the body, he will indeed be able to communicate with the other souls, for example. But he was mute. Mute is a problem of the organ, here. The organ, his speech, is impaired. But the soul in itself has no deficiency, it is whole.
So he says, it emerges that when we, for example, as souls, as separated from the body, perceive one another, is it in the same manner? Certainly not. We are in another essence, in another mode of being. And this is what he says, "I shall no longer look upon man among the inhabitants of the world of cessation." I will no longer look upon you, upon the man outside of me, as a person who is here on earth looks, the inhabitants of cheled. A person who is here on earth grasps his fellow in a certain manner, sees him, perceives him in a certain manner. But as a soul, all perception is entirely different. For example, it could be that I now grasp you as a person foreign to me, while as a soul I will suddenly see that you are part of my soul and your rectification depends on my rectification. I only give this as an example, but there could be many more vast and immense differences in how one soul grasps its fellow as a soul, compared to how a person grasps his fellow as a body. And this is what he says, I thought I am already about to depart from the body, I am no longer remaining here in this world, I already felt that I am on the verge of death. And consequently I shall no longer look upon man among the inhabitants of the world of cessation, I will no longer contemplate a person as one who dwells in cheled, as a person living in this world, as he contemplates a person. Rather I will look upon things in a spiritual manner, as a soul grasps another soul.
"My generation has journeyed and been removed from me like a shepherd's tent, I have folded up my life like a weaver, from the loom He cuts me off, from day to night You will finish me." Good, here we must have the Malbim. After a combination of so many unclear words, let us see what the Malbim explains here. Says the Malbim, "My generation has journeyed and been removed from me." "Dori" (my generation), the Malbim explains, the span that encircles the entire duration of a person's life is called a dor. From what term is this dor? Says the Malbim, it is like kadur (a ball, a sphere). A ball is an encirclement. It is like, by the way, how do you say "to turn" in Arabic? Dur. Dur dur, right? Dawwar, right? Turning. Encirclement. That is the concept of dori. The meaning is to encircle, to revolve. Dori, meaning the encirclement of time, the years of a generation. When the person has already turned into a state of expiring, or even his expiring is already decaying, then, as it were, his generation ceases. The reality of the generation, that which overlays him, ceases.
Says the Malbim, we shall wish to illustrate this, it is like a tent that overlays, if we say, let us give an example, let us imagine that people and their lives are like a long strip that began, say, from Adam HaRishon and advances generation after generation, generation after generation. The years of a generation resemble a tent that journeys forward. As it were, now this is this generation, now more are being born, this is the next generation, another generation, it moves and journeys forward. And those over whom the tent had been overlaying until now, what about them? They have already died, and the tent no longer overlays them. The years of the generation have already advanced. They remain, as it were, they journey backward and the tent journeys forward. And these are new people who are born and yet another generation is now above them. And those who have already passed away, this tent, as it were, has already passed them by. This tent no longer overlays them. And this is what he says, "My generation has journeyed and been removed from me." This tent, which as it were marks the generation, as it were marks whoever exists now in the world, has already journeyed. It has already advanced. "Removed from me," meaning my existence has already become exposed, for if the tent does not overlay me, then consequently I have already become an exposed reality, meaning my years have already passed. The days of my generation have passed. My generation, as it were, has already ended. I am now exposed, I am, as it were, without a tent.
"I have folded up my life like a weaver, from the loom He cuts me off." "Kipadti" (I have folded up), the Malbim explains, is from the term, not from the term as they say today "to be particular" (lehakpid), but rather the meaning is from the term "I bound." He brings several examples for this, "kafda bah," that is another verse, or in every place the Targum explains kitzur (shortening) as kafda. Yes? So here too, kipadti, the Malbim explains, means I bound like a weaver, my life. The metaphor, as it were, says the Malbim, describes a person's time like a garment, to which each time they add another thread and another thread and another thread. When the weaving is finished, the garment is complete, and with that, as it were, the person's life is also finished. A person's life, as it were, is compared to the weaving of a garment. From the moment he is born, that is the first thread, and thus little by little another thread and another thread and another filament and another thread, and it is bound and sewn, until the last thread, that closes it, that seals the garment, the strike with the hammer, with that, as it were, the person passes away. Life is as though composed of thin threads woven one into another. So too it is brought regarding Iyov. Iyov mentions this matter too, that life is bound to weaving, as it were, like weaving that a person weaves at every moment, another part of his life. So he says, I have folded and bound my life from these threads, which are in the aspect of seconds and moments. Every moment, every second is another thread, another binding, like the weaver. And this thread, as it were, this weaving is not yet complete. This garment is not yet whole. That is, I still have another chapter of life to live.
But You, "from the loom He cuts me off." By means of the meagerness, the poverty in which I find myself, meaning the illness that struck me, He cuts me off, as it were the Holy One, Blessed be He, completes this garment in a short time. It is a long garment, I still have much until I finish weaving it. But from the great meagerness that I see I am in, meaning my illness, which means that I am about to depart from the world, that means that Hashem is about to complete this garment in a single moment. As it were this garment will be completed and finished, and this then hints at and symbolizes his passing.
"From the loom He cuts me off, from day to night You will finish me." Something that was supposed to take long days and years until I finish the garment, as it were, meaning the fabric of my life, "from day to night." "From day to night" means such a very short span of time, You finish me, He completes this garment. As it were my life will be completed with that.
"I calmed myself until morning like a lion, so He breaks all my bones, from day to night You will finish me." In contrast, says the Malbim, I strengthened myself in the night against the meagerness that we mentioned, that he reached a state of weakness, and this weakness he feels, this is about to finish the garment, as it were, in a single moment. So "I calmed myself until morning like a lion," I thought I would be like a lion, I would overcome. But "so He breaks all my bones." That very lion which I thought would symbolize overcoming the illness, it itself breaks all my bones. What is the intent of the matter? The Malbim explains, that in addition to his illness a fever was added to him. Fever is a heat that a person has. Now sometimes this heat that a person has gives him a kind of sensation of strength. Because this heat, as it were, nourishes the body and gives him a kind of sensation of strength. A person who has a fever also does not need to eat. The Gemara says that heat nourishes the body, it sustains the body, he has no appetite to eat, no desire to eat. Because the heat, as it were, feeds him. So it is like what is called operating at high temperatures. He feels that, as it were, here he has some kind of strength, he has heat. So "I calmed myself until morning like a lion," I thought, if so, this means I am already about to overcome the illness. But then I came to realize that like a lion "so He breaks all my bones." This lion, this fever, is not internal heat, it is not your own, rather it is like a foreign fire. It is heat added to the body's heat. For sometimes when a person reaches a state, for example, before death, there is a drop in the body's temperature. There is a state where the body gradually becomes cold. Grows cold. And then the moment I felt heat, I said, oh, this means I am beginning to overcome like a lion. But then it became clear to me it is not the body's heat that returned to me. It is external heat, it is the fever that grips me. And then, if so, it is a heat of, this is not a lion that comes, as it were, to strengthen my body, but rather it is a lion that breaks all my bones. It is a lion that will only break my body, it is a foreign fire. Until in this state I think to myself, "from day to night You will finish me." I will no longer survive. From today until night, such a very short span of time, this garment will already be completed as we spoke of in the previous verse, meaning my life will be completed and I will reach death.
"Like a swift, a crane, so do I chirp, I moan like a dove, my eyes are lifted upward, Hashem, oppression is upon me, be surety for me." "Like a swift, a crane, so do I chirp." The Malbim explains, how within him, as it were, within Chizkiyahu there were two opposing conceptions, as it were, two opposing ideas. On one hand he already felt that this is it, he is about to leave the world. This garment is about to be finished, he is about to finish his role here. And then he imagined himself like a sus and an agur. Sus and agur, this is not speaking of the neighing horse (sus), but rather it speaks of two kinds of birds. This appears in another place, it is written "and a tor and a sis and an agur." The meaning is two kinds of birds. And what is special about these two kinds of birds, in the Malbim's words, is that they are from the family of the journeying birds. What are called today migratory birds. Here it is written sus, there it is written sis. Says the Malbim, it is the same sus, the sis is one and the same. Sus is sis, it is the same thing, it is the same matter. Yes. So "like a swift, a crane, so do I chirp." After all, the horse (sus) does not chirp. Who chirps? It is the birds. And he did not connect the horse animal (sus) with the bird, what is the connection? Therefore he explains that this is speaking of two kinds of birds, and so too the other commentators explain, that the sus and the agur here speak of two kinds of birds.
So just as the sus and the agur, these two birds, migrate. When do they migrate? In winter. Where do they migrate to? To warmer countries. These are the migratory birds. So he says, so too, when I felt my illness, I felt like a sus and an agur that sense the coming of winter. What do the sus and the agur sense at the coming of winter? That here death approaches. For after all he is unable to survive there in the cold lands. When there is snow, when there is cold, everything, as it were, enters a freeze, and then death, as it were, would envelop it too. What is it forced to do? To migrate. To go to warm lands. He says, it chirps and journeys to the warm lands, as it were seeking life. So too I felt "like a swift, a crane, so do I chirp." Like one over whom the wings of death are already spread, I am already about to reach the lands of life. What are the warm lands? We will speak now of above. I am about to connect to the Infinite One, Blessed be He, I am about to die.
Now pay attention, the Malbim says that the halves of the verse are parallel. "The halves of the verse are parallel" is a method by which the Malbim explains many verses. In Iyov this is very accepted, in other places too the Malbim follows this line. In Yeshayahu he did not bring it much, but in Yeshayahu too it is found. "The halves of the verse are parallel," that is, if the verse contains within it four clauses, for example, then "the halves of the verse are parallel" means that clause one and three constitute a direct continuation, and clause two and four constitute a direct continuation of one another. That is, clause one opens, its conclusion is three. Clause two opens, its conclusion is four. So if we now wish to divide this verse into four parts: "Like a swift, a crane, so do I chirp, I moan like a dove. My eyes are lifted upward, Hashem, oppression is upon me, be surety for me." So if we now wish to join the halves of the verse and establish that they are parallel to one another: "Like a swift, a crane, so do I chirp" - "my eyes are lifted upward." "I moan like a dove" - "Hashem, oppression is upon me, be surety for me." These are the parallel halves of the verse, and now let us explain how he expounds it, how he explains the simple meaning of the verse. "Like a swift, a crane, so do I chirp," I, as it were, chirp like a sus, like those birds that go to the warm places, where? "My eyes are lifted upward." So I already feel that I am about to arrive above. I migrate here from my place, this is a place that death has reached, I will not remain here. "I moan like a dove, Hashem, oppression is upon me, be surety for me." But on the other hand, as we said that he had here two opposing ideas, two opposing conceptions within him. On the other side he says "I moan like a dove." Like the dove that guards its nest, it does not move from it, so now I feel as though death is coming to rob me of my nest, and I am like moaning as a dove and crying out, and what do I cry out? Hashem, oppression is upon me, be surety for me. Hashem, Master of the World, see, they want to rob me. Be surety for me, meaning be a guarantor for me, save me from that harm that is about to happen to me.
"What can I speak, for He has both said it to me and done it, I will move gently all my years over the bitterness of my soul." Now he describes that as his thought thus wanders between these two things, on one hand he feels that he is already about to die, on the other hand he cries out to Hashem, please Hashem give me more life. So he says, what can I speak? For seemingly I pray in vain when I ask that Hashem be surety for me, that Hashem save me from the death coming to rob me. For He said it to me and He did it. Hashem already said, you shall die and not live. And if so, why are you surprised? "And He has done it." The reality that you are experiencing now, Hashem fulfilled what He said. That is, this is not a surprise, this is not something unnatural. Hashem sent a prophet to you in advance, said it, and He did it.
"I will move gently all my years over the bitterness of my soul." But he returns and says, I will move gently all my years over the bitterness of my soul. The meaning: in my thought I have already skipped over all my years. And I have also wandered and skipped over the bitterness of my soul. As it were, all the years that still remained for me to live, I move gently over them. "Edadeh" is from the term of skipping, yes? Like "I walk gently (edadeh) to the House of God." As it were, the years that still remained for me to live, I have already stepped past them, I have already, as it were, skipped over them, as though they are no longer in reality. And I have also skipped over the bitterness of my soul. That is, there is a stage where, when a person still has hope, then he has very great bitterness over what is happening to him. And there is a stage of acceptance, of despair. At this stage the bitterness also already leaves him too. He is already, as it were, this is like acceptance, that is it, it is over, it is finished, this is it, this is the reality and... stop crying over it. So he says, with me I have already reached such a state that I move gently over the bitterness of my soul. That is, already as if after despair, out of acceptance of the evil of fate, of the fact that I am supposed to depart from the world, I have also skipped over this stage too, already over the bitterness of my soul. Also over the bitterness that gripped me before, as it were over this too I have already skipped. Also with this I am already in a state of acceptance. So one thing, on one hand, I move gently over all my years, meaning I understand that I am skipping over the years that remain for me, that is, I will no longer live them. And also the great sorrow I had over this, over this too I already managed, as they say, to make peace with it and to step and skip over this too.
"Hashem, over them they will live, and in all of them is the life of my spirit, and You will restore me to health and give me life." But then, Hashem said over them, over my years, that they shall live. "Hashem, over them they will live." I indeed despaired, but the Holy One, Blessed be He, already gave my portion in life. "And in all of them is the life of my spirit." Hashem said over all of them, all the things that fill my years, Hashem said they are the life of my spirit. They shall be ready to give life to my spirit. By what? "And You will restore me to health and give me life." He says, until now it seemed to me as though You had restored me to health and given me life. The meaning, as it were, everything seemed to me until now like a dream. Pardon, as if You had made me healthy (or: made me dream). But on the other hand, and give me life. What has now become clear to me? That the Holy One, Blessed be He, gave me life in place of death. That is, until now it becomes clear to me that everything I thought was in the aspect of a bad dream. I already foresaw death, that is it, I despaired, I already move gently over the bitterness of my soul, my garment was completed. Suddenly what does Hashem do? He gives me life. So what does that mean? That everything that was until now, it was a bad dream. A bad dream that passed, it is gone, it vanished. And this is what he says, "and You will restore me to health." You turned everything that passed over me into some distant dream, that here, thank God, and You give me life. Hashem took care, Hashem, over them they will live, Hashem saw to it that my days would return anew. Even though they were already, as it were, completed, I skipped over them, as if they died, cessation as we explained, but Hashem, over them, when the Holy One, Blessed be He, says His word over them, then they will live. I returned to life. All the evil that I thought about, it is in the aspect of a bad dream, and give me life, I returned to life.
"Behold, for peace I had great bitterness, and You desired my soul from the pit of nothingness, for You cast behind Your back all my sins." There is a very wonderful explanation here from Rashi. "Behold, for peace I had great bitterness." Says Rashi, even when they announced peace to me, when the prophet was sent to me to announce peace to me, but he says, this is a bitter tiding. Why is this a bitter tiding? For after all, on what did He make his healing dependent? On others. What is written there? "Thus says Hashem, God of David your father, for My sake and for the sake of David My servant, I will shield you." I will heal you. What, because of your merits? No, no, no, no. "For My sake," says Hashem, "and for the sake of David My servant." So that is, I received here a gift but with a sting. "Behold, for peace," the peace that the Holy One, Blessed be He, gave me, returned me to life, saved me from the enemy, from Sancheriv as he was promised, but it is a bitter peace. Because they tell me, know that this is not by your merits, it is by the merits of others. So it is a peace that has bitterness in it. Thus Rashi explains according to one interpretation.
He brings another explanation. "For peace I had great bitterness." When I was informed by You that You would save me from the hand of Sancheriv, then on one hand this is good tidings, you will be saved from Sancheriv. But what state did I enter at that very moment? Illness. On the other hand, it is bitter for me. Because on one hand You inform me good tidings, you will be saved from Sancheriv, on the other hand, there is here a bad tiding that here I fall into the hand of illness. Therefore there are here two opposing things. On one hand peace, a promise to be saved from the enemies, on the other hand bitterness, I received an illness. Thus Rashi explains. The Radak explains, "Behold, for peace I had great bitterness," the meaning: when I was ill, it was bitter for me because I did not have peace. It does not mean I had peace and it was bitter for me, for then it is really not so understandable, and therefore Rashi had to explain what he explained, how to resolve the contradiction. Is this peace or is this bitterness? Peace is good, bitterness is bad. Therefore he says the opposite: "for peace," meaning I expected there would be peace. "For peace" (lishalom), the lamed is like the lamed of "toward." I await peace, but what do I receive in exchange for it? Great bitterness. In exchange for peace I received bitterness, I received illness.
The Malbim explains in general that a healthy person is a person who has peace within him. And why? Because it is called that there is peace among all the foundations of the body. That is, how do we exist? The heart supplies blood to all, and the lungs supply oxygen to the whole body, and so on in this way. If they were to quarrel among themselves, that is it, the person is gone. Yes? Each one decides to attend only to itself, then the body dies. So the moment there is peace, meaning peace among all the foundations of the body, this means that there is life. So he says, "behold, for peace," I expected life, for there was here a threat to my life, there is here Sancheriv. I expected peace, here now they inform me you will defeat Sancheriv. But what now? Great bitterness. Instead of expecting peace, and here what do I receive? The bitterness of my illness.
The Malbim explains, "behold, for peace," says the Malbim, and now I see that for peace I had great bitterness. The Malbim has a rule. The Malbim's rule: always when a word repeats twice, it comes on the second occasion to express something different from the first occasion. It is not possible that the prophet would repeat the same word twice without the second word being a different expression. Therefore if, for example, tzir is written twice in the same verse, then once he will explain it as tzir from the term the hinge of a door, and once tzir from the term ambassador, for example. So too here. "Behold, for peace I had great bitterness (mar li mar)." The Malbim explains, there are here two meanings to the word mar. Mar is also from the term hamarah, to exchange something, yes? "He shall not exchange it (yamirenu) nor replace it." And mar is also from the term bitterness. He says, instead of the peace that was promised to me, for what was promised to me? That I would defeat Sancheriv. Mar li mar. They exchanged this for me, they replaced this for me with bitterness. For here now I am ill. And why does he use the same word twice? Because this is really a play on words. Like "a heap, two heaps." Sometimes one wants to express something, so one expresses it in a similar word for the beauty of the phrasing. But the first mar is from the term exchange, and the second mar is from the term bitterness. They exchanged for me, meaning they exchanged for me the peace with bitterness.
And now I see, "and You desired my soul from the pit of nothingness." You desired my soul from the wearing-out pit. When I saw my soul standing at the gates of the pit, ready to be in the aspect of worn out, beli from the term wearing out, meaning to decay in the ground, then You desired it, as it were You drew it out from this terrible decree of wearing out, beli from the term wearing out, and You desired it. You drew my soul out from there. Until, from the greatness of Your desire, You cast behind Your back all my sins. There were seemingly sufficient reasons that I should be punished with death. But all my sins You cast behind Your back. As it is written, "over all transgressions love covers." So from the greatness of Your desire for my soul, as it were You averted Your eyes from my sins. And not merely averted Your eyes, for we already explained that Chizkiyahu repented, and through this You forgave all my sins and brought out and redeemed my soul from the pit that was supposed to wear it out, was supposed to bring it to a state of wearing out, of decay, You desired and saved my soul from there.
"For the grave does not thank You, death does not praise You, those who go down to the pit do not hope for Your truth." "For the grave does not thank You." Thanksgiving, to thank Hashem for His goodness to us, is not possible when the person is in the grave. How can I in the grave thank Hashem, may He be blessed? How can I, "death does not praise You," how can a person who is dead praise the Holy One, Blessed be He? And he intends here for two reasons. One reason: after all, the main thanksgiving to Hashem, for what do we give thanks? For life. So "the grave does not thank You." One who is in the grave, how would he thank Hashem? He does not have the main thing, he does not have life. So, as it were, he has nothing to thank for. Second thing, he does not have the ability to thank. Because the way to give thanks is through the body, through the mouth. So consequently, "death praises You"? Is it possible when a person is dead to thank and praise Hashem? After all he is in a state of cessation. "Those who go down to the pit do not hope for Your truth." Also, another matter, those who go down to the pit, people who died, do not hope for Your truth. The meaning: when a person is alive, he has hope for the future. This is called lesaber. "The eyes of all hope (yesaberu) to You." This is from the term of hope, to await what was promised to him, this is called lesaber. "Those who go down to the pit do not hope for Your truth." Your promises, they will no longer look forward to them, for after all they are no longer among the living. This is not possible for those who go down to the pit.
Therefore there are here two opposing things. On one hand peace, a promise to be saved from the enemies, on the other hand bitterness, I received an illness. Thus Rashi explains. The Radak explains, "Behold, for peace I had great bitterness," the meaning: when I was ill, it was bitter for me because I did not have peace. It does not mean I had peace and it was bitter for me, for then it is really not so understandable, and therefore Rashi had to explain what he explained, how to resolve the contradiction. Is this peace or is this bitterness? Peace is good, bitterness is bad. Therefore he says the opposite: "for peace," meaning I expected there would be peace. "For peace" (lishalom), the lamed is like the lamed of "toward." I await peace, but what do I receive in exchange for it? Great bitterness. In exchange for peace I received bitterness, I received illness.
The Malbim explains in general that a healthy person is a person who has peace within him. And why? Because it is called that there is peace among all the foundations of the body. That is, how do we exist? The heart supplies blood to all, and the lungs supply oxygen to the whole body, and so on in this way. If they were to quarrel among themselves, that is it, the person is gone. Yes? Each one decides to attend only to itself, then the body dies. So the moment there is peace, meaning peace among all the foundations of the body, this means that there is life. So he says, "behold, for peace," I expected life, for there was here a threat to my life, there is here Sancheriv. I expected peace, here now they inform me you will defeat Sancheriv. But what now? Great bitterness. Instead of expecting peace, and here what do I receive? The bitterness of my illness.
The Malbim explains, "behold, for peace," says the Malbim, and now I see that for peace I had great bitterness. The Malbim has a rule. The Malbim's rule: always when a word repeats twice, it comes on the second occasion to express something different from the first occasion. It is not possible that the prophet would repeat the same word twice without the second word being a different expression. Therefore if, for example, tzir is written twice in the same verse, then once he will explain it as tzir from the term the hinge of a door, and once tzir from the term ambassador, for example. So too here. "Behold, for peace I had great bitterness (mar li mar)." The Malbim explains, there are here two meanings to the word mar. Mar is also from the term hamarah, to exchange something, yes? "He shall not exchange it (yamirenu) nor replace it." And mar is also from the term bitterness. He says, instead of the peace that was promised to me, for what was promised to me? That I would defeat Sancheriv. Mar li mar. They exchanged this for me, they replaced this for me with bitterness. For here now I am ill. And why does he use the same word twice? Because this is really a play on words. Like "a heap, two heaps." Sometimes one wants to express something, so one expresses it in a similar word for the beauty of the phrasing. But the first mar is from the term exchange, and the second mar is from the term bitterness. They exchanged for me, meaning they exchanged for me the peace with bitterness.
And now I see, "and You desired my soul from the pit of nothingness." You desired my soul from the wearing-out pit. When I saw my soul standing at the gates of the pit, ready to be in the aspect of worn out, beli from the term wearing out, meaning to decay in the ground, then You desired it, as it were You drew it out from this terrible decree of wearing out, beli from the term wearing out, and You desired it. You drew my soul out from there. Until, from the greatness of Your desire, You cast behind Your back all my sins. There were seemingly sufficient reasons that I should be punished with death. But all my sins You cast behind Your back. As it is written, "over all transgressions love covers." So from the greatness of Your desire for my soul, as it were You averted Your eyes from my sins. And not merely averted Your eyes, for we already explained that Chizkiyahu repented, and through this You forgave all my sins and brought out and redeemed my soul from the pit that was supposed to wear it out, was supposed to bring it to a state of wearing out, of decay, You desired and saved my soul from there.
"For the grave does not thank You, death does not praise You, those who go down to the pit do not hope for Your truth." "For the grave does not thank You." Thanksgiving, to thank Hashem for His goodness to us, is not possible when the person is in the grave. How can I in the grave thank Hashem, may He be blessed? How can I, "death does not praise You," how can a person who is dead praise the Holy One, Blessed be He? And he intends here for two reasons. One reason: after all, the main thanksgiving to Hashem, for what do we give thanks? For life. So "the grave does not thank You." One who is in the grave, how would he thank Hashem? He does not have the main thing, he does not have life. So, as it were, he has nothing to thank for. Second thing, he does not have the ability to thank. Because the way to give thanks is through the body, through the mouth. So consequently, "death praises You"? Is it possible when a person is dead to thank and praise Hashem? After all he is in a state of cessation. "Those who go down to the pit do not hope for Your truth." Also, another matter, those who go down to the pit, people who died, do not hope for Your truth. The meaning: when a person is alive, he has hope for the future. This is called lesaber. "The eyes of all hope (yesaberu) to You." This is from the term of hope, to await what was promised to him, this is called lesaber. "Those who go down to the pit do not hope for Your truth." Your promises, they will no longer look forward to them, for after all they are no longer among the living. This is not possible for those who go down to the pit.
And now he explains. "The living, the living one thanks You, as I do this day, a father makes known Your truth to sons." Against what he said, "for the grave does not thank You," he says only the living, only someone living, because he is alive, he can thank You. And this is the doubling. "The living," for what does he thank You? "The living one thanks You." For what does he thank You? Living, for the very life that You gave him. And consequently, yes, thanksgiving applies to him. But in contrast, one who is in the grave cannot thank Hashem for two reasons as we explained before. One, thanksgiving is for the very fact that You gave me life, one who is not alive cannot thank. Second thing, the very fact that he has no mouth and no body with which to thank, he cannot speak. And this is what he says, only the living, the living one thanks You. For what? For the fact that he is alive. And this parallels against what he said in the previous verse. "For the grave does not thank You," one who is in the grave will not thank Hashem for he has nothing to thank for, for he has no life. So too he says, the living, the living one thanks You. And against what he said, "those who go down to the pit do not hope for Your truth," that is, after all he explained that one who can hope for Hashem's promises is only a living person. One who has already died has nothing to hope for from Hashem's promises. He says, who can? "As I do this day, a father makes known Your truth to sons." Only someone like me this day, who has a promise that he will bring forth sons, I can make known Your truth. I can thank Hashem, may He be blessed, for I have hope for Hashem's promises. "Those who go down to the pit do not hope for Your truth," but I do hope. In what do I hope? After all I have a promise. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Chizkiyahu, you are being punished for the fact that you did not bring forth sons. I who now wish to bring forth sons, I who have now repented, have something to hope for, have something to await. And then consequently, he makes known Your truth. When a person has sons, then he makes known to the next generation the kindnesses of Hashem with him, the truth of Hashem with him, the promises that the Holy One, Blessed be He, promised, to the next generation. But if I were among those who go down to the pit, how would I make known to the next generation the promises that You promised me? How would I announce to them Your truth, Your truthfulness, the hopes that I have from the fact of bringing forth sons and having a continuing generation? Only one who is alive can hope onward, to make known the mighty deeds of Hashem to the sons after him.
"Hashem, to save me, and my melodies we will play all the days of our lives upon the House of Hashem." Hashem who saved me now, He is also to save me in the future. "And my melodies," the melodies that I used to play for my own needs, for until now the kings would place before themselves musicians for their pleasure. He says, from now on we will play all the days of our lives upon the House of Hashem. I dedicate my melodies to the honor of Hashem, may He be blessed. What until now I would go and play for myself, for my own honor, no, from now on all the melodies that we make will be for the honor of Hashem, may He be blessed.
"And Yeshayahu said, let them take a cake of figs and smear it on the boil, and he will recover." Yeshayahu says to take a cake of figs. The Radak says, this verse is already a new verse that is not connected to what we spoke of before. Before, that was a letter that he wrote in which he gives thanks to Hashem, may He be blessed, for all the kindness that Hashem did with him. Here it is no longer part of the letter. The letter concluded, and verse 21 now describes his healing. The Radak also wonders a bit why this was written here, why it was not written above, after "and I will shield this city," Hashem promises him healing and that He will shield the city, so it should have been written immediately, "and Yeshayahu said, let them take a cake of figs." Thus it also appears in Sefer Melachim. But here the order is somewhat different, and the Radak remains with the question.
The cake of figs (develet te'enim), this is really figs; always when it is written te'enim the meaning is moist figs. When develet is written, the meaning is when they press them into a round shape, they make from it something like Turkish delight. That is, it becomes a kind of jam, they place this, press this into a round shape, this is called a develah. They took and smeared it, "yimrechu" means they spread and stuck this onto the boil. Say Chazal, a miracle within a miracle. First, living flesh upon which one places a cake of figs, it stinks. And all the more so here, that this flesh is already stricken, all the more so that this thing would stink and spoil the boil. After all, one must give the boil a state where it has air, that it can dry out. And here you further take and place upon it a cake of figs, certainly this spoils it. Say Chazal, here He performed a miracle within a miracle. The Holy One, Blessed be He, places a harmful thing into a thing being harmed, and in any case heals it. Just as the Holy One, Blessed be He, healed the bitter waters by placing a bitter thing into them. That is, only in a natural way you would need to sweeten a bitter thing. In a miraculous way you can embitter a bitter thing with another bitter thing, and this itself would sweeten it.
And then now he returns and describes for us what he said before, know that the healing that was here was a healing not according to nature, for behold you see that Hashem performed a miracle for him. "And Chizkiyahu said, what a sign that I shall go up to the House of Hashem." The Malbim says that seemingly in Sefer Melachim we saw that Chizkiyahu said this in the manner of a question, and a response was given to him. Chizkiyahu said, "what is the sign that Hashem will heal me and I shall go up on the third day to the House of Hashem?" And Yeshayahu said, "this is for you the sign from Hashem," and then the sun returned ten degrees backward. Here seemingly, "and Chizkiyahu said, what a sign that I shall go up to the House of Hashem," the chapter ends. It is not written here that Yeshayahu says to him you will have a sign, Hashem will heal you. It is not written here that this will actually be a sign. Therefore the Malbim explains both here and there, that "what a sign that I shall go up to the House of Hashem" is not in the manner of a question, as if what is the sign, what sign will Hashem, may He be blessed, give me? Even though this is what is implied from the simple meaning of the verses, and even though so too Rashi in Tractate Sanhedrin says that there was here some complaint against him for the fact that he, as it were, asked for a sign from Hashem, which is a thing that is not proper. The Malbim does not explain thus. The Malbim explains "what a sign that I shall go up to the House of Hashem," this is from the term of amazement. What a great sign it is that I shall go up to the House of Hashem, that I need no additional signs. That is, how wonderful is the sign, the very fact that I will recover, I am recovering within three days and can already go up to the House of Hashem, to thank Hashem, may He be blessed, for all the miracles that He did with me. What a great sign it is! How wonderful a sign this is, that I no longer need additional signs. But in amazement. But in any case pay attention, Yeshayahu said to him, know, Hashem prepared an even greater sign, that this sign would also be for a wonder to the nations as we will see further on, so that all the nations would be amazed by it. And in the next chapter we will also see for what purpose this great and special sign of the sun's return backward was performed, as the matters will come in greater detail in the words of the Malbim.