For thus says Hashem, Creator of the heavens, He is the God, Fashioner of the earth and its Maker, He established it, He did not create it as chaos, He fashioned it to be inhabited, I am Hashem and there is no other.
"For thus says Hashem, Creator of the heavens, He is the God." The Radak explains that since we saw earlier that He is speaking about idols that provide no benefit and cannot save, and there is no deliverance in them, He says: know this, the Holy One, blessed be He, Creator of the heavens, is the God. The Holy One created everything, He is the Judge, He is the Guide, and not the spheres and the stars. And even though it may seem to you that they govern here in this lowly nether world, the Holy One says: I am found above everything. Creator of the heavens, He is the God. And He is the One who fashions the earth and makes it, and He established it. "Fashioner of the earth," the initial fashioning. "Maker," this is afterward. And not only that, but "He established it." This means He set it up so that there would be creatures upon it, says the Radak, who would be fruitful and multiply. As He told them, "Be fruitful and multiply." And the Radak says, pay attention: and if they diminish, it is due to the sin of human beings. If you say that the world does not multiply as it should, this is due to the sin of human beings, who have the intelligence to understand good and evil, and in doing evil they diminish themselves. That is to say, you bring this upon yourself. Either through war, or through a plague from God, and then again it is through you. Yes, or through the fact that they do not engage in being fruitful and multiplying. So consequently they diminish themselves. But the Holy One, in and of Himself, created the world so that it would grow, develop and multiply. "I am Hashem and there is no other," who strikes and heals, who brings death and gives life, I alone.
The Malbim explains that here he has three proofs that one must trust in Hashem. Three proofs that one should rely on the Holy One, that the Holy One, this is a continuation of what we saw earlier, is a hidden God. As we explained, "hidden" means He is hidden from you, but He sees you. For a person could fall into the error of what the philosophers believed and said, that the Holy One created the world but since then it no longer interests Him. The world is not, it is not for Him, it is not... who are we at all that Hashem should trouble His thoughts with human beings. So those heretics believed. But we believe that the Holy One watches over every single detail and every single deed. Says the Malbim: now He will prove this point to us, that the Holy One watches over everything that happens with human beings, and even though He is hidden, there necessarily exists complete providence. The first proof he brings us is from the creation of the world. Behold, you see, the Holy One created the heavens and the earth. In the heavens the Holy One changed nothing. As they were created, so they have remained until today. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." What is creation, says the Malbim? Creation is bringing forth something from nothing. To create something is a one-time act, something from nothing. And we already explained what the Ramban says, that on the first day the primordial formless matter was created, what we call in our language the atom, and from this the Holy One created everything that exists in creation afterward. This was not creating but rather what is called fashioning. For creation is only the first time, it is only bringing forth something from nothing. That is creation. Fashioning is to refine the thing. In the language of the Malbim it is refining the attached form. For example, I took the earth that was created, I took it, I molded something resembling the form of a vessel. This is already called fashioning. I attached piece to piece, I fashioned it in the form of a vessel. Making, I smooth it, I turn it into something made. "And she shall make her nails," what does that mean? And she shall trim her nails. What does it mean to make nails? What is making? Rather it means to refine. She files and cuts, that is what "making" means. "He did not make his beard," it means he did not trim his beard. So after I have the clumps stuck together in some general form of a vessel, I now smooth it, forming its shape, this shape is called making. When I finish, doing the final touches, this is called establishing the thing. Setting it in its proper condition, what is called fit for use. For example, perhaps I gave it a coating of paint, or a glass coating, or I decorated it. This is called establishing it. This is the final completion of the vessel. So He says: behold, you see, Hashem creates the heavens. The heavens, as we said, were created. No change passed through them, as they are, so were they created by Hashem from nothing. And Hashem is the God who... what is "the God"? All the many forces you see in nature, everything, all of this is from Hashem. You then see Hashem making the sun and moon and stars and... Hashem is the God. "Elokim" we said is in the plural. And we explained that it means ruler over all the forces. He brought all of reality into existence, He fashioned the earth and made it, He established it. What does this mean? As we explained. In the earth, beyond the initial creation which is, let us say, the substance of the earth itself, afterward He fashioned. He fashioned it into form, "Let the waters be gathered to one place and let the dry land appear." Afterward He made, He fashioned upon it grass and vegetation and trees. Afterward He established it, this is the completion. There He placed living creatures and fashioned man upon the earth. This is the place being established, meaning we have already completed the work. What do you see from all of this? This is the conclusion of the verse. "He did not create it as chaos, He fashioned it to be inhabited." From all of this you will reach the conclusion that the Holy One did not want it to remain in a state of chaos. As the earth was at the beginning of its existence, "and the earth was chaos and void." No, if so it would have been enough to create. Create the earth and be done. Finished, it is chaos. The earth is now chaos and void. Why did He need to do all of this? Fashioning, making and establishing? All of this to be inhabited He fashioned it. You see from here that His main purpose was that there should be here a settlement of human beings. "He fashioned it to be inhabited." From this you see that there is complete providence over everything. For one who truly watches over and makes everything and attends to the full details and particulars, that means He has a purpose, He has an intention, He did this with complete providence. From this you will also conclude: I am Hashem and there is no other. There is no other force in creation but only Hashem, blessed be He, there is none besides Him.
By the way, from this verse, "He did not create it as chaos, He fashioned it to be inhabited," we learn that a woman also has a mitzvah, something akin to the mitzvah of being fruitful and multiplying. A man has the mitzvah to be fruitful and multiply. There is a mitzvah to bear a son and a daughter. In contrast, a woman does not have the mitzvah to be fruitful and multiply. A woman is not commanded in this. As far as she is concerned, she could even not marry. Nevertheless, she still has a mitzvah, some say it is rabbinic, some say it is an asmachta, she has a mitzvah called "He did not create it as chaos, He fashioned it to be inhabited." The woman, that is, the world was not created for chaos, but in order that it be settled. This is the meaning of "to be inhabited He fashioned it," to dwell so that they would settle the world. And a woman, by going and marrying, is in fact settling the world. She brings, she adds settlement to the world. So a woman still has a mitzvah, though not from the aspect of being fruitful and multiplying, but from the aspect that she assists in the very settling of the world. There was once, Heaven forfend, may Hashem protect us, someone who raised his hand against his wife. He struck his wife. So they brought him to beit din, they asked him what is this? What, how do you do such things? How severe and... So he told them: it is written, "He did not create it as chaos, He fashioned it to be inhabited" (lashevet). "Shevet" with the meaning of a rod. A stick, "to be inhabited He fashioned it." Heaven forfend. Alright.
Not in secret did I speak, in a place of a land of darkness, I did not say to the seed of Yaakov: seek Me in vain, I am Hashem who speaks righteousness, who declares uprightness.
Rashi explains: "Not in secret did I speak," when I gave the Torah, I did not say for nothing, for free, to the seed of Yaakov: seek Me. That is to say, as it were, the Holy One says: I did not ask you to serve Me for free. When I gave the Torah I did not ask you to serve Me for free. Rather I told you that you would receive an enormous reward. I am Hashem who speaks righteousness. After I opened with My matter of righteousness to inform them of their reward, only afterward did I give them Torah and mitzvot. Where do you see this? Even before the giving of the Torah it is written, "And now, if you will indeed hearken to My voice" and so on, "and you shall be to Me a treasured possession and a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." All the promises came in advance. And afterward I asked you to act. That is to say, according to Rashi this verse comes to say: I do not impose labors upon you like a king who imposes labors upon his subjects without reward, without any claim from them, but rather even before I imposed any work upon you, I first offered you and informed you of the reward you would receive in the future. So this is: "I did not say to the seed of Yaakov: seek Me in vain," seek Me, pray to Me, serve Me for free, in vain. I am Hashem who speaks righteousness, I spoke with righteousness even beforehand, who declares uprightness, I promised you that your reward would come to you with uprightness.
According to the Malbim, this verse is a continuation of what we opened with earlier, that in fact the Holy One proves that even though I am a hidden God, in any case all of reality proves that you must serve the Holy One and Hashem is the God. And there is an existing reality. The second proof is from the giving of the Torah. As is known, whoever was with us in Sefer HaKuzari knows, perhaps, God willing, we will return to it, perhaps after Ruach Chaim, since most of the audience here now was not there then. There, one of the foundations, one could say the foundation, the most established basis for our faith in Hashem, blessed be He, is the matter of the giving of the Torah. Here the Holy One revealed Himself not to a single man, but to five million people. We all saw and no stranger, we all heard and no other, "You were shown to know that Hashem is the God." This is the established foundation, the firm basis that will not budge, which no religion in the world possesses. And not only that, the Torah also promises that no religion in the world will presume to claim that it beheld or experienced a similar vision. For "ask now regarding the early days that were before you, has a people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire as you have heard, and lived? Did God come to take Him a nation from the midst of a nation with trials, with signs and with wonders, with a strong hand, as Hashem brought you out of Egypt before your eyes?" You were shown to know. The Holy One says: this you saw. Not other nations, not stories told to you from earlier generations, but a divine revelation that occurred before the eyes of millions. And the Rambam says: Moshe Rabbeinu, they did not believe in him on account of the signs and wonders he performed. For signs and wonders can be performed through sleight of hand and sorcery. A person can perform sorcery and produce signs and wonders. We have no problem believing that the Christians tell that that man walked on water. Fine, so he walked on water, so what? To this day there are people in India who perform all sorts of wonders, so what? Is he then a man of God? What is there in this? It can be done through sleight of hand and sorcery. There are all sorts of paths of sorcery, and especially since Chazal say that that man was in the Beit HaMikdash and took from there the Ineffable Name and by its power performed sorcery and enticed and led astray. So Chazal reveal to us that he performed sorcery. We have no problem believing in sorcery, we know that such forces exist, we know that they deny the heavenly retinue. But which nation ever told that there was a divine revelation before the eyes of millions? This cannot be denied. The Holy One opened heaven and earth, you heard the voice of Hashem speaking to you from the midst of the fire and lived. What pyrotechnics could create a false display of the standing at Mount Sinai? Moshe would speak and God would answer him in a voice. The sound of the shofar grew ever stronger. A cloud descended upon the mountain. All of this cannot possibly be. And Moshe announces in advance when it would be and on which day, exactly the times. And all of this the people of Israel, you saw and no stranger, your ears heard and no other. This is the most compelling proof of the truth of the Torah. And since then there are additional wondrous proofs of prophecies that were transmitted over the generations, for there is no religion in the world that presumes to bring any prophecy that was foretold in advance and came to pass, so that in practice all of this is clear proof of Hashem watching over us. Behold, there is no greater providence than the Holy One giving us His book of instructions on how to conduct oneself according to it.
Ah, this is secret, this is... what do you want, such things in public? Come on, really. So you understand that it has to be in a dark place. A place... such things, matters of modesty, are in a dark place. Says the Holy One: "in a place of a land of darkness," I was not in a place of a land of darkness. Says the Holy One: with you everything is open. It is not that they brought Him into a cave, that they did this in darkness, no. Says the Holy One: what I say to you is all in the open, "not in secret did I speak" and not in a place of a land of darkness, but everything was in an open and clear manner. Behold, this is how divinity is publicized, not like the stories of those... of those people. Already in its time we spoke about how Christianity from the outset created a model that cannot be proven. So that no one could claim, prove it. Come on, such things you want me to prove? Shame on you, these are matters of modesty, this I should prove? You must understand that it has to be in modesty. Yes? So from the outset they created a model in which it would be impossible to challenge them, give proofs. How... how can one even ask for proofs about such a thing?
Let us continue. The third proof, he says, is the mitzvot themselves. The Torah and the mitzvot that I placed before the people of Israel, they themselves testify that I watch with special individual providence over the people of Israel. For behold, you see, the nations too in their time had all sorts of commands, all sorts of instructions on behalf of idolatry. But all their commands are things that have no benefit and no reason. Says the Holy One: with Me it is not so. "I did not say to the seed of Yaakov: seek Me in vain." I did not give them mitzvot of chaos. Mitzvot without reason, mitzvot that are without logic. Rather the Torah I gave them brings a person to perfection. And there are there two types of mitzvot, two types of mitzvot in the Torah. Mitzvot between a person and his fellow, and mitzvot of beliefs and opinions.
The mitzvot between a person and his fellow are the conduct of righteousness and uprightness. Righteousness always expresses, according to the Malbim, the matters between a person and his fellow. To judge one's fellow with righteousness, all matters of righteousness are conduct between a person and his fellow. The Torah is full without end of mitzvot between a person and his fellow. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," "you shall not hate your brother in your heart," "if you see the donkey of one who hates you," ah... the mitzvah of lending, the mitzvah of ah... "if you lend money to My people," you shall not take interest, a mitzvah that the Torah commands, uh... ah... "you shall not steal," "if you lend money to My people," without end the Torah speaks of social mitzvot. Says the Holy One: I am Hashem who speaks righteousness. My mitzvot are not in vain. Not mitzvot without reason like the mitzvot of idolatry, come, burn offerings to an idol. What did you accomplish with this? What perfection did you attain with this? What did you change in yourself through this act? Nothing. A mitzvah of chaos. Burn to an idol, that is it.
Says the Holy One: and I also commanded you mitzvot that are mitzvot between a person and God, that straighten a person in his beliefs and opinions. "Who declares uprightness." Uprightness means things that straighten a person in his opinions. Until from this you can become convinced that behold, there is a reality in which the Holy One reveals to a person what the correct path is, how to be straight in his opinions, in his conduct, both between a person and his fellow and between a person and God. Things that act and change reality in the upper worlds. "Who declares uprightness." Your mitzvot are upright and worthy mitzvot, not mitzvot of chaos.
Says the Malbim: if so, it comes out that in the previous verse He spoke about the act of creation, as we explained, about the very creation of the world. Here He speaks about the providence with which the Holy One watches over a person in physical life. In this verse He speaks about the mitzvot I commanded you. I gave you Torah, I gave you mitzvot between a person and his fellow, between a person and God. These testify about the providence to straighten a person so that he merits eternal life. So we have both physical life in the very creation of the world, and spiritual life in the very giving of the Torah. All of this, says the Holy One, I gave to you, in contrast to the graven images and idolatry there, what do they give their believers? Chaos. Nothing... there is no substance in them.
The Malbim explains, let us note, there is here "speaking" and there is here "declaring." It is written "not in secret did I speak," "I am Hashem who speaks righteousness, who declares uprightness." Says the Malbim: what is the difference between speaking and declaring? Declaring, says the Malbim, is generally something new that a person did not know about. Speaking is even if you know about it, I elaborate on it, I explain it further, that is called speaking. But if I... I say, I want to tell (declare) you something. To tell someone something is always generally some new thing that you do not know. But we need to speak, that is about something you know, we only need to discuss it. So speaking is generally when one discusses a certain matter that is already known, one needs to explain and clarify it. Declaring is about something new. Uprightness, these are beliefs, these are opinions. All these are things that are not known on their own, someone must tell us. And I will explain the matters.
We, whoever wishes can listen to the disc on Mishlei, where the Malbim explains matters at length, and many of the verses he approaches along this line, that in fact regarding matters of morality there is no key of the intellect. There is no key of knowledge regarding matters of morality. One could say that one of the things that creates the greatest divisions among opinions, methods, conceptions, ideas, parties, is matters of morality. You can see the extreme right and the extreme left, each one claims ownership of morality and that he is the moral one, and what the other does is cruelty, is opposed to any moral path, is against uprightness and righteousness. Matters of morality and righteousness are not matters that can be proven. They are matters that are transmitted from the Creator. Whatever the Creator... whoever the Creator has entrusted with the wisdom to determine for him what is moral and what is righteous, that is the correct and moral thing to do, without the possibility of reaching conclusions through some personal contemplation.
And the greatest proof is that Hitler himself claimed that he was moral. Not only that he was moral, but he also claimed that the Jewish people are insolent and immoral. For morality operates in the natural way in which the strong overcomes the weak and subdues it. And behold, here is one weak nation that has stubbornly insisted for thousands of years on surviving against the laws of nature. The existence of this nation is truly immoral. Rather, what is moral is that in fact this nation should be exterminated, and the nation strong in nature will go and improve itself. And just as nature improves itself, because the feeble animals are always the first to become prey, and consequently nature improves because the strong animals are always the survivors, so too it should be with human beings. Only the Jews are an immoral nation that stubbornly insists on living, even though it degrades the human race with its despicable traits and bad natures. And whoever is moral is us. And not only that, hospitals that hold all sorts of mentally ill people and disabled people, why should society carry them on its shoulders? Should I pay taxes to support a person from whom society gains nothing? So whoever knows, the first ones he sent to the gas chambers were those mentally ill people who were in Germany. That is where he began. And afterward the final solution of all those nations considered feeble nations and not of the Aryan race. So go argue and prove that he is not right. For any person who comes and claims that what he does is righteous and moral, it is impossible to argue with him.
Rather what? Who truly determines what is moral? This is what the Holy One says, what the Torah says, that is what is moral. I once gave a lecture in Beer Sheva, some young man came who claimed that he was... that he was moral. He claimed that he... that he keeps the... the Ten Commandments and he is a moral person. So first of all I told him, in the Ten Commandments it is written "keep the Shabbat day to sanctify it," do you keep Shabbat? So it was a novelty for him that the Ten Commandments also include keeping Shabbat. Yes? It is already interesting to see how people speak nonsense without paying attention to what comes out of their mouths. He keeps the Ten Commandments, he never read them, but he keeps them. Whatever, alright, let us say. And besides that I told him, are you a moral person? He says to me, yes, I am a moral person and I... I told him, may I ask you a question? He says to me, yes. I told him, let us say for the sake of argument that your girlfriend suddenly tells you that a mishap occurred and what can be done, she is pregnant. I told him, what do you do? So... so he thought. And thought again. And thought yet again. Afterward he told me, he was intelligent enough to tell me, you set me up. He did not give an answer, he told me, you set me up. That is to say, he understood that whatever answer he would give me, I... I would attack him in a way that he would have nothing to answer. For what... what... what could he tell me? He would tell me, what... what do you mean? What is an unwanted pregnancy? What do you mean? She will suffer all her life? She has to bear a child that she is not... that she is not interested in and does not want, and how wretched the child will be, and they will send him afterward and all his life he will be in orphanages and... what will come of it? Only crime and... society will suffer from such a one. So, what... so for this let us murder him, right? Someone who you think might not have the best life, so let us murder him. So, then he understands that this is not an answer. Rather what? So really one should give birth and raise such a child. And then I would argue to him the opposite claim. What, are you not ashamed to take such a child? The mother does not want him, against her will, and what is he still? What... what is he in total? A little water, nothing else yet, nothing yet. For this she will suffer all her life and afterward pangs of conscience all her life to know that she has some child whom she cast away and abandoned, and if you tell her to raise him, a fifteen-year-old girl will raise a child and... so, how do you get out of this tangle? You do not get out. Rather only if there is a Creator of the world who said what must be done, then this is morality and this is righteousness. And even if it seems to you that it is the opposite, but the One who created man and created the world, also created morality. And He is the One who determined what is right and what is not right. But in no way can one arrive at moral decisions without Torah. Because you can decide that what you say is the most moral, and I can prove to you the complete opposite, and the argument will never end. It will never end. For the Palestinians too... the left too claims that one cannot rule over another nation and they suffer and we torment them and... and... and... and the right claims the same thing about us. Who is right? We know who is right. But in any case, can you prove it? For on the other side stand very intelligent people, very learned in their own opinion, and yet in any case they hold such opinions. Rather what do you see? That in such a situation we must have a spiritual, heavenly plumb line that determines what is moral and what is not.
And this is what He tells us here. The opinions, the uprightness, one cannot arrive at on one's own. What is upright, what is moral, what is worthy, one cannot arrive at on one's own. Rather, I, Hashem, declare uprightness. We said declaring is a declaration of something new. What is the upright path, what is the path of morality, you must have someone supernal, spiritual, who tells you. And if He does not tell you, you will not know what is worthy, what is upright and what is moral. I am Hashem who speaks righteousness. Righteousness, the nations know, "you shall not murder," they too understand. "You shall not steal," they too understand. "You shall not commit adultery" in certain senses, they too understand. In matters between a person and his fellow, in matters of righteousness, no new declaration is needed. Who speaks righteousness, this they too know. But uprightness, well, let us see you know what is moral and upright, here you need someone with supernal power who is in the aspect of declaring uprightness, who spells out for you what the correct and upright path is.
הִקָּבְצוּ וָבֹאוּ הִתְנַגְּשׁוּ יַחְדָּו פְּלִיטֵי הַגּוֹיִם לֹא יָדְעוּ הַנֹּשְׂאִים אֶת עֵץ פִּסְלָם וּמִתְפַּלְלִים אֶל אֵל לֹא יוֹשִׁיעַ - Gather together and come, draw near together, survivors of the nations, they do not know, those who carry the wood of their graven image and pray to a god that cannot save. "Gather together and come," you are the survivors of the nations. Of whom is He speaking? He speaks of the remnant that will remain at the end of days from the nations who served the graven images, the molten images, the idols. To them He calls, first gather together, first of all each one from his own land. And afterward draw near together. "Draw near" (hitnagshu) means from the language of approaching together. Convene together, to take counsel, to investigate the truth. And then behold, you will see, "they do not know, those who carry the wood of their graven image." Those who carry the wood of their graven image, those who, so to speak, bear the idolatry, worship it, they do not know to whom and why they worship this idolatry. Those who themselves carry the idolatry.
The opposite of the Torah, where it is written "and this is the Torah that Moshe placed (sam) before the people of Israel." What is "placed"? Chazal say, that the matters should be as clear as a garment. That the matters should be clear, matters fluent in their mouths, that they should have clear knowledge in all their deeds. "I did not say to the seed of Yaakov: seek Me in vain." I did not ask them to seek chaos, but rather I teach them and explain to them every mitzvah, its reasons, its matters, its secrets, its inner meaning. Not like idolatry, where those who carry their graven image do not know why they worship it. He does not understand at all what its whole matter is.
And also those who direct their prayer through the graven image toward the stars, and then it is, so to speak, more exalted. Because as we said in the past, if you remember, there are two types of idolatry, two types of idol worshipers. There were idol worshipers who saw in the force, in the image, something with real substance. And there were idol worshipers who believed that the image is only in the category of an intermediary between them and the stars. These are worshipers of stars and constellations. The akum, star and constellation worshipers, those who saw in the image a means to turn to the stars and constellations and draw influences from them. This is what is called already more upgraded. Because those first ones are complete boors, that one goes to the image and the graven image and the wood and bows to it, he fashioned it five minutes ago and he says to it, you created me. This is truly folly and vanity. But in contrast, those who related to it only as some kind of vessel, the talismans as the Ibn Ezra and others mention, which are vessels intended to draw down the spirituality that would rest upon them. Like the act of the mixed multitude with the calf, "these are your gods, Israel," whose glory rests in the form of a calf, that supposedly the Holy One dwells here within this calf of... that supposedly they succeeded in drawing down the spirituality to here. So they, those who believed that the graven image could draw down the forces of the spiritual abundance, then it will become clear to them that they are praying to a god that cannot save. Note, He calls them "god," because indeed these are forces. But these are forces that the Holy One apportioned to them, and they themselves are influenced by the Infinite, blessed be He. As we explained at length in the lessons on Nefesh HaChaim, that "there is none besides Him" means, everything you see in creation as a force, as an existing reality, is a force that stems from a supernal force that projects its power onto the stars, onto the constellations, onto the sun, onto the moon, they have no power of their own. And then, gather together and come, draw near together, you will see that behold you are praying to a god that cannot save, and there is no benefit in the wood of their graven image.
הַגִּידוּ וְהַגִּישׁוּ אַף יִוָּעֲצוּ יַחְדָּו מִי הִשְׁמִיעַ זֹאת מִקֶּדֶם מֵאָז הִגִּידָהּ הֲלוֹא אֲנִי יְהוָה וְאֵין עוֹד אֱלֹהִים מִבַּלְעָדַי אֵל צַדִּיק וּמוֹשִׁיעַ אַיִן זוּלָתִי - Declare and present, yes, take counsel together, who announced this from of old, from long ago declared it, is it not I, Hashem, and there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a savior, there is none besides Me. "Declare and present, yes, take counsel together, who announced this from of old." Rashi explains, here He turns to them and says to them, tell, which of this idolatry ever announced to you in advance any salvation. Was there ever a time that idolatry came and announced in advance that it would save its believers in the future? For, says the Holy One to them, I announce in advance the salvations, that I will save the people of Israel in the future. Which idolatry announces this in advance? The Radak gives an example: behold, before I brought Assyria upon the people of Israel I announced it. And when I removed Assyria from the people of Israel I also announced it to them in advance, I announced it to Yeshayahu. I announce the prophecies even before they come. Did idolatry ever announce anything? So how do you attribute to it all sorts of salvations that you have? Does it save? Let it say in advance that it will save you from something. "And there is no other God besides Me," this matter that He is faithful in His words, there is no other god besides Me. What other god announces something in advance and is faithful in his words? There is no other God, there is no other force besides Hashem.
The Malbim explains: "declare and present," it means if you have claims against the Creator or to justify your idolatry, declare and present, state the claims and present them before Me. And if you cannot do this, you have no claims, in any case take counsel together. Among themselves let them take counsel together and see what the path of truth is, who is the true God. "Who announced this from of old," who is this, this is a continuation of the previous verse, who of your deities announced from of old as I announced the Torah to the people of Israel? "Who announced this from of old?" Who gave a Torah to the nations as I gave a Torah to the people of Israel? Or in any case, who from long ago declared it? Who from long ago, even among himself, announced and gave such Torah and mitzvot, even if he did not announce it publicly. Fine, your god is modest, he does not like publicity. He does his deeds in concealment. But fine, tell me, which mitzvot did he command you? Even in concealment. Who from long ago declared it? Even if not publicly.
Says the Holy One: is it not I, Hashem, and there is no God besides Me. What I spoke, I spoke in public, I did not speak in secret in advance, but I spoke it before everyone, you became convinced to know that there is no god besides Me. For behold it is written there, "And you shall know this day and take it to your heart that Hashem is the God in the heavens above and upon the earth below, there is no other." By what? By the fact that He opened for them seven firmaments and opened for them seven chambers, by the fact that He revealed Himself before the eyes of the entire nation at Mount Sinai, says the Holy One, then you became convinced to see there is no god besides Me. This they saw at the giving of the Torah. "You were shown to know that Hashem is the God," there is none besides Him. And that "I did not say to the seed of Yaakov: seek Me in vain," but rather as we explained, all the mitzvot were meant to refine and straighten a person, both on the level between a person and his fellow, and to straighten his opinions and his conduct and his morality, from this you will conclude that Hashem is a righteous God and a savior, there is none besides Me. I am the only one who gave you mitzvot in order to justify and save a person. The meaning is his personal salvation, I am not speaking now about the redemption. But rather that a person will have salvation in the correct conduct, in proper behavior, between a person and his fellow. I justify him, I make a person become righteous and bring a person to salvation, to success in all his matters. I am Hashem who speaks righteousness, who declares uprightness.
The Malbim here explains, as he explained before, that declaring is something novel. And here, if we note, there are two expressions. "Who announced this from of old, from long ago declared it." Says the Malbim: what is the difference between "from of old" (mikedem) and "from long ago" (me'az)? For in both you are speaking about earlier periods. Says the Malbim: "from of old" does not necessarily have to be from a long time. "From of old" is always relative to what is later. If that one arrived early, then the second arrived late, it could be two minutes after him, he arrived late. That one who arrived two minutes before him is called early. That is to say, "early" is always relative to what comes later. But in contrast, "from long ago," this always speaks of an ancient historical period. When I say "from of old," it could be two hours ago, this is already "from of old" relative to what comes later. When I say "from long ago," this always speaks of a very early period, a period that is what is called from times past. An unlimited past. As it is written, "Your throne is established from long ago (me'az), You are from everlasting." "From long ago" adds upon "from of old." The declaring, says the Malbim, it is written here "declaring" and it is written "announcing." What is the difference? The Malbim explains: the declarer declares the future events. As we said, he declares to you something novel, something you do not know, I declare to you what will be in the future. In contrast, the announcer is the shofar. The announcer is the loudspeaker. The announcer is the one who goes out and publicizes matters, announces them to the public. It is not like today where within minutes something is publicized throughout the whole world. In their time things had to pass through people announcing them, transferring them from place to place, going out to publicize the matters. This is the action of the announcer. As it is written, "there is none who declares, there is none who announces." "There is none who declares" is the first one who announced the matter, and there is none who announces to publicize it. Here the Malbim says, he says the opposite. "Who announced," and also "who from long ago declared it." The meaning is, who announced and publicized the matter even before the matter came? Who publicized the matter even before it arrived at all? And not only that, even who declared it? Do not tell me publicity, fine, but in secret, at least did someone among you declare anything that would be in the future? Did someone announce some piece of knowledge about something that would come to pass? And therefore he says "who from long ago," because the declaration is from ancient times. I announce to you long before it will be so. There will be an exile, the people of Israel will suffer in Egypt, I announce this from long ago. Declaration and announcement are always early. I do not declare to you that in another minute there will be exile. I announce to you already from Avraham that in another 500 years there will be exile. Declaration and announcement are always early. And therefore he says, the declaration is always from long ago. But the announcement, this is only if the matter now became known, I announce it. And therefore regarding announcing it is said "from of old." Regarding this, note the language of the verse, "who announced this from of old." Because something that is only recent, happened not long ago, needs to be publicized. But the declaration, as we said, is something novel about something that will happen in the future, which needs to be announced long before. A prophecy that is supposed to be given long before the matter arrives, and then it will be possible to know that indeed the matters you say are correct matters. But to announce to me a moment before, there is really no name of declaration in this. So let those graven images come and announce to you matters in advance and declare to you and announce to you those matters, but there is not even that from them.
פְּנוּ אֵלַי וְהִוָּשְׁעוּ כָּל אַפְסֵי אָרֶץ כִּי אֲנִי אֵל וְאֵין עוֹד - Turn to Me and be saved, all ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. "Turn to Me," put aside your graven images, all ends of the earth, and through this you will have salvation. "Turn to Me," the Radak explains, just as you saw the people of Israel who are saved by virtue of what? By virtue of the fact that they turn to Me. Therefore He says, you too, all ends of the earth, turn to Me. All the nations from all corners of the earth, "ends of the earth" means the corners of the earth, turn to Me. The Malbim explains that this is a continuation of what He said earlier. He turns to those who came from the ends of the earth who still cling to their idols. He says, why do you turn to them when you have no salvation from them, as we explained? Neither salvation of the soul nor salvation of the body, in contrast to the Torah as we saw, which teaches a person both between a person and his fellow and between a person and God. Hashem says to them, turn to Me and then you will be saved, for I am God and there is no other. Only I can save. And do not think that you cannot turn to Me because the Torah, the mitzvot, I did not give to you, I gave it only to the people of Israel.
Regarding this He comes and says, בִּי נִשְׁבַּעְתִּי יָצָא מִפִּי צְדָקָה דָּבָר וְלֹא יָשׁוּב כִּי לִי תִּכְרַע כָּל בֶּרֶךְ תִּשָּׁבַע כָּל לָשׁוֹן - By Myself I have sworn, righteousness has gone forth from My mouth, a word that will not return, that to Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Regarding this He says to them, "by Myself I have sworn," I have sworn an oath. By My great Name. And by My great Name I will never retract My oath. Second, "for righteousness has gone forth from My mouth." Even without an oath, the very fact that righteousness went forth from My mouth, this is already a reason that I will not retract. Does Hashem retract from something He said, or does He not retract? Very good, you said correctly. Something good, Hashem never retracts. Something bad, except for one time that the Gemara brings, and the tav marked, but something bad, the Holy One can retract. "In another 40 days Ninveh will be overturned," and in the end they repented and Ninveh was not overturned. And therefore a prophet, a true prophet, by what is he tested? By the fact that he prophesies about something good that will happen in the future, and we see whether it will happen or not. But if he prophesies about something bad that will happen and it did not happen, the prophet can always say, Hashem relented from the evil because He saw that the people of Israel repented. Says the Holy One: "for a word of righteousness has gone forth from My mouth." Even without an oath, for a word of righteousness has gone forth from My mouth. Righteousness is a matter of justice, of kindness that I promised. And if I promise a matter of righteousness, I will not retract in any way. And if so, there is in this a promise, "a word that will not return." From all of this it is clear to you, there is here both an oath and not just an oath but by My great Name, and beyond that there is here a word of righteousness which is a good promise. What does all of this announce to you? That this matter will be something that will not return, will not change in any way. And even though I have sworn that to Me every knee shall bow, that I will accept... He says to them, and in fact what was the concern, as we explained in the previous verse? You would fear to return to Me, perhaps the Torah and the mitzvot were given only to the people of Israel, perhaps I will not accept you. Regarding this He says, what did I swear? What word of righteousness went forth from My mouth? That to Me every knee shall bow. I will accept all the nations under the faith, the faith of Israel, the faith of truth. I will accept them all and will not discriminate between Israel and the nations in the very acceptance of My faith. Every knee shall bow to Me. And do not think that this will be only occasionally, from time to time. To Me every tongue shall swear. They will all accept upon themselves with an oath to serve Me and no other god. That is to say, here it already speaks about a constant service. Not one time the knee shall bow, but rather he shall swear to serve Me constantly. So if so, turn to Me and be saved, all ends of the earth. And if so, what else do you have to seek from the idols that we proved to you, says the prophet, that from them you have no benefit at all, but only from Hashem, blessed be He.