Come ye near unto me, and hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning: from the time before it was done, I was there, and now the Lord God hath sent me, and his spirit.
Ibn Ezra
Come ye near unto me, unto the prophet. I have not spoken in secret from the beginning of this plan and this divine decree. From the time that it was, there was I. The Gaon finds here an indication that the soul exists before the body; but he is wrong, because it is said, They are decreed now, and not from the beginning a time anterior to the birth of the prophet, and the pronoun I in the phrase, There am I, to the soul of the prophet. If this were the correct explanation, the prophet implied in these words his adherence to the theory of the pre-existence of the soul. But I. E. properly rejects this explanation, since ver. 7, quoted by him, proves that the words, from the beginning, do not refer to a very remote time, but to a period within the lifetime of the prophet. (ver. 7). The meaning of the sentence is the following: When this decree was made by God unto the angels, the representatives of the respective countries (comp. Dan. 10:20), I was also there. ורוחו And His spirit, that is His angel. The Gaon says, that ברוחו=ורוחו by His spirit; comp. דרשו יי ועזו seek the Lord in His strength ; but there is no necessity to assume that.
Hebrew and Aramaic words are the commentator’s citations of the sacred text; the English translation that follows each is the translator’s.
Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.