Ibn Ezra on Isaiah

ויחי And was recovered. Comp. עד חיותם till they were whole (Jos. 5:8), ואתה מחיה and thou preservest (Neh. 9:6). It might also mean, And he lived.

בדמי. Some derive it from דָּם blood, and explain it, In the vigour; but the correct explanation is: In the cutting off. Comp. נדמה נדמה shall utterly be cut off (Hos. 10:15). שאל The grave, which is deep in the earth; the opposite of heaven, which is always above; comp. Ps. 139:8: it does not mean hell. פקדתי I am deprived. Comp. ולא נפקד and there lacketh not (Num. 31:49); it is a poetical expression, as also used in Arabic. Some say that פקדתי is the same as ממני פקד was taken from me, and compare it with יצאוני are gone forth from me (Jer. 10:20); according to others it means I was remembered, in the same sense as and the Lord remembered (Gen. 21:1). The residue of my years. Comp. the number of thy days I will complete (Ex. 23:26). In my commentary on that verse I have explained it.

I shall not see the Lord, etc. God is not subject to accidents, that a human eye should be able to perceive Him; He is, however, known by His works. The meaning of this verse is therefore: I shall not see any longer the works of the Almighty; I shall not understand the works of the Lord in this world, in the land of the living. These latter words are thus added as a kind of explanation of the preceding phrase. The pleasure which man has in this world in understanding the works of the Almighty is first mentioned; and then, in the words, I shall behold man no more, his pleasure in seeing his fellow-men. חדל World. חדל is perhaps the same as חלד life, as כשב is the same as כבש lamb; comp. חלדי my life (Ps. 39:6); it is possible that the word has the same meaning in the phrase מה חדל אני how long I am living (Ps. 39:5). The life of man in this world is perhaps called חדל because man must at some time cease to be therein.

דורי My dwelling. Comp. מדור from dwelling (Ps. 39:5); the word is frequent in Chaldee; דור generation (13:20) is perhaps to be derived from the same root; comp. for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner (Ps. 39:13). נִסַּע Is departed. The radical נ is replaced by Dagesh in the ס. ונגלה And is removed. Comp. גלות exile (20:4). ממני=מני From me. Comp. 22:4. רועי Either my shepherd, the י being the pronominal suffix, or belonging to a shepherd, the י signifying relation, as in פנימי inner (1 Kings 6:26), אכזרי cruel (13:9); for the tent of the shepherd does not remain in one place. קפדתי I folded together. Like a weaver. Comp. And my days are swifter than the weaver’s shuttle (Job 7:6). מדלה With pining sickness. Comp. דל lean (1 Sam. 13:4). With this illness, which I am suffering now, יבצעני He will cut me off, that my life will expire; comp. ויבצעני and cut me off (Job 6:9). מיום עד לילה תשלימני From day even to night it will make peace with me. It is an illness that keeps peace with the patient during the day, and makes war during the night; a fact often observed in cases of illness.תשלימני It will make peace with me Comp. תשלים it will make peace (Deut. 20:12)

שויתי I made equal; supply נפשי myself; or I compared the illness in its fierce attacks on me, with a lion which generally breaks the bones. From day even to night it maketh peace with me, to my great surprise, after the attacks during the night.

כסוס כעגור=כסוס עגור. Comp. כרע כאח לי as though he had been my friend, my brother (Ps. 35:14). In the same way ככבש כאלוף = אלוף ככבש like a lamb, like an ox (Jer. 14:19). סיס and עגור are names of birds, a crane, a swallow. So did I chatter. The patient in his heavy illness mutters and speaks what no one is able to understand. דלו They are lifted up. Root דלל, comp. דליו they are high (Prov. 26:7). עשקה לי It oppresseth me. The illness oppresseth me. ערבני Undertake for me. Comp. ערוב be surety (Ps. 119:112); according to some הרבני = ערבני destroy me; this is nonsense. The word ערבני, lit. pledge thyself for me, is an anthropomorphism; it means, sympathise with me in my troubles.

He hath spoken unto me. He said, I will add to thy days (ver. 5), והוא עשה And himself will do it. The past is here used for the future; comp. נתתי I will give (Gen. 23:13); or And himself hath done this kindness unto me, and still I shall go softly in the bitterness of my soul, when remembering these troubles, which I had to suffer. אדדה I shall go softly. Hithpaël; there is no parallel to it in the Bible, but אדדם I went with them (Ps. 42:5), and in the Mishna מדדה (Shabb. 18:2) in the well known meaning.

עליהם By them. By the words, hinted at in the phrase And he said (ver. 15). עליהם יחיו By them they live. By thy words and acts the living beings exist. ולכל And always. The word עת time is to be supplied. ותחלימני So wilt thou recover me. Comp. יחלמו they are strong (Job 39:4); חלום strong (Talm. Bab. Rosh Hashanah 28)

Behold when I hoped for peace, etc., when I was in the middle of my years, (Hezekiah was 39 years old, when he was taken ill); for when the choler is predominant in man, he is ailing in his youth, but healthy in his old age; the reverse takes place, if the phlegm is predominant; but the middle years are generally expected to be peaceful. מר לי מר I had great bitterness. The repetition indicates emphasis. Some derive מר from תמורה the reverse. בלי Some compare it with בלתי I am waxed old (Gen. 18:12), and consider it as a noun like פרי fruit meaning corruption. Others say that בלי means in this verse not, and that the sentence is inverted. The first explanation is preferable: And thou hast desired my soul, and brought me up from the pit of corruption. For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. A figure taken from man, that does not see, what is behind his back; for we know, that God, the Creator of all bodies, has no body. This verse proves the assertion of some authorities, that in consequence of a sin committed by him, Hezekiah should have died earlier; and since, as they otherwise stated, he who dies before his fifty-second year suffers the punishment כָּרְת to be cut off,: He who dies in the fiftieth year of his life, dies by the punishment of כָּרֵת; he who dies in the fifty-second year enjoys a death like that of the prophet Samuel. he was grieved, that he should be punished with כָּרְת, not being conscious of having committed a sin deserving it; he says therefore: Remember now, how I have walked before Thee, and have done what is good in Thine eyes (ver. 3); he mentions two things, the thought and the practice. Tradition says, that he had not yet obeyed the commandment to marry..

For the grave, etc. The body which is in the grave; the negation לא is to be repeated after מות: death cannot celebrate thee; comp. Prov. 21:14. ישברו They hope. Comp. Ps. 145:15. Many are surprised to find here the prophet declaring such things, as if denying the truth of the resurrection of the dead; but the body has no power, no knowledge, when the soul has left it; and why should we be surprised at it? Man has sometimes no understanding when the soul is in the body, much less after his death.

The living, the living. The word חי living is repeated as if to say he who is living, as I do, or he who has recovered from illness. Shall praise thee, shall give thanks in words, in which soul and body appear to unite. According to some the first חי refers to God; but there is no necessity for this assumption. Thy truth. These acts of truth.

The Lord. Supply hath said, or will say, or will command. And my songs, the songs which I shall compose. We will sing. I, and the singers in the temple, will sing, all our life.

Let them take a lump of figs, etc. This is a miracle, because the figs are injurious to him who suffers from the scab; and the reason that the future forms וימרחו ,ישאו are used, is, that here only the command is reported. דבלת תאנים A lump of figs. Figs, that are opened, pressed together, and form a mass which is cut with a knife. וימרחו And lay it for a plaster. The word has a similar meaning in Arabic; what it means is well known.

ויאמר חזקיהו Hezekiah also had said before, What is the sign, as mentioned above (38:7)