Ha'azinu 1st-2nd Portions
1 Listen,
you heavens, and I will speak; hear, you earth, the words of my mouth [wherewith
I am forewarning Israel, and be witnesses to the fact that I told them you
would be my witnesses (see 30:19). If they are meritorious, the heavens and the
earth will give them their bounty; if not, they will withhold it.]
2 [This
is what you shall testify, that I say before you that the law that I gave to
Israel is life to the world, just as rain is.] Let my teaching [i.e., the law]
fall like rain and my words descend like dew [which is universally
welcome], like showers on new grass [which cause it to flourish (so the law causes
its disciples to flourish)], like abundant rain on [the (individual) blades of]
tender plants.
Rashi’s Commentary
Let my teaching fall like rain—This is the evidence that you will have to give: that in your
presence I declare that the law which I gave to Israel (לִקְחִי) is life to the world as
the rain which is life to the world (cf. SifreiDevarim 306:17)—even as the
heavens drop down dew and rain.
Descend like dew in which everybody rejoices. He adds this because rain involves
annoyance to some people, as, for instance, to those on a journey, or a man
whose pit (the pit into which the wine flows when the grapes are being pressed)
is full of wine (which thus becomes spoiled) (SifreiDevarim 306:17).
New grass—Herbaries in old French. English herbage—the vesture of the ground
when it is covered with new grass (greens).
Tender plants—A single stalk is called עֵשֶׂב and similarly each species
of herbs by itself is called עֵשֶׂב (while דֶּשֶׁא
denotes new grass in general). (Cf. Rashi on Gen 1:11 and Note thereon).
3 I
will proclaim the name of the Lord. Oh, praise the greatness of our
God! [whence it is derived that after a blessing in the Temple, the response is
“Blessed is the name of the glory of his kingdom”]
Berakhot 21a:4
And from where is the commandment
by the law to recite the blessing over the law before it is
read, derived? As it is stated: “I will proclaim the Lord’s name. Oh,
praise the greatness of our God” (Deu 32:3), meaning that before one
proclaims the Lord’s name by reading the law, he must praise the greatness of
God.
4 He is
the Rock [even when he is strong (as a rock), when he brings punishment upon
the flouters of his will], his works are perfect [in absolute accord with
justice], and all his ways are just [and not blind fury]. A faithful God [to
repay the righteous in the world to come] who does no wrong [even to the
wicked. He repays their deeds of righteousness in this world.], upright [that
they do so] and just [i.e., all vindicate his judgment] is he [pronounced].
Rashi’s Commentary
A faithful God—Faithful to recompense the just their righteousness in the
world to come; and even though he defers their recompense, in the end he will
prove faithful (לְאַמֵּן) to
his promise.
Who does no wrong—Even to the wicked he pays the reward for their meritorious deeds,
but in this world (SifreiDevarim 307:11; cf. Rashi on Deu 7:10).
5 They
are corrupt [themselves] and not his children; [and the corruption that they
wrought is] to their shame [and not his] they are a warped and crooked
generation.
Rashi’s Commentary
His children, their shame—i.e., they were his children, and the corruption which they
wrought is their shame.
6 Is
this the way you repay the Lord [who has the power to exact punishment of
you, and who accorded you all manner of good], you foolish [who forgot all that
was done to them] and unwise people [to foresee consequences, it being in his power
to do good and ill]? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you [a
nation among nations] and formed you [securely]?
Rashi’s Commentary
Is this the way you repay
the Lord—This is an expression of
astonishment: Do you mean to grieve him who has the power to punish you, and
who has bestowed all these favours upon you?
You foolish . . . people—i.e., a people that has forgotten all that has been done to them.
Unwise to
consider what will result from their actions, viz., that it is in his power to
do them good or evil according to their actions (cf. Siphre).
Is he not your Father, your Creator? The last word may mean: Who has acquired (קָנָה) you, or, Who has placed
you (more lit., made you nest, קִנְּנֶךָ) in a nest of rocks and in strong ground, or, Who has fitted
you out (תִּקְּנֶךָ)
with everything that will benefit you.
Who made you a nation among the nations of the world,
And formed you afterwards on every kind of firm base and foundation (כַּן) (i.e. made you
self-contained): out of your midst come your priests, out of your midst your
Levites, and out of your midst your kings—a city in which is everything
(Chullin 56b; SifreiDevarim 309:7).
7
Remember the days of old [i.e., what he did to the first ones who angered him];
consider the generations [of the flood] long past [of Enosh, which he flooded
with Oceanus]. Ask your father [the prophets] and he will tell you, your
elders [the sages], and they will explain [the early happenings] to you.
Rashi’s Commentary
Remember the days of old—What he did to previous generations who provoked him to anger.
Consider the generations long
past—The generation of Enosh over whom he caused
the waters of the ocean to flow, and the generations of the flood whom he drowned
by flood (cf. SifreiDevarim 310:1). Another explanation is: If you have not set
your attention to the past (i.e. if you fail to remember the days of old, then)
consider at least the generations so that you become conscious of
what might happen in the future—that he has the power to bestow good upon you
and to make you inherit the blissful days of Messiah and the world to come (cf.
SifreiDevarim 310:5).
Your elders—These are the Sages.
And they will explain to you the events of the former days.
8 When
the Most High gave the nations [who angered him] their inheritance [he inundated
them], when he divided all mankind [i.e., when he scattered the generation of
the Tower of Babel, he could have removed them from the world; but he did not
do so. Instead,] he set up boundaries [seventy tongues] for the peoples [he established
them and did not cause them to go lost] according to the number of the sons of
Israel [that were destined to go forth from the children of Shem, and in
accordance with the number of seventy souls of the children of Israel who went
down to Egypt].
Rashi’s Commentary
When the Most High gave the nations
their inheritance—When the Holy One, blessed be he
gave those who provoked him to anger their inheritance, he afterwards caused
the flood to pass over them and he drowned them (SifreiDevarim 311:1).
When he divided all mankind—i.e. when he scattered the generation which witnessed the
separation of races, he also had the power to remove them from the world, yet
he did not do so, but he set up boundaries for the peoples—he let them
(the peoples) remain in existence and did not destroy them.
According to the number of the sons
of Israel—i.e. because of the number of the sons
of Israel that were in future to descend from Shem’s sons, and in accordance
with the number of seventy souls of the sons of Israel who went down to Egypt
he set up boundaries for the peoples—i.e. seventy separate nations (cf. SifreiDevarim
311:5).
9 [And
why all this?] For the Lord’s portion [was secreted among them and destined to
come forth. And who is his “portion?”] is his people, [and who is his people?]
Jacob his allotted inheritance [the third cord of a three-fold cord (Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob), Jacob and his sons being his inheritance (not Ishmael, the
son of Abraham, and not Esav, the son of Isaac)].
Rashi’s Commentary
For the Lord’s portion is his
people—Why all this? (Why did he save them from
destruction?) Because the Lord’s portion was comprised in them and was destined
to come forth. And who is his portion? His people. And who is his people?
Jacob his allotted inheritance—And he is the third among the patriarchs, who is endowed with
three merits: the merit of his grandfather, the merit of his father and his own
merit thus altogether three—like a rope (חֶבֶל) that is made up of
three strands. Only he and his sons became his inheritance, not, however,
Ishmael, Abraham’s son, nor Esau, Isaac’s son (cf. SifreiDevarim 312:3).
10 In a
desert land [Israel accepting his law, his kingdom, and his yoke, as opposed to
Ishmael and Esau (see 33:2)] he found him [(Jacob's sons) faithful unto him], in
a barren [even there they were steadfast in their faith] and howling [with
jackals, etc.] waste. [There] he shielded him [with clouds, and with standards
on four sides, and with the base of the mountain (Sinai), arching it over them
like a barrel] and cared for him [with the law and understanding]; he guarded
him [from fiery serpents, scorpions, and the nations] as the apple of his eye,
John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes on
the Whole Bible
He found him—Not by chance, but as it were looking out and seeking for him. He
did indeed manifest himself to him in Egypt, but it was in the wilderness at
Sinai, God found him in an eminent manner, and revealed his will to him, and entered
into covenant with him, and imparted himself and his grace and blessing to him.
By this word he also signifies both their lost condition in themselves, and
that their recovery was not from themselves, but only from God who sought and
found them out by his grace.
In a barren and howling waste—In a place destitute of all the necessaries and comforts of life,
which also was a type of that desolate and comfortless condition in which all
men are before the grace of God finds them out; where instead of the voices of
men, is nothing heard but the howlings and yellings of ravenous birds and
beasts.
He shielded him—He conducted them frons place to place by his cloudy pillar and
providence. Or, he compassed him about, by his provident care, watching over
him and preserving him on every side.
As the apple of his eye—As men use to keep the apple of their eye, that is, with singular
care and diligence, this being as a most tender, so a most useful part.
11 [he
led them with mercy and compassion] like an eagle that [by soft motions] stirs
up its nest and hovers over its young [and not bearing down upon them.
(Likewise, the Holy One blessed be he, in giving Israel the law, did not “bear
down upon them” from one side, but “projected himself” from four sides)], that
spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft [(from place to
place, unlike other birds, who take their young in their talons, fearing the
eagle who flies above them. Not so the eagle, which fears no other birds, but
only projectiles, from which it shields its fledglings with its body.) The
Lord, likewise, “shielded” Israel at the Red Sea (See Exo 14:19-20; 19:4.)]
John Trapp Complete Commentary
To catch them—With much tenderness, but nothing comparable to that of God.
John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes on
the Whole Bible
Its wings—As preparing herself to fly.
Matthew Poole’s English Annotations
on the Holy Bible
Spreads its wings—As preparing herself to fly.
The Adam Clarke Commentary
Like an eagle that stirs up its nest—Flutters over her brood to excite them to fly; or, as some think,
disturbs her nest to oblige the young ones to leave it; so God by his plagues
in Egypt obliged the Israelites, otherwise very reluctant, to leave a place
which he appeared by his judgments to have devoted to destruction.
12
The Lord alone [and secure] led him [in the desert]; no foreign god [in
any of the nations’ gods] was with him.
John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes on
the Whole Bible
With him—To assist him at that work or to deliver them. The more unworthy
they in giving to idols a share in that worship which they owe to God only.
Joseph Benson’s Commentary
No foreign god was with him—To assist him at that work, or to deliver them. The more unworthy
they, in giving to idols a share in that worship which they owe to God only.
The Adam Clarke Commentary
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