Parashat Beshalach.

And it came to pass when Pharaoh had sent [the people away] that G-d guided them not. The word נחם means He guided them, just as, (Exodus 32:34) “Go, guide (נחה) the people”, and (Proverbs 6:22) “when thou goest it shall guide (תנחה) thee”.

Because it was near. and it would therefore be easy to return by the same route to Egypt., Of Midrashic explanations there are many (cf. Mekhilta).

When they see war. For instance the war mentioned in (Numbers 14:45) “Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites came down etc.” If they had proceeded by the direct route they would have then turned back. This is evident, for what would have been the case? If, when He led them about by a circuitous way, they said, (Numbers 14:4) “Let us appoint another chief and go back to Egypt”, had He led them by a direct route how much the more certainly would they have spoken so.

Peradventure [the people] repent. peradventure they cherish a different thought (they change their mind) about having gone out and set their hearts on returning (cf. Rashi on Genesis 6:6).

. means HE LED THE PEOPLE ABOUT from the direct route to a circuitous route.

. is the same as לים סוף TO THE RED SEA. The word סוף has the meaning of a marshy tract in which reeds grow; examples are: (Exodus 2:3) “She placed him in the reeds (בסוף)”; (Isaiah 19:6) “The flags and the reeds (וסוף) shall wither”.

. The word חמשים means provided with weapons (Mekhilta)., [Because He led them by a circuitous route through the wilderness He brought it about that they went up from Egypt well-provided; for had He led them circuitously by the route of an inhabited district they would not have provided for themselves every thing that they needed, but only a part, like a person who is travelling from place to place and intends to purchase there whatever he will require. But if he were setting out for the wilderness he must provide all that he will require., This verse (statement in the verse) is written only with the view of making the ear understand (preparing you for a later statement) viz., that you should not wonder with regard to the war with Amalek and the war with Sihon and Og and Midian where they obtained weapons, since they smote them with the sword]. In a similar sense it says, (Joshua 1:14) “and ye shall pass over armed (חמשים)”. Onkelos, too, translated it by מזרזין which signifies “armed” in Aramaic, just as he translates the word וירק in (Genesis 14:14) וירק את חניכיו which means, “And he armed his trained servants” by וזריז. Another explanation of חמשים is: only one out of five (חמשה) went forth from Egypt, and four parts of the people died during the three days of darkness because they were unworthy of being delivered (Mekhilta; cf. Rashi on 10:22).

He had straitly adjured. He had made them swear that they would make their children swear. But why did he not make his sons swear that they would take him to the land of Canaan immediately on his death, as Jacob had made his sons swear? Joseph said: I was a ruler in Egypt and I had sufficient power to do what my father desired; but my sons, the Egyptians will not permit them to do this. Consequently he made them swear that when they would be delivered and would go forth from there that they would take him up with them (Mekhilta).

Then ye shall bring up my bones away hence with you. It was his brothers whom he made swear thus; consequently this tells us that they (the Israelites who left Egypt) must have brought up with them the bones of all Jacob’s sons (lit., the tribes) since it is said “with you” (with your own bones) (Mekhilta).

And they journeyed from succoth. on the second day, for on the first day they had come from Rameses to Succoth (Exodus 12:37).

To guide them in the way. It (the ל of לנחתם) is punctuated with Patach, because it (the word) is like לְהַנְחוֹתָם (being a contracted form of this); similar is, (Deuteronomy 1:33) “לַרְאֹתְכֶם the way in which ye shall go”, which is the same as לְהַרְאֹתְכֶם to show you. Thus, too, here: לנחתם means as much as להנחותם to make them be guided i. e. by means of an agent. And who was this agent? The pillar of cloud, and the Holy One, blessed be He, in His glory (Himself) led it before them. Nevertheless He Himself did not act as their immediate guide, but He provided the pillar of cloud that they might be guided by means of it, for, as a matter of fact, as the Scriptural account shows, it was by means of the pillar of cloud that they set forth on their journeys. The pillar of cloud was not for giving light to them but to show them the way.

. means He, the Holy One, blessed be He, did not let depart (did not remove) את עמוד הענן יומם ועמוד האש לילה THE PILLAR OF CLOUD BY DAY NOR THE PILLAR OF FIRE BY NIGHT., This tells us (we may gather from this) that the pillar of cloud handed over the camp to the pillar of fire and the pillar of fire handed it over to the pillar of cloud, that before the one set the other rose (Shabbat 23b).

עַמּוּד הֶעָנָן יוֹמָם וְעַמּוּד הָאֵשׁ לָיְלָה. מַגִּיד שֶׁעַמּוּד הֶעָנָן מַשְׁלִים לְעַמּוּד הָאֵשׁ, וְעַמּוּד הָאֵשׁ מַשְׁלִים לְעַמּוּד הֶעָנָן, שֶׁעַד שֶׁלֹּא יִשְׁקַע זֶה עוֹלֶה זֶה (שבת כ"ג ע"ב).

That they turn. backwards; all the third day they were moving nearer towards the Egyptians, in order to mislead Pharaoh, so that he should say: They have lost their way, as it is said, (v. 3) “so that Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, [They are entangled in the land]”.

And encamp before pi-hahiroth. This is identical with Pithom (Mekhilta), but now it obtained the name of פי החירת, because there they became בני חורין free-men (חירת is explained as חרות freedom). This was two high, precipitous rocks and the valley between them was called פי הסלעים the mouth (opening) of the rocks.

Before baal-zephon. It (the idol of this name) alone had been left by G-d of all the gods of Egypt and, this, too, in order to mislead them, that they should say that their god was a difficult one to overcome. It was with reference to this that Job expressly said, (Job 12:23) “He causes the nations to err (מַשְׂגִיא, is taken in the sense of מַשְׁגִיא from root שגה to err) and then destroyeth them” (Mekhilta; cf. Rashi on this passage).

Then Pharaoh will say. when he hears that they are turning back.

. means על בני ABOUT THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. Similarly. (v. 14) “The Lord will fight לכם”, i. e. עליכם for you; (Genesis 20:13) “Say לי, he is my brother” i. e. say about me.

. means, shut up and sunk deep. old French serrer. Of similar meaning are (Job 38:16) “the depths of (נבכי) the sea”; (Psalms 84:7) “in the vale of dejection (הבכא)”; (Job 28:11) “from the depths (מבכי) of the rivers.”

And i will be honoured through Pharaoh. When the Holy One, blessed be He, takes vengeance on the wicked His name is magnified and honoured. Thus, too, it states, (Ezekiel 38:22, 23) “And I will plead against him [with pestilence and with blood etc.]”, and afterwards, “Thus I shall be magnified and sanctified etc.” And it states, (Psalms 76:3) “There He broke the fiery shafts of the bow”, and afterwards (after He has done this) (v. 2) “In Judah is G-d known. “Further it states, (Psalms 9:17) “The Lord is known because He executeth judgment” (Mekhilta).

Through Pharaoh and through all his forces. He began the wrongdoing and with him began the punishment (Mekhilta; cf. Rashi on Exodus 7:28).

And they did so. This is stated in order to tell their praise, that they hearkened to Moses and did not say, How can we move nearer to our enemies; we ought rather to flee,” but they said, “It is ours only to carry out the bidding of the son of Amram” (cf. Mekhilta).

And it was told the king of Egypt. He sent public officers with them, and as soon as they had reached the three days’ journey which he had fixed for them to go and return, and these perceived that they were not going back to Egypt, they came and told Pharaoh on the fourth day (cf. Mekhilta). On the fifth and sixth they pursued after them: on the night of the seventh day they went down into the sea and on the following morning they (the Israelites) sang the Song of Praise and this was the seventh day of Passover. And that is why we read “The Song” (Exodus 15:1 ff.) as the Scriptural lesson on the seventh day of the Festival (Megillah 31a; Seder Olam 5; cf. Sotah 12b).

[and the heart…] was turned. it was turned (changed) from what it had been, because he had said to them (Exodus 12:31) “Arise, go out from the midst of my people”, and his servants’ hearts were changed because formerly they had said to him, (Exodus 10:7) “How long shall this man be a snare unto us? [let the men go etc.]”. Now, however, they (their hearts) were changed, prompting them to pursue them, because of the property that they had handed over to them (cf. Mekhilta).

. means from serving us (i. e. the word is an infinitive with an objective suffix and not a noun signifying “from our service”, which would require מֵעֲבוֹדָתֵנוּ).

And he made ready his chariot. he himself (Mekhilta)

And took his people with him. he drew them on by fine words, as follows: “We have been stricken and they have taken our money and yet we have let them go free. Come with me and I will not behave with you as other kings. It is the way of other kings that their subjects go in front of them into the battle, but I will go in front of you”, as, indeed, it is said, (v. 10) “And Pharaoh הקריב” (the Hiphil): which signifies he brought himself near and hastened in front of his army., “It is the way of other kings to take the booty at the beginning as he chooses (to have first pick of the booty), but I will be equal to you in the division of the booty”, as, indeed, it states that he said, (Exodus 15:9) “I will divide the spoil”Mekhilta.

. means CHOSEN. The word בחור is singular number, the idea is: each and every chariot in that number was a selected one.

. signifies AND with these were ALL THE other CHARIOTS OF EGYPT. And whence came all these animals required for the chariots? If you say that they were from the cattle of the Egyptians, but you know it is stated, (Exodus 9:6) “And all the cattle of the Egyptians died”. And if you say that they were from the Israelites’ cattle, but is it not stated, (Exodus 10:26) “Our cattle, also, shall go with us”! Then whose were they? They were of those “who feared the word of the Lord” and saved their cattle by bringing them into their stables (Exodus 9:20). Deriving it from here (on account of this fact) R. Simeon said: The best amongst the Egyptians, kill him (otherwise he will afterwards devise evil against you); the best amongst the serpents, crush its brains (Mekhilta).

. means army-captains, as the Targum has it.

And the Lord allowed the heart of Pharaoh to be hardened. the meaning is, that he was in doubt whether to pursue or not, and He hardened his heart to pursue (Mekhilta).

With a high hand. with high and open daring (cf. Mekhilta).

. It should have written ופרעה קרב “and Pharaoh came near”, what is the force of the Hiphil הקריב, “He caused to come near”? He made himself come near, he forced himself to go in front of them as he had arranged with them (cf. Rashi on v. 6).

. [EGYPT] JOURNEYED AFTER THEM (נסע is singular), the Egyptians journeyed after them with one mind and as one man (hence the use of the singular) (Mekhilta). Another explanation of והנה מצרים נסע אחריהם is: the singular denotes that they saw, not the Egyptians, but the guardian angel of Egypt coming from heaven to assist the Egyptians. Thus is it explained in the Tanchuma (cf. Exodus Rabbah 21:5).

And they cried. they took to hand the handicraft of their fathers (they had recourse to prayer as their fathers had always done in times of trouble). In the case of Abraham it is said, (Genesis 19:27) “[And Abraham went] to the place where he had stood in prayer”. In the case of Isaac: (Genesis 24:63) “[He went out towards evening] to pray”. In the case of Jacob: (Genesis 28:11) “He prayed to the Omnipresent G-d” (cf. Mekhilta; Midrash Tanchuma, Vayera 9, and Rashi on the texts quoted).

. signifies, was it on account of lack of graves, because there were no graves in Egypt in which to be buried, that thou didst bring us out from there? old French si pour faillance de non fossés.

[the word] that we spoke unto thee in Egypt. And where had they said this? (Exodus 5:21) “The Lord look upon you and judge!” (Mekhilta)

. means THAN THAT WE SHOULD DIE. If the word had been punctuated with a Melopum (our חולם i. e. מִמּוֹתֵנוּ) it would have to be explained “than our death” (מוֹתֵנוּ our death from the noun מָוֶת) but now that it is punctuated with a שורק (our Kibbutz) it must be explained by “than that we should die”. And similar is, (Exodus 16:3) “Would that מוּתֵנוּ” i. e. “that we should die”; similar is, (II Samuel 19:1) “Would that מוּתִי” in the history of Absalom, which means “that I should die”. It is an infinitive like (Zephaniah 3:8) “Until the day קוּמִי for ever”, and as (II Chronicles 18:26) “Until the day שׁוּבִי in peace”, which signify שאקום “that I shall arise”, and שאשוב “that I shall return”.

. means WHAT (the fact that) YE HAVE SEEN them (THE EGYPTIANS), is only היום THIS DAY, to-day it it that ye see them, BUT YE SHALL NEVER AGAIN see them.

. means He will fight on your behalf; similar is (v. 25) “For the Lord fighteth for them (להם)”; so too, (Job. 13:8) “will ye contend for G-d (לאל)?” and thus, too, (Genesis 24:7) “and who spoke on my behalf (לי)”, and so, too, (Judges 6:31) “Will ye plead for Baal (לבעל)?”

Wherefore criest thou unto me?. there is no mention that he prayed to G-d concerning this, but this teaches us that Moses stood in prayer. Whereupon the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, “It is no time now to pray at length, when Israel is placed in trouble”. Another explanation of מה תצעק אלי (taking it in the sense of “Wherefore criest thou? אלי it is to Me, concerns Me”), upon Me rests this matter and not upon thee. The idea contained in this explanation is similar to what is expressed elsewhere: (Isaiah 45:11) “Concerning My sons and concerning the work of My hands will ye command Me?” (Mekhilta)

Speak unto the children of Israel that they journey onwards. There is nothing for them to do but to journey on, for the sea will not stand in their way: their ancestors’ merits and their own, and the faith that they placed in Me so that they left Egypt will suffice to divide the sea for them (cf. Mekhilta; Shemot Rabbah 21:8).

And went behind them. to divide the camp of Egypt from the camp of Israel and to receive the arrows and the missiles of the Egyptians. Everywhere it says “The Angel of the Lord (ה׳)” whilst here we have The Angel of G-d (אלהים).”! The name אלהים really denotes, wherever it occurs, “Judge” (lit., “judgment”). Therefore the use of this term here teaches us that Israel was, at that moment, arraigned in judgment, whether to be saved or to be destroyed together with Egypt (Mekhilta).

And the pillar of cloud went [from before them]. When it became dark and the pillar of cloud handed over the camp to the pillar of fire, the cloud did not go away as it was accustomed to go away altogether in the evening, but it went and betook itself behind them to make it dark for the Egyptians.

And it came between the camp of Egypt. A parable: it may be compared to one who is proceeding on a journey, his son walking in front of him. If, now, brigands come to capture him (the son), he takes him away from in front of him and places him behind himself. If a wolf then comes behind him he places him again in front. If brigands come in front of him and wolves behind him, he places him on his arm and fights against them. Thus did G-d do for Israel, as it says, (Hosea 11:3) “I led Ephraim, He took them upon His arms” (Mekhilta).

And there was cloud and darkness. to the Egyptians.

And it. the pillar of fire, ILLUMINATED the night for the Israelites, and went before them as was its way to go every night, whilst the darkness of the cloud was turned towards the Egyptians.

So that one approached not another. [This does not mean that one person did not approach another but]: this camp did not approach that camp (Mekhilta).

By a powerful east wind. i. e. by the east wind which is the most powerful of the winds. This is the wind by which the Holy One, blessed be He, exacts punishment from the wicked, as it is said, (Jeremiah 18:17) “I will scatter them as with an east wind”; (Hosea 13:15) “An east wind shall come, the wind of the Lord”; (Ezekiel 27:26) “The east wind hath broken thee in the heart of the sea”; (Isaiah 27:8) “He hath removed her with His rough blast in the day of the east wind” (cf. Mekhilta).

And the waters were divided. all the waters in the world (Mekhilta).

. (The word סוס is singular), But was there only one horse? But the use of the singular teaches us that they were all accounted before the Omnipresent as only one horse (cf. Mekhilta).

In the morning watch. The three divisions of the night are each called an אשמורה “a watch” (Berakhot 3b), and that which immediately precedes the morning is called “the morning watch”. I am of opinion that because the night is divided for the watches (משמרות) of the song of the ministering angels, company after company, into three divisions, therefore each division of the night is termed, for all purposes, an אשמרת (another form of משמר the angel’s watch), and this is what Onkelos has in mind when he translates אשמרת by מטרת.

. ‎ וישקף means HE LOOKED, as much as to say, He turned towards them to destroy them (cf. Rashi on Genesis 18:16), and its rendering in the Targum, ואסתכי, is also an expression denoting looking, just as he translates (Numbers 23:14), “the field of the watchers (צפים)” by “the field of ,סכותא” which denotes “looking”.

Through the pillar of fire and cloud. viz., the pillar of cloud descended and made it (the bed of the sea) like clay, and the pillar of fire made it boiling hot so that the horses’ hoofs fell off (Mekhilta).

. has the meaning of confusion. old French estordison. He cast them into confusion; He took away their ensigns. And we read in the Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer, the son of Rabbi José, the Galilean: Wherever it speaks of מהומה (forms from the root המם) it signifies a thundering sound; and the following passage is the father of all of them (i. e. that from which this meaning is quite evident): (I Samuel 7:10) “And the Lord thundered with a great sound … upon the Philistines and discomfited them (ויהמם)”.

‎ויסר את אפן מרכבותיו and he removed their chariot wheels. Through the power of the fire of the pillar of fire the wheels were burnt and the chariots were thus dragged along and those who were sitting in them were thrown about and their limbs were all put out of joint (cf. Mekhilta).

. signifies: And He treated them with a treatment that was hard and harsh to them. In the measure that they (the Egyptians) had meted out to the Israelites was it meted out to them, for (9:34) “He hardened his heart, he and his servants”, and therefore here: “He treated them (the Egyptians) in a hard manner” (cf. Mekhilta).

Fighteth for them במצריים. means against the Egyptians. Another explanation of במצרים is: in the land of Egypt, for just as these were smitten at the Sea so, too, were smitten those who remained in Egypt (cf. Mekhilta).

. means THE WATERS that were standing erect as a wall SHALL RETURN to their places and form a cover over the Egyptians.

At the turning of the morning. at the time when the morning turns to come).

. means TO ITS ORIGINAL STRENGTH (Mekhilta).

Fled towards it. because they were thrown into confusion and were bewildered and on that account ran towards it.

And the Lord overthrew. (or, shook out or emptied out), as a person empties out a pot, turning what is on top underneath and what is underneath on top: thus they were emptied out of their chariots and they rose and fell till at last they were broken to pieces in the sea, and the Holy One, blessed be He, put vitality (strength) in them so that they could bear the pain (and thus their agony was protracted) (cf. Mekhilta).

. Onkelos renders this by ושניק which is an expression for confounding in Aramaic, and there are many examples of it in the Agadic expositions.

And covered the chariots … and all the forces of Pharaoh. in regard to the ל of לכל, this is the way of Scripture verses (of Biblical Hebrew) to write a redundant ל, as in (Exodus 27:3) “all (לכל) its vessels shalt thou make of copper”.. So, too, (Exodus 27:19) “all (לכל) the vessels of the dwelling in all the service thereof”; (Numbers 4:32) “and their pins and their cords and all (לכל) their vessels”. It is only an elegancy of style.

And Israel saw the egyptians dead. because the sea threw them out on its shore in order that the Israelites should not say: “Just as we have come up from out of the sea on this part, so they have come up on another part of this shore, but far away from us, and they will pursue us” (Mekhilta; Pesachim 118b; Arakhin 15a).

. denotes THE GREAT power which the HAND of the Holy One, blessed be He, had exercised. There are many meanings that are appropriate to the expression יד, hand, but all of them really signify the actual hand, and he who is explaining it must adapt the language according to the meaning of the passage.

Then sang Moses. with regard to the usage of the future ישיר, the meaning is: THEN, i. e. when he saw the miracle it entered his mind that HE WOULD SING a song. Similar is, (Joshua 10:12) “Then Joshua would speak (אז ידבר)”; and similar, (1 Kings 7:8) “and a house he would make (יעשה) for Pharaoh’s daughter”, which signifies “he purposed in his heart that he would make it for her”. So, also, ישיר here signifies: his heart told him that he should sing, and thus did he actually do, as it states, “and they (Moses and Israel) spake as follows, ‘I will sing unto the Lord’”. And in the same way, in the case of Joshua, it means: then (או), when he saw the miracle mentioned in that narrative, his heart told him (prompted him) to speak, and thus did he actually do, as it is stated, “and he spake before the eyes of all Israel”. The same applies to the Song of the Well (Numbers 21:17) which begins with the words: אז ישיר ישראל, “then would Israel sing”; it expresses the intention quite plainly in the following words, “Come up, O Well, sing ye unto it” (i. e. these words are a call to the people to sing to it after Israel had expressed their intention so to do and are not part of the song itself which begins with the words that follow). With regard to (1 Kings 11:7) אז יבנה שלמה במה our Rabbis explained that He proposed to build a high place for Chemosh but actually did not build it (Sanhedrin 91b). This, too, teaches us that the י as a prefix of the imperfect is used in reference to intention to do a thing. This explanation serves to settle the literal meaning of the text. But so far as its Midrashic explanation is concerned our Rabbis, of blessed memory, said: from here (i. e. from the fact that the future tense is used) we may derive an intimation that the tenet of the Resurrection of the Dead is from the Torah (is alluded to, although only by inference, in the Torah) (Sanhedrin 91b). And thus, also, do they explain in the case of all them (all of the examples quoted) except in the case of that referring to Solomon which they explained in the sense that he purposed to build a high place but did not build it., One cannot say that this can be appropriately explained in the same way as one explains other passages which are written in the future tense, but which really refer to an immediate action (i. e. to a then present time); for example, (Job. 1:5) “Thus was Job doing (יעשה)”; (Numbers 9:18) “At the command of the Lord were they encamping (יחנו)”; (Numbers 9:20) “And there were occasions when the cloud was (יהיה) upon the tabernacle”, because these were each of them something that was continuously happening, and there is proper to it either the future tense or the past tense (cf. Rashi on Genesis 29:3). But this (אז ישיר and other passages quoted) which happened only at the particular moment mentioned (once and once only), one cannot fittingly explain in this sense (i. e. of continuous action).

For he is gloriously sublime. render this as the Targum does: for He is exalted above all exalted beings and real exaltation (supremity) is His alone. [Another explanation: the repetition of the word is intended to state that He has done something which it is impossible for a human being (lit., flesh and blood) to do. When he (the latter) fights against another and vanquishes him he throws him off the horse, but here, horse and its rider together hath He hurled into the sea. The usage is, that in the case of everything which cannot possibly be done by anyone except Him the appropriate expression to use is a form of the root גאה, as in (Isaiah 12:5), “for He hath done גאות”, gloriously. In the same way you will find that throughout the whole Song the words are repeated: (v. 2) “The strength and vengeance of the Lord have become my help”; (v. 4). “The Lord is a man of war, the Lord is His name” (cf. Rashi’s explanation of this), and this is the case in all the verses]. Another explanation of כי גאה גאה: I will sing unto the Lord although (כי) He is exalted high above all songs and however much I may praise Him there will still remain something additional in Him to be praised (עוד יש בו תוספת, I can never exhaust his praises), and not as is the practice in respect to a human king whom one praises, attributing to him certain virtues whilst these are really not in him (cf. Mekhilta).

The horse and its rider. both of them attached one to the other; and the waters lifted them up and then they descended into the depths and yet they did not become separated (Mekhilta).

. means HE HATH CAST. Similar is (Daniel 3:21) “and they were cast (ורמיו) into the midst of the fiery furnace”. And an Agadic explanation is: One verse says רמה, which involves the idea of raising (רום), and another verse (v. 4) says, ירה which implies casting from a height (cf. Rashi on ירה יירה 19:13)! This teaches us that they first went up on high and then went down into the depths (i. e. they were tossed up and down). The meaning of ירה here is the same as in (Job. 38:6) “Who laid (ירה) the corner-stone thereof?”, implying laying from above to below (Mekhilta).

. Onkelos translated this by “my might and my praise”, taking עָזִּי the same as עֻזִּי, and וְזִמְרָת the same as וְזִמְרָתִי. But I wonder at the wording of the text if this translation is correct, for you will find no similar example of its punctuation (i. e. of עָזִּי) in the Scriptures except in three passages where it is, in each case, followed by וזמרת. In all other passages it is punctuated with שורק (i. e. our Kibbutz); e. g., (Jeremiah 16:19) ה' עֻזִּי ומעזי (Psalms 59:10) עֻזּו אליך אשמרה So, too, every word of two letters that is punctuated with a Melopum (our חולם) when it is lengthened by the addition of a third letter (i. e. when it has a pronominal suffix as in the examples given below), and the second has not a Sheva (חטף), the first is punctuated with a שורק (Kibbuts), as, for instance, עֹז and עֻזִּי; ‎רֹק and ‎רֻקִי ; ‎חֹק and ‎חֻקִי ; ‎עֹל and עֻלִי as in (Isaiah 14:25) “then shall his yoke (עֻלּוֹ, from עֹל) depart from him”;, כֹּל and כֻּלּוֹ, as in (Exodus 14:7) “and captains over each of them (כֻּלּוֹ), from כֹּל. But these three examples of עָזִּי וְזִּמְרָת, viz., that occuring here and that in Isaiah (12:2) and that in Psalms (118:14), are punctuated with short Kametz, whereas the translation of Onkelos would require עֻזִּי and not עָזִּי. Then further, in not one of them (these three passages) is it written וזמרתי, as Onkelos translates, but וזמרת and remarkably enough all of them are immediately followed by ויהי לי לישועה., Therefore I say in explanation of the wording of the text that עָזִּי is not the same as עֻזִּי and וְזִמְרָת is not the same as וְזִמְרָתִי, but עָזִּי is a noun without a suffix of any kind, as we find in (Psalms 123:1) “The one who sits (הַיֹּשְׁבִי) in heaven”; (Obadiah 3:3) “The one who dwells (שֹׁכְנִי) in the cleft of the rock”; (Deuteronomy 33:16) “He that dwelleth (שֹׁכְנִי) in the bush” (where the syllable at the end of the word is part of the noun and is not the pronominal suffix denoting “my”). The praise, therefore, proclaimed in these words is this: The עז and the זִמְרָת of G-d, this was to me as a help. The word וזמרת is a noun in the construct state to the word which expressess the Divine Name (יָהּ), in the same sense as (Judges 5:23) “to the help of (לעזרַת, const.) the Lord”; (Isaiah 9:18) “through the wrath of (בעברת, constr.) the Lord”; (Ecc. 3:18) “because of (דברַת, const.) the sons of man”. The expression וזמרת has the meaning of the root which we find in (Leviticus 25:4) “thou shalt not prune (תזמר)” and in (Isaiah 25:5) “the cutting down (זמיר) of the terrible ones”, both of which have the meaning “lopping off” and “cutting down”. Thus the verse signifies: “The strength and vengeance of our G-d has become to us a help”. Do not be puzzled by the expression ויהי, that it does not state היה, for we have other verses also that use this idiom, and the following is an example of such a construction: (1 Kings 6:5) “round about the wall of the house, both of the temple and the most holy place, he made (ויעש) a side structure”, and it should have said (instead of ויעש etc.) עשה לו צלעות סביב. Similarly in Chronicles, (2 10:17) “But as for the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned (וימלך) over them”, where it should have said מלך עליהם. Other examples are: (Numbers 14:16) “Because the Lord was unable etc…. He slaughtered them (וישחטם)”, where it should have said שחטם; (Numbers 14:36, 37) “And the men whom Moses sent … they died (וימתו)”, where it should have said מתו; (Exodus 9:21) “And he that regarded not the word of the Lord left (ויעזב) his cattle, etc.”, where it should have said עזב‎.

This is my G-d. In His glory did He reveal Himself to them and they pointed to Him, as it were, with the finger exclaiming “This is my G-d!” (Shir HaShirim Rabbah 3:15) A maid servant beheld at the Red Sea what even the prophets never saw (Mekhilta).

. Onkelos translates this in the sense of a dwelling (viz., I will build Him a temple) as in (Isaiah 33:20) “a peaceful habitation (נוה)” and in (Isaiah 65:10) “a dwelling (נוה) for flocks”. Another explanation of ואנוהו is that it has the sense of נוי, “beauty”, and the meaning is: I will relate His splendour and praiseworthiness to the inhabitants of the world as, for example, was actually done by Israel: (Song 5:9, 10) The nations of the world ask, “What is thy beloved more than another beloved?” … and Israel replies, “My beloved is white and ruddy”, and thus you will find it in that whole section (cf. Mekhilta).

My father’s G-d. is this וארממנהו AND I WILL EXALT HIM. אלהי אבי He is not merely my G-d but He was MY FATHER’S G-D also, I am not the beginning of the sanctity (i. e. I am not the first to hallow Him by proclaiming Him G-d), this hallowing of Him and the proclamation of His Godship over me is something that has been held by me and has remained mine since the days of my fathers.

. means The Lord is a Master of war; just as, (Ruth 1:3) “the איש (i. e. the master) of Naomi”. (Cf. Rashi on that verse). Wherever the words איש and אישך occur they must be translated by בעל; so, too, (1 Kings 2:2) “Be thou strong and show thyself an איש”, a mighty person.

The Lord is his name. His wars are not waged with martial weapons but He fights by means of His Name, just as David said, (I Samuel 17:45) “But I come against thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts”. Another explanation of ה׳ שמו, He is a man of war, but His Name is the Lord (the G-d of Mercy): even at the time when He battles against and avenges Himself upon His enemies He retains His attribute (that expressed by His name ה׳) showing pity to His creatures and feeding all the inhabitants of the world; not as is the nature of the kings of the world each one of whom when he is engaged in war turns aside from all other engagements, and has not the power to do both this and that (cf. Mekhilta).

. Onkelos translates this by שדי בימא: HE HATH CAST IN THE SEA. The word שדי is an expression for “casting”. And thus, also, it says, (Exodus 19:13) או ירה יירה which Onkelos renders by או אשתדאה ישתדי “or he shall certainly be thrown down” where the ת is used in both these words in place of (as marking) the Ithpael form, so that in these Targum words the root is שדי‎.

And the choicest. This word is a noun of similar form to מֶרְכָּב and מִשְׁכָּב and מִקְרָא [קדש]‏.

‎טבעו are sunk. The root טבע always denotes sinking in slimy matter, as may be seen from (Psalms 69:3) “I am sunk (טבעתי) in deep mire”, and from (Jeremiah 38:6) “And Jeremiah sank (ויטבע) in the mire”. The fact that this expression is used teaches, therefore, that the sea became slime (cf. Rashi on 14:24) to requite them according to their own measure, because that they had made the Israelites work as slaves with slime and with bricks (Mekhilta).

They cover them. this is the same as יְכַסּוּם and the middle י is redundant. This is quite usual in Scripture, verses (in Biblical Hebrew), just as in (Deuteronomy 8:13) וצאנך ירביון, and (Psalms 36:9) ירויון מדשן ביתך, and the force of the first י which expresses the future tense you must explain as follows: they have been sunk in the Red Sea in order that the waters should return and should cover them. The word יכסימו has no similar example in Scripture so far as its punctuation is concerned; ordinarily it would be יְכַסְיֻמוּ with Melopum (חולם)‎.

As a stone. But in another passage (v. 10) it states, “they dropped like lead”, and in yet another passage (v. 7) “it consumes them as stubble”! The wicked amongst the Egyptians were as stubble, being continually dashed about, and tossed up and down; those of average worth sank as a stone, suffering less agony, whilst the best amongst them sank as lead so that they came to their rest at once (cf. Mekhilta).

Thy right hand. twice!, When Israel performs the will of the Omnipresent the left hand (intended for punishment) becomes a right hand (bestowing reward, so that G-d has two right hands as it were) (Mekhilta).

Thy right hand, o Lord, is glorious in power. to deliver Israel, and thy second right hand dashes the enemy in pieces. But it seems to me that if we have to take it in the sense: Thy right hand is glorious to save, thy right hand dashes in pieces etc. the explanation is that the self-same right hand itself dashes the enemy in pieces, something which it is impossible for a human being, to do two actions with one hand. But the literal sense of the text is: “Thy right hand, that is glorious in power, what does it do?”, “Thy right hand, O Lord, dashes the enemy in pieces”. There are many Scriptural verses exactly in this poetical form, e. g., (Psalms 92:10) “For, behold, thine enemies, O Lord, for behold, thine enemies shall perish” and others similar.

. The י is redundant as in (Lamentations 1:1) “full of (רבתי) people . . . princess (שרתי) amongst the provinces”; (Genesis 31:39) “stolen (גנבתי) by day”.

. means, it always crushes and shatters the enemy; similar in meaning to it is, “And they crushed (וירעצו) and broke the children of Israel”, in the Book of Judges (Judges 10:8). [Another explanation is: Thy right hand that is glorious in power shatters and punishes the enemy, and these words must be connected with the following:

And through the greatness of thine excellency. if the hand alone crushes the spirit of the enemy, then when He raises it aloft IN THE GREATNESS OF HIS EXCELLENCY surely then HE WILL OVERTHROW THEM THAT RISE UP AGAINST HIM; and if through the greatness of His excellency alone His enemies are overthrown, how much more sure is it that when HE SENDETH FORTH THE FIERCENESS OF HIS WRATH against them IT WILL CONSUME THEM].

. means, Thou always overthrowest קמיך i. e. those that rise up against thee. And who are those who rise up against Him? They are those who rise up against Israel; and similarly it says, (Psalms 83:3, 4) “For, lo, thine enemies are in an uproar!” And what is this uproar? “against thy people they take crafty counsel”, and on this account, because they are Israel's enemies, it calls them the enemies of the Omnipresent (Mekhilta).

And with the breath of thy nostrils. the breath that issues from both nostrils. Scripture speaks, if this were at all possible (i. e. if one may be permitted to speak so of G-d) of the Shechina (G-d) in the same manner as it does of a human monarch, in order to make peoples’ ears hear the facts in accordance with what usually happens to that they may understand the matter: when a man is angry the breath issues from his nostrils (and Scripture attributes this to G-d, also, when He is in anger). A similar idea is: (Psalms 18:9) “Smoke rose up in His nostril”, and also, (Job. 4:9) “By the breath of his nostril they are consumed”. And this is the meaning of what He said, (Isaiah 48:9) “For My name’s sake אאריך I will make long My אף”: when one’s anger subsides his breathing becomes long, whilst when one is in anger his breathing is short (consequently אאריך אפי signifies “I will not be angry”). The text continues ותהלתי אחטם לך which means “for the sake of My praise I will place a nose-ring in My nose to close up the nostrils against the anger and the breath so that they should not issue forth”. The word לך, for thee, in this text, means “for thy sake”, אחטם has the same meaning and root as in “a wild camel with a nose-ring (חֹטֶם)” which occurs in Mishna Treatise Sabbath (Mishnah Shabbat 5:1). Thus does the explanation appear to me. And wherever אף and חרון (i. e. where אף and words formed from the same root as חרון) occur in the Scriptures I say that it has the following sense: In the phrase חרה אף the first word is the same as (Job 30:30) “My bone is חרה with heat”, where חרה denotes burning and glowing, and this metaphor is used because the nostrils become hot and burning in a time of anger. The noun חרון is a derivation of חרה, just as רצון is a derivation of רצה, and therefore signifies “burning”. In the same way, חַמה which also signifies wrath really denotes heat (from a root יחם, not חמם, since the מ of חַמָה has no Dagesh. חַמָה is formed from יחם as עֵדָה, congregation, from יעד). That is why Scripture says, (Esther 1:12) וחמתו בערה בו “his wrath burned in him”, and when one’s wrath subsides one says, “his mind has become cooled” (נתקררה from קר cold).

The waters were heaped up. Onkelos translated this in the sense of ערמימות, subtlety (the waters showed themselves clever); (cf. ערום Genesis 3:1); but it is more in accordance with the elegance of Biblical style to take it as the noun of the same root as in (Song 7:3) “a stack of (ערמת) wheat”, and the following words, “the floods placed themselves like a mound”, prove that this is so (cf. Mekhilta). נערמו, Through the burning heat of the breath that issued from thy nostrils (וברוח אפיך) the waters were dried up and they became like heaps and piles of gain-stacks (ערמה) which are high.

. Render this as the Targum does: like a שור, i. e. a wall.

. is an expression for anything heaped up and gathered together, as, (Isaiah 17:11) “a heap (נד) of boughs in the day of grief”; (Psalms 33:7) “He gathereth as a heap (כַּנֵד) [the waters of the sea]”. It is not written “He gathereth כנאד”, but כנאד”, and if כנד, were the same as כנאד “like a water-skin”, and כונס were an expression for “bringing a thing in”, it should have written: “He gathered in (מכניס and not כונס) the waters of the sea as in a water-skin”, (כבנאד and not כנד), but כונס denotes gathering together and heaping up. And this must also be the meaning of נד in (Joshua 3:16) “[the waters] rose up as one נד”, and (Joshua v. 13) “and they shall stand in one נד”; for the expressions “rising up” and “standing up” cannot be used in reference to water in water-skins but only to water that stands up as walls and heaps (and this must therefore be the meaning of כמו נד in our text also). And, then again, we find the word נֹאד punctuated only with a Melopum (חולם), as, (Psalms 56:9) “Put thou my tears into thy bottle (נֹאדֶךָ)” and (Judges 4:19) “the bottle of (נֹאד) milk”.

Were congealed. like (Job 10:10) “thou hast curdled me (תקפיאני) like cheese”; the meaning is that the depths were hardened and became like stones, and the waters cast the Egyptians against the stony wall with force and battled against them with every harsh means (cf. Mekhilta).

. means IN THE VERY STRENGTH OF THE SEA. It is the way of Scripture-verses to speak thus (to use לב in a metaphorical sense); e. g., (Deuteronomy 4:11) “unto the very midst of (לב) heaven”; (II Samuel 18:14) “in the midst of (בלב) the terebinth”. It is an expression denoting the essence and strength of a thing.

The enemy said. to his people, when he was persuading them with words (cf. Rashi on 14:6), I WILL PURSUE and I WILL OVERTAKE them and I WILL DIVIDE THE SPOIL with my captains and my subjects.

. means SHALL BE FILLED WITH THEM (not it shall fill them). נפשי MY SOUL, my spirit, my desire. Do not be puzzled at a word, that expresses an idea usually expressed by two, viz., תמלאמו for תִּמָּלֵא מֵהֶם, for there are many examples of this way of speaking; e. g., (Judges 1:15) “the south country נְתַתָּנִי”, which is the same as נָתַתָּ לִי, “thou hast given to me”; (Genesis 37:4) “And they were not able דַּבְּרוֹ peaceably”, which is the same as דַּבֵּר עִמּוֹ “to speak with him”; (Jeremiah 10:20) “My children יְצָאוּנִי which is the same as יָצְאוּ מִמֶּנִי “have gone away from me”; (Job. 31:37) “the number of my steps אַגִידֶנּוּ which is the same as אַגִּיד לוֹ “I would declare unto him”. Similarly here: תמלאמו means תִּמָּלֵא נַפְשִׁי מֵהֶם “my soul shall be filled with them”.

נַפְשִׁי. רוּחִי וּרְצוֹנִי. וְאַל תִּתְמַהּ עַל תֵּבָה הַמְּדַבֶּרֶת בִּשְׁתַּיִם, תִּמְלָאֵמוֹ – תִּמָּלֵא מֵהֶם; יֵשׁ הַרְבֵּה בַּלָּשׁוֹן הַזֶּה: "כִּי אֶרֶץ הַנֶּגֶב נְתַתָּנִי", כְּמוֹ "נָתַתָּ לִי"; "וְלֹא יָכְלוּ דַּבְּרוֹ לְשָׁלֹם", כְּמוֹ "דַּבֵּר עִמּוֹ"; "בָּנַי יְצָאוּנִי", כְּמוֹ "יָצְאוּ מִמֶּנִּי"; "מִסְפַּר צְעָדַי אַגִּידֶנּוּ", כְּמוֹ "אַגִּיד לוֹ". אַף כָּאן, תִּמְלָאֵמוֹ – תִּמָּלֵא נַפְשִׁי מֵהֶם.

. Translate this as the Targum: I WILL DRAW [MY SWORD]. Because one empties the scabbard when one draws out the sword and it (the scabbard) then remains empty (ריק), the, expression “emptying” is appropriate to it (to the act of drawing the sword), as in (Genesis 42:35) “emptying (מריקים) their sacks”; (Jeremiah 48:12) “And they shall empty (יריקו) his vessels (of wine)”. Now do not say that the expression “emptiness” in these examples does not apply to the thing which comes out, but that it applies to the scabbard and the sack and the vessels from which these things come out and not to the sword and to the wine (it is the scabbard, the sack and the vessels which are empty not the sword, the corn and the wine), and consequently give a forced explanation of אריק חרבי in the sense of the verb in (Genesis 14:14) “He armed (וירק) his trained servants”, saying that it means, “I will arm myself with my sword”, for we do, indeed, find the expression “empty” applied also to the thing which, comes out of a receptacle; e. g., (Song 1:3) “oil which is emptied (תורק)”; (Jeremiah 48:11) “it (the wine) hath not been emptied (הורק) from vessel to vessel”. It does not say here “the vessel hath not been emptied”, but “the wine has not been emptied (הורק) from vessel to vessel”; consequently this expression is applied to the wine. Exactly like the phrase in this verse, is (Ezekiel 28:7) “And they shall draw their swords (והריקו חרבותם) against the beauty of thy wisdom”, in the chapter about Hiram.

. This is an expression for poverty and need, (meaning “my hand shall make them poor”), just as, (I Samuel 2:27) “He maketh poor (מוריש) and maketh rich.”

. an expression for “blowing”. Similar is (Isaiah 40:24) “He bloweth (נשף) upon them”.

. means THEY SANK, they went deep, an expression of the same root as (Psalms 69:3) מצולה “the depths”.

Like lead. old French plomb.

. means AMONGST THE MIGHTY, just as (Ezekiel 17:13) “and the mighty of (אילי) the land he took away”; (Psalms 22:20) “O, thou my strength (אילותי) hasten to my help”.

. means Thou art an object of dread so that people do not recount thy praises fearing lest these may be enumerated less then they really are, just as it is written (Psalms 65:2) “To Thee, silence is praise”.

Thou inclinest thy right hand. When the Holy One, blessed be He, inclines His hand the wicked cease to be and fall, because everything is held in His hand and consequently falls when He inclines it. Similarly it states, (Isaiah 31:3) “When the Lord inclineth His hand, he that helpeth shall stumble and he that is helped shall fall”. A parable: it may be compared to glass vessels held in a man’s hand: if he inclines his hand a little they fall and are shattered to pieces (cf. Mekhilta).

The earth swallowed them. From this it may be gathered that they received the privilege of burial as a reward for having said, (Exodus 9:27) “The Lord is righteous” (Mekhilta).

. is of the same root, conjugation and meaning as מנהל a leader; Onkelos translated it in the sense of bearing and carrying, but he was not particular to translate according to the Hebrew expression (i. e., to translate literally)

. means THEY TREMBLE (not they will tremble).

. [REIGS SEIZED] THE INHABITANTS OF PALESTINE, because they slew the children of Ephraim who anticipated the end fixed for the period of slavery and left Egypt forcibly, as is explained in Chronicles (1 7:21) “[The sons of Ephraim…] whom the men of Gath slew” (Mekhilta).

[then were perturbed] the chieftains of edom, the mighty men of moab. But surely they had no cause to fear anything because they (the Israelites) were not marching against them! But the explanation is, that they were perturbed by annoyance, because they were annoyed and distressed by the glory that Israel had achieved (cf. Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 251:11).

. means THEY MELTED, just as, (Psalms 65:11) “Thou makest it soft (תמגגנה) with showers”. They said, “They are marching against us to destroy us and to take possession of our land” (therefore they melted away from fear, and were not merely perturbed in mind) (Mekhilta).

There shall fall upon them dread. upon those of them who are far away (Mekhilta)

And horror. shall fall upon those of them who are near by; and all this really happened just as the matter is stated, (Joshua 2:10) “For we have heard how the Lord dried up [the waters of the Red Sea]” (Mekhilta).

Till thy people pass … till the people pass. The repetition must be explained as the Targum takes it (until they pass over the Arnon, until they pass over the Jordan).

. denotes [THE PEOPLE] WHICH THOU HOLDEST DEAR above all peoples, like an article purchased (קנוי) at a high price and which is therefore held in affection by the man who bought it.

Thou will bring them in. Moses foresaw by prophetic inspiration that he would not enter the Holy Land: on this account it is not stated here, “Thou wilt bring us in” (Mekhilta).

The place for thy residence. the Sanctuary here below will be exactly opposite the Divine Throne above which פעלת THOU HAST MADE (Mekhilta).

. The accent on it (the word מקדש) is a Zakef Gadol (a disjunctive accent) which serves to separate it from the word expressing the Divine Name (ה׳) which follows it, so that the translation is: “The sanctuary which Thy hands have established, O Lord”. The Temple is an object of affection to G-d because the Universe was created by one hand, as it is stated, (Isaiah 48:13) “Yea, My hand hath laid the foundation of the earth”, whilst the Temple by two hands, as stated here. And when will it be rebuilt by G-d, with the two hands? At the time when “the Lord shall reign for ever and ever”: at that future period when all the kingdom will be His (Mekhilta).

. The word ועד is an expression denoting ETERNITY, The ו in it is a root-letter, and consequently it is vowelled with a Patach; but in the similar word in (Jeremiah 29:23) “I am He that knoweth and am witness (ועד)”, where the ו is a servile letter (a prefix) it is vowelled with a Kametz.

. means WHEN [THE HORSES] CAME.

And miriam the prophetess took. But where had she prophesied? When she was THE SISTER OF AARON alone, before Moses was born she said, “My mother will at some time bear a son who will deliver Israel etc.”, as is stated in Treatise Sotah 12b (cf. Megillah 14a). Another explanation of אחות אהרן, the sister of Aaron: because he jeopardised his life for her by entreating on her behalf and so possibly incurring G-d’s displeasure when she was stricken with leprosy, she is called by his name (Mekhilta; cf. Rashi Genesis 34:25).

A timbrel. an instrument for a particular kind of music.

With timbrels and with dances. The righteous women in that generation were confident that G-d would perform miracles for them and they accordingly had brought timbrels with them from Egypt (Mekhilta).

And miriam sang unto them. Moses sang the Song to the men, he sang it and they repeated it after him; and Miriam sang the Song to the women and they repeated it after her (Mekhilta).

And Moses caused [Israel] to journey. He made them journey against their own will, because the Egyptians had adorned their horses with ornaments of gold and silver and with precious stones, and the Israelites were finding these in the sea. Greater, indeed, was the booty they obtained at the Red Sea then the booty they had brought out of Egypt, as it is said (Song 1:11) “Circlets of gold (the booty of the Sea) will we make thee together with the studs of silver” (which we brought forth from Egypt) (Mekhilta). On this account he was compelled to make them journey on against their will.

And they came to marah. The word מרתה is the same as למרה: a ה at the end of a word (as a suffix) replaces a ל at its beginning (as a prefix). The ת takes the place of the ה which is rooted in (an integral part of) the word מרה; when it is joined with another letter, viz., when it is attached to the ה which is added to the word in place of the ל, the ה of the primary form (the ordinary form of the noun from which longer forms are made by the addition of suffixes) is changed into a ת. Thus, also, every ה which is a root-letter (a letter in the primary form of the noun) is changed into a ת when it is joined to another letter. E. g., we have (Isaiah 27:4) “Fury (חמה) is not in Me”, but (Esther 1:12) “And his fury (חמתו) burned within him”; you see that the ה of the ground-form is changed into a ת because it is to be joined to the ו which has been added. Similar are: (Leviticus 25:44) “Manservant and handmaid (אמה)”, but (Genesis 30:3) “Behold, my handmaid (אמתי) Bilhah”; (Genesis 2:7) “a creature of life (חיה)”, but (Job 33:20) “His life (חיתו) maketh him to abhor bread”; (Judges 4:5) “Between Ramah (רמה) [and Beth-el]”, but (I Samuel 7:17) “And his return was to Ramah (הרמתה)” the latter example being exactly parallel to that in this verse (מרתה , מרה‎).

And they murmured. This is a Niphal form, and similarly the Targum is a Niphal form: ואתרעמו (the Ithpael form in Aramaic corresponds to the Hebrew Niphal). And such is the way in which the expression denoting murmuring (from root לון) is employed: to refer back the matter (the action of murmuring) to the person (the subject of the verb); thus one says מתלונן and מתרועם and one does not say לונן and רועם. So, too, the Frenchman says “decomplaisant se” in old French, where it turns back the matter (the action) to himself (the subject) by saying, “se”, English himself.

Here he made for them [a statute and an ordinance). At Marah He gave them a few sections of the Torah in order that they might engage in the study thereof; viz., the sections containing the command regarding the sabbath, the red heifer and the administration of justice (Mekhilta; Sanhedrin 56b).

And there he tried them. (lit., He tried him), “him” (singular) means the people; and He saw their stubbornness: that they did not consult with Moses in a respectful fashion: “Entreat mercy for us that we may have water to drink”, but that they murmured.

If thou will diligently hearken. this implies acceptance, that they should take upon themselves the duty of performing G-d’s commands.

And if thou wilt do. this implies the performance of the commands.

. means THOU WILT INCLINE THE EAR to be punctilious in the practice of the details.

All his statutes. Matters which are only the decrees of the King (decrees of G-d imposed by Him, as King, upon us, His subjects) and which appear to have no reason, and at which the evil inclination cavils saying, “What sense is there in prohibiting these? Why should they be prohibited?”, For instance: the prohibition of wearing a mixture of wool and linen, and of eating swine’s flesh, and the law regarding the red heifer, and similar matters (cf. Yoma 67b).

I will not place on thee. and if I do place them on thee because thou refusest to hearken to My voice, it will be as though they had not been placed on thee, for if thou repentest of thy disobedience I will remove them immediately, כי אני ה׳ רפאך BECAUSE I AM THE LORD THAT HEALETH THEE. This is its Midrashic explanation (Mekhilta). But according to its literal sense the meaning is: For I am the Lord who healeth thee and teacheth thee the Law and Commandments in order that thou mayst be saved from them (these diseases), like a physician who says to a man: Do not eat this thing lest it will bring you into danger from this disease. So, too, it states, (Proverbs 3:8) “It (obedience to G-d) will be wholesome to thy body” (implying that disease will not fall upon thee) (Mekhilta).

Twelve springs of water. A number corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel were ready for them (Mekhilta).

And seventy palm-trees. corresponding to the seventy elders (Mekhilta).

On the fifteenth day. The day of this encampment is specially mentioned because on that day there came to an end the cake (provisions) they had brought with them from Egypt and they now needed the Manna, thus informing us that of the remains of the dough they had prepared in Egypt (cf. Rashi on Exodus 12:33) they ate sixty-one meals. For the Manna fell for them on the sixteenth day of Iyar, which was the first day of the week, just as is stated in the Treatise Shabbat 87b.

And they murmured. because the bread had come to an end.

Would that we had died. The word מותנו means “that we should die”; it is not a noun with the same meaning as מיתתנו “our death”, but it is an infinitive like עשותנו and חנותנו and שובנו which signify “that we should make”, “that we should encamp”, “that we should return”. In the Targum it is rendered by לוי דמיתנא which is really the Targum rendering of (Numbers 14:2) לו מתנו “Would that we were dead” (cf. Rashi on Exodus 14:12).

The thing of the day on its day. what is needed for a day’s eating shall they collect on its (that) day, and they shall not today collect what will be needed tomorrow (cf. Mekhilta).

That i may try them whether they will walk in my law. whether they will observe the commands associated with it: viz., that they should not leave any overnight, and that they should not go out on the Sabbath to collect it.

And it shall be double. for today and for tomorrow.

Double. of what they were accustomed to collect on each day of the other days of the week. I say that the words, אשר יביאו והיה משנה “what they bring shall be double”, imply that after they have brought it home they will find it double in measure of what they had been gathering and measuring each day. This is the force of: “they collected double bread” (v. 22), when it was collected it was found by them to be double food, and this is the meaning of (v. 29), “therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days”: He gives you a blessing, old French foison, abundance in the house that you may fill the Omer twice, as bread for two days.

. is the same as לערב AT EVENING

Ye shall know that the Lord hath brought you out of the land of Egypt. Since you said to us, (v. 3) “for ye have brought us forth” you shall know that it was not we who brought you forth, but it was G-d who brought you forth for He will bring quails for you.

And in the morning ye shall see [the glory of the Lord]. Not in reference to that glory of which it stated, (v. 10) “And behold the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud” is this said, but thus, in effect, did he say to them: In the evening ye shall know that His hand has the power to give you your desire and He will give you flesh; but not with a radiant countenance will He give it to you, because you have asked Him something that is not proper (since one can exist without eating meat), and out of a full stomach (i. e. you really have meat for you have an abundance of cattle); but the bread for which you have asked out of necessity, when it falls in the morning you will behold the glory of the radiance of His countenance (His glory), because He will make it fall for you in a manner that is indicative of His love (Mekhilta), in the morning, whilst there is yet time to prepare it, and there shall be dew above it and dew below it as though it were carefully packed in a chest (Yoma 75b).

. this is the same as תלנתיכם] אשר על ה׳] YOUR MURMURINGS WHICH ARE AGAINST THE LORD.

. (lit., and we, what?) means AND WE, WHAT ARE WE accounted (of what importance are we?)

That you make. everyone MURMUR AGAINST US, your sons, and your wives, and your daughters and the mixed multitude., And whether I like it or not I am forced to explain the word תַלִּינוּ in the sense of “you make (people) do something”, viz., murmur (i. e. what we call the Hiphil conjugation), because of its (the ל) be eshed and because of the קרי. For if it (the ל) were weak (i. e. without a Dagesh), I would explain it in the sense of “ye do something” (our Kal), just as, (Exodus 17:3) “And the people murmured (וַיָלֶן) against Moses”, or, if there was still a Dagesh but there was no י in it, so that it could be read תִלּוֹנוּ, I would explain it as meaning “ye put yourself in a state of murmuring” (our Niphal; cf. Rashi on Exodus 15:24). Now, however, it being as it is, it must imply “you make others murmur”, just as in the case of the spies it states, (Numbers 14:36) “And they made all the congregation to murmur (וַיַּלִּינוּ) against him” (where וַיַּלִּינוּ is the same grammatical form, so far as conjugation is concerned, as תַלִּינוּ, but as it has an object, כל העדה, it cannot mean “And they murmured”, and must necessarily mean “they made the congregation murmur).

Flesh to eat. but it does not add as it does in the next phrase לִשְׂבֹּעַ, “to satisfaction”; the Torah thus teaches us a rule of conduct, that one should not eat meat to satiety. And what did He see (what reason had He) that He made bread fall for them in the morning and flesh at evening? Because the bread they asked for was a proper thing to demand since it is impossible for a person to exist without bread; but meat they asked for improperly, for they had abundant cattle, and besides it was possible for them to exist without flesh. On this account He gave it to them at evening, at a time of (when it would cause them) trouble, a manner which was not favourable to them (Mekhilta; Yoma 75).

. means [YOUR MURMURINGS] WHICH YOU MAKE others who hear you murmuring MURMUR AGAINST HIM.

Approach [before the Lord]. to the place where the cloud will descend.

The quails. a species of fowl which is very fatty (cf. Yoma 75b).

There was a layer of dew. Consequently the dew was lying upon the Manna. In another passage, however, it says, (Numbers 11:9) “And when the dew came down [upon the camp at night, the manna fell upon it]” and so there was dew under the Manna! Thus we see that the dew fell upon the ground and the Manna fell upon it, and then dew fell again upon this, and so it was as though it were carefully packed in a chest (Yoma 75b).

And when the layer of dew went up. etc., When the sun rose the dew which was lying upon the Manna ascended sunward, as is the manner of dew, that it ascends sunward; even if you were to fill an egg-shell with dew and close up its opening and place it in the sun, it (the egg-shell with the dew in it) will rise of its own accord into the air, (in consequence of the tendency of the dew to rise upwards)., But our Rabbis explained that these words imply that the dew rose from the ground into the air., When the layer of dew went up the Manna became visible, and they looked, (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Beshalach 20; Shemot Rabbah 38:4) והנה על המדבר דק AND BEHOLD, UPON THE SURFACE OF THE DESERT there was etc.

. uncovered, and there is no other example of this word in the Scriptures. One may also explain מחספס as having the same meaning as חפיסה in (Mishna Bava Metzia 1:8) חפיסה ודלוסקמא, “a valise and chest”, in Mishnaic Hebrew, and the meaning would be, that when it became uncovered from the layer of dew they saw that there had been a thin object enclosed in it i. e. enclosed between the two layers of dew. Onkelos translates it by מקלף peeled (flaky), taking מחספס in the sense of, and from a similar root as, (Genesis 30:37) “peeling off (מחשף) the white”.

As hoar forst. כפר is old French gelide. The Targum renders דק by דעדק כגיר, the word גיר occurring in (Isaiah 27:9) “גיר-stones”, this is a kind of black colour, just as we enumerate amongst the kinds of earth which may be used for covering the blood of a wild animal or bird after it has been slaughtered “powdered chalk (גיר) and orpiment” (Chullin 88b). Onkelos renders the entire phrase by “powdered like גיר, like hoar-frost upon the ground”, meaning that it was as fine as גיר and lay congealed as frost in the ground. This is therefore the meaning of דק ככפור: “spread out fine but yet one atom hanging to another like hoar-frost”. דק is old French tenuis, meaning that it formed a thin incrustation on top. The word וכגיר which Onkelos has in his translation is an addition to the Hebrew text, there being no word corresponding to it in the verse.

. means this is something prepared for food, as in (Daniel 1:5) “And the king appointed (וימן) for them,”.

For they knew not what is was. so that they could call it by its name.

. the name of a measure.

. The second half of the verse means ACCORDING TO (supply כ before מספר) THE NUMBER OF PERSONS WHOM A MAN HAS (איש לאשר being the same as אשר לאיש) IN HIS TENT SHALL YE TAKE AN OMER FOR EVERY HEAD (לַגֻּלגֹּלֶת the definite article with the ל having distributive force: each and every).

Some much, some little. There were some who gathered much and there were some who gathered little; and when they came home they measured it out by an Omer, each what he had gathered, and they then found that he who had gathered much had no excess over an Omer for each head that was in his tent, and that he who had gathered less did not find less than an Omer for each head, and this was a great miracle that was wrought in respect of it (the Manna).

But some men left of it. Dathan and Abiram (Shemot Rabbah 24:10; cf. Rashi on Exodus 2:13).

And it bred worms. the word וירם is of the same meaning and root as רִמָּה, worm.

And it stank. This is an inverted verse, because first it must have stunk and afterwards have become wormy, just as it is said, (v. 24) “And it did not stink and there was no worm therein, for this is the way of all things that become wormy (Mekhilta).

And when the sun waxed hot, it melted. What was left in the field (outside the inhabited camp) melted and ran in streams; the harts and the roes drank therefrom, and the nations of the world hunted them and experienced through them the taste of the Manna, and thereby understood how great was Israel’s excellency (Mekhilta).

They collected double bread. when they measured in their tents what they had gathered they found it double, two Omers for each person (cf. Rashi on v. 5). (Rashi appears to supply אשר before לקטו: It came to pass on the sixth day, what they gathered אשר לַקטו, was double bread.) A Midrashic explanation is that משנה in לחם משנה signifies מְשֻׁנָּה different, changed, that day it was changed for the better as regards its smell and its taste (Tanchuma Yashan).

And they told it to Moses. They asked him, “How is this day different from other days?”, From this we may learn that Moses had not yet told them the section regarding the Sabbath which he had been commanded to say to them: (v. 5) “And it shall come to pass on the sixth day they shall prepare etc.”, he did not do this until they asked him, “What is this?” Then he said to them, (v. 23) “This is that which the Lord hath said” this is that which I was commanded to say to you previously, but I forgot to do so (Cf. Shemot Rabbah 25:10). On this account Scripture (G-d) punished him, in that He said to him, (v. 28) “How long will ye refuse [to keep my commandments]”, and He did not exclude him from the general body, by saying, “how long will they refuse etc.”

That which you would bake, bake. whatever you wish to bake (cf. Onkelos: די אתון עתידין למפא and Rashi on אז ישיר משה) in the oven bake to-day, all that you will need for two days; and what you require to boil of it in water boil to-day. The expression baking applies to bread, (cf. Rashi on Genesis 40:1) and the expression boiling to a cooked dish.

. means as something put by (to be kept).

And Moses said, eat that this day. etc., In the morning, when they had been accustomed to go forth and gather it, they came to enquire, “Shall we go out or not?” He replied to them, “What you have in your possession eat (אכלהו היום)”. In the evening they again came before him and asked him, “How is it now about going out?” He answered them, שבת היום “Today is the Sabbath”. He saw that they were worried believing perhaps the Manna had stopped and would not again fall; he therefore said to them, “Today ye shall not find it [in the field]”. What reason was there to say “Today”?, Today you will not find it, but tomorrow you will find it (Mekhilta).

. means but on the seventh day is a day of rest (supply the word הוא); and לא יהיה בו means the Manna shall not be on it; and this verse comes (is written) only to include the Day of Atonement and the Festivals [as being also days when no Manna would fall] (Mekhilta).

How long will ye refuse. A common proverb says: with the thorn the cabbage which is near it, is also stricken, through the wicked the good are brought into disgrace (cf. Rashi on v. 22) (Bava Kamma 92a).

See. with your very eyes (i. e. the word is used literally and not figuratively in the sense of “consider”) that the Lord in His glory (i. e. the Lord Himself) admonishes you regarding the Sabbath, for, behold, a miracle is performed for you on the eve of every Sabbath in that He gives you then bread for two days.

Abide ye every man in his place. (lit., beneath himself), From here the Sages derived a support for the permission that a person who has gone beyond the Sabbath limit may move within a space of four cubits (Mekhilta; Eruvin 51a).

אַל יֵצֵא וְגוֹמֵר. אֵלּוּ אַלְפַּיִם אַמָּה שֶׁל תְּחוּם שַׁבָּת (עירובין נ"א ע"א). וְלֹא בִּמְפֹרָשׁ, שֶׁאֵין תְּחוּמִין אֶלָּא מִדִּבְרֵי סוֹפְרִים (ראו סוטה ל' ע"ב); וְעִקָּרוֹ שֶׁל מִקְרָא עַל לוֹקְטֵי הָמָן נֶאֱמַר.

And it was like the coriander seed, white. a herb, the name of which is (in old French) coriandre; its seed is round and is not white, whilst the Manna was white. It follows therefore, that it is compared to coriander seed only in respect to its roundness, so that the meaning is: it was like coriander seed, and it was white (Yoma 75a).

Like flat cakes. dough which is fried in honey. In the Mishnaic speech it is called אסקריטין (Pesachim 37a), and this is the translation of Onkelos here.

. means to put by.

For your generations. e. g., in the days of Jeremiah: when Jeremiah was rebuking them (the people), saying, “Why do you not engage yourselves with the Torah?”, and they answered him, “Shall we leave our work and engage ourselves with the Torah? From where shall we earn a living?”, he brought out to them the cruse of Manna and said to them, (Jeremiah 2:31) “[O Generation], see ye the thing of the Lord!” It is not said “Hear the word” but “See the thing”!, This thing is what your fathers were fed with. The Omnipresent G-d has many messengers (many means) to provide food for those who fear Him (Mekhilta).

. is an earthern flask, as it is translated in the Targum (cf. Mekhilta).

‘והנח אתו לפני ה and lay it up before the Lord. before the Ark; this verse, of course, was not spoken until the tent of meeting had been built and the Ark was placed therein, but it is written here in the chapter about the Manna, as being its appropriate place.

Forty years. But was not this period short of thirty days, since it was on the sixteenth of Iyar that the Manna fell for them for the first time and on the fifteenth of Nisan that it ceased, as it is said, (Joshua 5:12) “And the Manna ceased on the morrow”? (cf. the preceding verse which speaks of the day when they ate unleavened bread). But this tells us that in the cakes that Israel had brought out of Egypt and which they ate from the 15th of Nisan to the 16th of Iyar after they left Egypt they experienced the taste of Manna (so that the 40 years mentioned here as those during which they ate Manna may be regarded as complete) (Kiddushin 38a).

To a land inhabited. after they had crossed the Jordan, [for that territory on the other side of the Jordan was cultivated (מְיֻשֶׁבֶת, which is regarded as the equivalent of נושבת; cf. Rashi on Genesis 36:20) and good, as it is said, (Deuteronomy 3:25) “Let me pass over, I pray thee, and see the good land that is on the other side of the Jordan”. And the translation of נושבת by Onkelos is יתבתא which means to say מיושבת, “settled”].

Unto the extremity of the land of Canaan. at the beginning of the border before they passed over the Jordan, that is, in the plains of Moab, consequently they (these two descriptions of the locality) contradict each other! But the explanation is that in the plains of Moab, when Moses died (cf. Deuteronomy 34:1) on the seventh of Adar, the Manna really ceased to fall but they had a sufficient supply from the Manna which they had gathered on that day to last until they had brought the Omer on the sixteenth of Nisan in Canaan itself, the cultivated land, as it is said, (Joshua 5:11) “And they did eat of the produce of the land on the morrow after the Passover” (Kiddushin 38a).

[the omer] is the tenth part of an ephah. The Ephah is three Seahs, and the Seah is six Kabs, and the Kab is four Logs and the Log has the capacity of six eggs: it follows, therefore, that the tenth of an Ephah has the capacity of forty-three and a fifth eggs, and this is the minimum quantity of dough for the Challa (the minimum quantity to which applies the injunction to separate a portion of the dough; cf. Numbers 15:20), and the measure for the meal offering (cf. Rashi on Eruvin 83b).

To why do ye try. [THE LORD] by saying, “Will He be able to give us water in an arid land?”

Yet a little. means, if I wait but a little more they will stone me.

Pass before the people. and see whether they will stone you! (Midrash Tanchuma, Beshalach 23) Why have you uttered a slander against My children?

And take with thee of the elders of Israel. as witnesses, that they may see that it is by your agency that the water will come forth from the rock and that people may not say that there had been springs there from time immemorial (Mekhilta).

And thy staff, wherewith thou smotest the river. What is the force of the words “wherewith thou smotest the river”, they are apparently superfluous? But these are added because the Israelites had said of the staff that it was intended only for punishment: by it Pharaoh and the Egyptians had been stricken with many plagues in Egypt and at the Red Sea. On this account it is stated here: take the staff wherewith thou smotest the river, they shall see now that it is also intended for good (Mekhilta).

And thou shalt smite the rock. It does not say here “thou shalt smite על הצור”, upon the surface of the rock, but בצור, right into the rock, from this it follows that the rod must have been composed of a kind of hard material the name of which is sapphire, and the rock was split by it (Mekhilta).

Then came amalek. Scripture places this section immediately after this preceding verse (they said, “Is the Lord among us or not?”) to imply, “I am ever among you and ready at hand for every thing you may need, and yet you say, “Is the Lord among us or not?” By your lives, I swear that the hound (Amalek) shall come and bite you, and you will cry for Me and then you will know where I am!” A parable: it may be compared to a man who carried his son upon his shoulder, and went out on a journey. The son saw an article and said, “Father, pick up that thing and give it to me”. He gave it to him, and so a second time and so also a third time. They met a certain man to whom the son said, “Have you seen my father anywhere?” Whereupon his father said to him, “Don’t you know where I am?”, He, therefore, cast him off from himself and a hound came and bit him (Midrash Tanchuma, Yitro 3).

Choose out men for us. for me and for you: he (Moses) placed him (Joshua) on the same level with himself. They (the Rabbis) derived from here the teaching: let thy disciple’s honour be as dear to thee as thy own. And whence may we derive the next statement in thee well-known passage: and thy colleague’s honour as dear to thee as the reverence due to thy teacher? Because it is said, (Numbers 12:11) “And Aaron spake to Moses, “I beseech thee, my lord”, but surely Aaron was older than his brother and yet by addressing him as “my lord” he treated his colleague (Moses) as his teacher! “And the reverence due to thy teacher as the reverence due to G-d”, whence may this be derived? Because it is said, (Numbers 11:28) “[And he (Joshua) said (to his teacher, Moses)] “My lord, Moses, כלאם”, destroy them (כַּלֵּם) from out of the world! they who rebel against thee deserve to be destroyed just the same as though they had rebelled against the Holy One, blessed be He (Mekhilta).

Go out, fight. go out from the cloud and fight against him (Mekhilta)

. TO-MORROW, at the time of the battle, I will take my stand.

Choose us men. brave men, and men who fear sin (אנשים does not mean merely men, males, but men fit for war and at the same time G-d-fearing), choose these so that their merit may stand them in good stead (cf. (Mekhilta). Another explanation: בחר לנו אנשים Choose us men who know how to make witchcraft of none effect; he said this because the sons of Amalek were wizards (cf. Rashi on v. 12)

And Moses and Aaron and hur. From this we may infer as regards a public fast that three men must pass before the Holy Ark (i. e. must officiate at prayer), we may infer this because they (the Israelites) were then engaged in fasting (Mekhilta).

Hur. was the son of Miriam and her husband was Caleb (Sotah 11b).

When Moses lifted up his hand. But could Moses’ hands win the battle etc.? See the whole passage as it is given in the Treatise Rosh Hashanah 29a.

But Moses hands became heavy. Because he had shown himself remiss in the duty that was his, of waging war himself against Amalek, and had appointed another in his stead, his hands became heavy (cf. (Mekhilta).

And they took. Aaron and Hur took

A stone and they put it under him [and he sat thereon]. but he did not seat himself upon a cushion or a pillow, for he said, “Israel is in tribulation; I will be in tribulation together with them”. (Taanit 11a).

. (lit., and he was, his hands faithfulness), and Moses was in the condition that his hands were in faithfulness, spread forth to heaven in a confident and firm prayer.

Until the going down of the sun. Because the Amalekites had calculated the hours by astrology, as to which hour they would prove victorious, Moses held back the sun against them and brought the hours into confusion (Midrash Tanchuma, Beshalach 28).

And joshua discomfited. [AMALEK] (more lit., he weakened Amalek), he cut off the heads of his mighty men and left only the weak amongst them, and he did not kill all of them (leaving the weak men alive: thus Amalek was made weak, and powerless for further mischief). From this we may learn that they acted according to the expressed pronouncement of the Shechina (otherwise they would, in the stress of battle, not have so discriminated) (Mekhilta).

Write this for a memorial. that Amalek came to wage war against Israel before any other nation.

And put into the ears of joshua. who will bring Israel into the Holy Land, that he must command Israel to pay him his recompense. Here it was intimated to Moses (by the mere statement that Joshua should in some future time carry out the injunction to destroy Amalek) that Joshua would bring Israel into the Holy Land (cf. (Mekhilta).

Because i would utterly blot out [the remembrance of amalek]. the reason why I admonish you thus is because (כי) I desire to blot it out.

And he called his. (or its) NAME, the name of the altar

. (lit., the Lord is my banner or my miracle), The Holy One, blessed be He, here performed a miracle for us. It does not mean that the altar was named ה׳, “the Lord, my banner”, but the reason for so calling it was that anyone mentioning the altar’s name would thereby remember the miracle which the Omni-present had performed, since he would be saying: the Lord, He is our Miracle (cf. Rashi on Genesis 33:20).

And he said. i. e. Moses said.

Because the hand is upon the throne of jah. the hand of the Holy One, blessed be He, is raised to swear by His throne that He will have war and enmity against Amalek to all eternity. And what is the force of כס, why does it not say as usual כסא? And the Divine Name, also, is divided into half (יה is only the half of the Tetragrammaton)! The Holy One, blessed be He, swears that His Name will not be perfect nor His throne perfect until the name of Amalek be entirely blotted out. But when his name is blotted out then will His (G-d’s) Name be perfect and His throne perfect, as it is said, (Psalms 9:7) “The enemy is come to an end, he whose swords were for ever”, and this refers to Amalek of whom it is written, (Amos 1:11; the paragraph is a prophecy against Edom, Esau, the father of Amalek) “he kept his wrath for ever”. The verse in the Psalm continues: “and thou didst uproot enemies, their very memorial is perished”, What does it say immediately after this? (Psalms 9:8) “But the Lord (the Divine Name as given here is the Tetragrammaton) shall now remain for ever”, you see that the Name will be perfect (after Amalek is entirely rooted out as is mentioned in v. 7); “He establishes his throne (כסאו not כס) in righteousness”, so you see that His throne will then be perfect (Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Teitzei 11).