{"id":66501,"date":"2019-12-04T14:11:45","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T12:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=66501"},"modified":"2023-06-28T17:49:19","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T14:49:19","slug":"woe-to-those-who-go-down-to-egypt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/woe-to-those-who-go-down-to-egypt\/","title":{"rendered":"Woe To Those Who Go Down To Egypt"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely upon horses! They have put their trust in abundance of chariots, in vast numbers of riders, and they have not turned to the Holy One of Israel, they have not sought the LORD\u00a0(verse 1).<\/span><\/p>\n

Isaiah rebuked the Israelites who placed their trust in the Egyptian cavalry and chariots rather than in God Himself. Rashi identified these Israelites with the northern kingdom of Samaria, citing in evidence 2 Kings 17, which reports that Hoshea ben Elah switched allegiance from Assyria to Egypt and, perhaps more to the point, began paying them tribute. This strikes a rather cynical note since, at the time of the Exodus from Egypt, the sight of Egyptian cavalry and chariots struck fear in the hearts of the Israelites and prompted them to call out to God for salvation (cf. Exodus 14:10).<\/span><\/p>\n

Malbim* addressed himself to a theological conundrum. Since the Talmud prohibits endangering oneself by relying on a miracle (Shabbat 32a), why would seeking an alliance with Egypt\u2014Assyria\u2019s perennial rival\u2014be a sin? He elaborated:<\/span><\/p>\n

Occasionally, even if one trusts in God, he will still seek natural means and not rely on miracles. This is not a sin in every case; only for one who knows that God will provide for him and has experienced miracles does it become a sin. In this respect, [Isaiah] first said \u201cWoe to those who go down\u2026 and have not turned to the Holy One of Israel,\u201d because the term Holy One of Israel denotes His personal providence and the signs and wonders He has performed for Israel. They should have relied entirely on God\u2019s personal providence.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, there is another dimension. If one not only relies on natural means, but he places his trust in them; i.e., he removes his trust from God completely and imagines that everything depends on his strength and activities, that is a great sin, let alone their implicit reliance on the quantity of chariots and quality of horsemen. \u201cNeither did they seek the Lord,\u201d which signifies His general providence; they did not seek it because they completely denied Him and placed all their trust in flesh and blood, denying Him absolutely.<\/span><\/p>\n

*For the significance of Malbim\u2019s commentary to the Book of Isaiah,<\/span> see our introduction to chapter 1.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Image by Ben Schachter, based on Muybridge, \u201cAnimal Locomotion. An Electro- Photographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movements. Commenced 1872 – Completed 1885. 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