{"id":67015,"date":"2019-12-16T11:57:49","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T09:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=67015"},"modified":"2023-07-11T11:39:34","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T08:39:34","slug":"the-reason-behind-the-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-reason-behind-the-miracle\/","title":{"rendered":"The Reason Behind The Miracle"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Although a straightforward reading of the previous chapter indicates that God caused the shadows to recede in order to augment Hezekiah\u2019s confidence in his imminent recovery, Malbim* took it very differently.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Chronicles (32:31), it is explained that the essence of the [Babylonian] mission was to inquire into the miracle that occurred, since the receding of the shadows by ten degrees was a great miracle that became known throughout the world and they came to investigate its circumstances. In truth, the reason God performed a wonder that had not been seen since the time of Joshua was not to give Hezekiah the confidence that he would be cured and go to the Temple. God would not do something so grand for such a minimal reason because even without the wonder, by the third day he would know that he had been cured.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rather, its purpose was of great value to the general populace, who had been dispersed by Sennacherib to the ends of the earth. God wanted them to have some support lest these scattered sheep be lost among the many wolves. Therefore, He performed this great wonder for them that would be seen and feared at the corners of the earth and their neighbors would fear them. The scattered ones were heartened and some of them returned to their land and [took refuge] in Hezekiah\u2019s shade without opposition, because all the inhabitants of the earth were in fear of them\u2014just as [Isaiah] had prophesied (in chapters 18 and 24:13-17, inter alia).<\/span><\/p>\n

Had they merited it, the overall ingathering [of the exiles] would have taken place under Hezekiah, as I have mentioned, but the sin that is reported here was their undoing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Malbim, here, is rendering his interpretation of an enigmatic talmudic passage that declares: \u201cThere will be no Messiah for Israel\u2014they already consumed him (<\/span>akhaluhu<\/span><\/em>) at the time of Hezekiah\u201d (BT Sanhedrin 98b). (He elaborated on this in 11:1, regarding the \u201cshoot from the stump of Jesse.\u201d See <\/span>our comments there<\/span><\/a>.) His opinion is that after the miraculous victory over Assyria, the potential was present for a complete restoration of Israel to its land and its release from all foreign oppression and subjugation\u2014were it not for Hezekiah\u2019s folly in showing off his wealth to the Babylonians.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

*For the significance of Malbim\u2019s commentary to the Book of Isaiah,<\/span> see our introduction to chapter 1.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"The Reason Behind The Miracle","main_caption":"After the miraculous victory over Assyria, the potential was present for the restoration of Israel to its land and its release from foreign oppression and subjugation\u2014were it not for Hezekiah\u2019s folly...","main_caption_size":"2","sub_caption":"","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67015"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67015"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116617,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67015\/revisions\/116617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}