מזי רעב: should be understood according to the context, and so the Targum renders it [נפיחי כפן – SWOLLEN WITH HUNGER]. If it is [to be understood as related to some form in] the language of the Talmud, then it is [to be rendered “softened” and should be understood as being] like the word נתמזמז in the phrase (Hul. 45b) “that man’s brain was softened (נתמזמז).”1
ולחומי רשף ATTACKED
2 BY
RESHEF: i.e., by hail and fire [that dart down] from the heavens. So also in the phrase
(Song 8:6), “darts (רשפי) of fire, [a blazing flame].”
3
The primary sense [of the word
reshef] refers to the flight of birds,
4 as in the phrase
(Job 5:7), “the sons of
reshef fly high.” [So we should also understand the phrase]
(Ps 76:4) “There He broke the flying arrows (רשפי) of the bow,” [for arrows may also be appropriately described as flying like birds,] as in the phrase
(Ps 91:5) “the arrow that flies (יעוף) by day.”
5
וקטב מרירי: means “cut up and stabbed by marauders who embitter (הממררים) and murder people.”
6 [The word מרירי should be understood to be on] the same [paradigm] as פלילי in the phrase
(Job 31:28) עון פלילי, which means “a sin of a judge,” which he commits when doing judgment. So judges who judge other people are called פלילים, as in the phrase
(Exodus 21:22) “he shall pay according to the estimation of the judges (בפלילים).”
7 So also the word מרירי [should be seen as an adjective from the root מ-ר-ר, and it] means “people who embitter others.”
8
This is [also the meaning of קטב in the phrase]
(Ps 91:6), “[You need not fear ...] the marauder (קטב) who robs (ישוד) at mid-day.”
9 So also it is written
(Jeremiah 15:8) “a young man robbing (שודד) at mid-day.” “Marauders” are those who generally fight at mid-day, as it is written (Zeph 2:4) “Ashdod will be expelled at mid-day.”
10
1. Rashbam’s entire comment should be read as directed against the two steps of Rashi’s explanation of this phrase. Rashi first says that the Targum renders the phrase “swollen with hunger,” but he, Rashi, can see no evidence for that explanation. Then Rashi cites an explanation that connects the word מזי in our verse to the Aramaic word for “hair” (מזיא).
Rashbam counters with his two arguments. First he says that the evidence for the Targum’s explanation is strong since it is the most appropriate explanation contextually. Then Rashbam says that if you insist on looking for a cognate for מזי in rabbinic Hebrew and/or Aramaic, the verb מ-ז-מ-ז is a better candidate than the noun מזיא.
There is no consensus among ancients or moderns about what מזי means. Many (e.g. Luzzatto and NJPS) see it as an active participle (meaning “wasting famine”), not an adjective. Ibn Ezra connects it to yet another Aramaic word – למזא, meaning “to burn” (Dan 3:19).
2. Rashbam does not really explain here how he understood the word ולחומי. See note 78 below.
3. See similarly Driver (p. 369): “In Heb[rew] רשף is a poet[ic] word for a flame, esp[ecially] a pointed darting flame.”
4. Sara Japhet argues (in her Rashbam’s Commentary on Job, p. 140, note 54) that this second part of Rashbam’s commentary here (beginning with the words “The primary sense”) is from a second hand, and that it offers a different explanation than the one found in the first part of the comment. Rashbam himself, she argues, explained רשף as meaning “hail and fire.” A second hand then added a second explanation, which connects רשף to flight.
5. The word רשף is often understood as referring to some form of demon or devil. So Rashi here, and see also NJPSC. See also note 80 below.
6. My understanding, based on the continuation of this comment, is that Rashbam understands קטב as meaning “marauder” and מרירי as meaning “embitter.” What Hebrew word(s) does he interpret as meaning “cut up and stabbed”? The only explanation that makes sense to me is that that is how he understands the word ולחומי, which he interprets as meaning “attacked”; the phrase then means: “attacked (לחומי) by hail and fire (רשף) and attacked by bitter marauders (קטב מרירי).” Accordingly I see Rashbam as opposing Rashi’s understanding of קטב as meaning “cut off.” Cf. Rosin (note 25) who argues that Rashbam follows and relies upon Rashi’s explanation of קטב.
7. See also Rashbam’s commentary there and his commentary to vs. 31 below, and note 100 there.
8. Rashbam again opposes the interpretation found in Rashi (and in other sources) that understands מרירי as the name of a specific demon or devil. Rashbam, as Japhet correctly notes (ibid., pp. 139-144), often avoids interpretations that involve angels, demons or otherworldly phenomena. Here he avoids interpreting both the word רשף (see note 77 above) and the word מרירי as references to demons.
In the Job commentary that Japhet attributes to Rashbam, the exegete interprets the word מרירי (in Job 3:5) as a reference to demons ('כמרירי יום' שדים יבעתוהו שלא תבא בו מנוחה לעולם – demons will frighten him [such that] he will never be at rest). Japhet notes (p. 142) that this explanation goes against the standard pattern of Rashbam of avoiding seeing references to demons or devils in the biblical text. Japhet suggests that “Rashbam’s” comment in the Job commentary is not so anomalous, as that exegete understands the demons of that verse allegorically: being frightened by demons simply means never being at rest. To me it is an overstatement to say that the comment in Job interprets מרירי in an allegorical manner. I see the exegete there describing a person who is literally frightened by devils and is accordingly never at rest.
9. Rashbam is opposing Rashi’s interpretation in Psalms that sees קטב there too as a reference to a specific demon.
10. Rashi (in Psalms) says that קטב is the name of that specific demon that ravages at mid-day. Rashbam accordingly says in response that the highwaymen or marauders who are known as קטב generally maraud or rob in broad daylight.