לכן נאום. הוא שם כמו וינאמו נאום, והאומר נם תחת נאם הוא נם, כי לא יעלם האל"ף: נאום The word of. A noun (comp. Jer. 23:31). To use נֻם instead of נאום is a blunder,44This seems to be an attack on those Paytanim who use נם instead of נאם, with omission of א. But in his Moznaim, a grammatical pamphlet, the author adduces several instances in which א is omitted. (See Moznaim sub voce נעל ים). for א cannot be omitted.
וטעם האדון בעבור השופטים שהם אדוני הארץ: The Lord. This is added because the judges appear as the lords of the earth.
וטעם יי צבאות, שהוא באמת אדון והצבאות לעדים, ולמה נסמך השם לצבאות מפורש בשמואל: The Lord of hosts. He is truly the Lord, and the hosts of the universe are His witnesses. Why the name of God is joined, in the construct state, to צבאות, though being a proper noun, is explained in the Book of Samuel.45Read Book of Exodus. The word Samuel seems to be a mistake which has its origin in the abbreviation (שמות ═) שמו׳ being wrongly completed as שמואל. Ibn Ezra, on Ex. 3:14, observes, that the tetragrammaton is a proper noun; but although generally proper nouns in Hebrew cannot be joined to a genitive, there are a few exceptions; and the connexion of the name of God with the genitive of צבאות, is one of them; this exception is justified, because He is not only the Absolute Being, but also the Creator and Ruler of the Universe. The name of God may therefore be considered as identical with the common noun Ruler, and be followed by a genitive. It is, however, possible that the words מפורש בשמואל are correct, and refer to 2 Sam. 6:2, to the statement that the holy ark is called by His name, whence I. E. deduces, that the name of God is both a proper noun and a common noun. Comp. Yesod Mora, 100:12.
אביר ישראל. שהם במטה כנגר צבאות מעלה, כי גם הם יקראו צבאות השם ככתוב בתורה (שמות י"ב מ"א): The mighty One of Israel, and The Lord of hosts compose a parallelism, in which Israel on earth beneath corresponds to the hosts of heaven above, for the Israelites are likewise called the hosts of God (comp. Exod. 12:41).
הוי. כמו אוי להם בעשותי כך: אוי ═ חוי Woe.46See note 12. Woe unto them when I shall do the following thing.
אנחם. אמצא נחמה כי הכעיסוני, על דרך לשון בן אדם: I will ease me of mine adversaries. I will find comfort for their having provoked me. An anthropomorphism.