הושע, פרק ה׳, פסוק י״ג

When the kingdoms of Israel and Judah encounter deep crises and existential threats, their leaders recognize the danger but look to the wrong source for a solution. Rather than understanding that their hardship comes from God and turning back to Him, they treat their national distress as a natural political problem. Seeking human salvation, they pursue alliances with the rising empire of Assyria. The prophet describes their suffering through a medical metaphor, depicting the national crisis as a sickness and an open wound. The primary approach among commentators is that this wound requires medicinal powders to heal [מצודת ציון, אבן עזרא, רד״ק, אברבנאל]. A more nuanced view suggests a distinction between the types of ailments. The sickness represents internal disease, pointing to the domestic rebellions and troubles that shook the kingdom of Israel. In contrast, the wound represents an external blow, referring to the outside enemies, Aram and Israel, that attacked the kingdom of Judah [מלבי״ם].

Reacting to these crises, both kingdoms make desperate political maneuvers. The kingdom of Israel reaches out to Assyria, a move historically reflecting kings like Menachem son of Gadi or Hoshea son of Elah, who paid tribute and submitted to the Assyrian empire to secure their own power [רש״י, מצודת דוד, מלבי״ם, רד״ק, אברבנאל]. At the same time, the kingdom of Judah sends its own delegations. Commentators agree that this refers to King Ahaz of Judah, who sent bribes and messengers to the Assyrian king, begging for rescue from the siege laid by the kings of Aram and Israel. Judah directs its plea to a leader described as a champion or fighter. Some explain this title as the name of a specific Assyrian city or an alternative name for the Assyrian empire itself [אבן עזרא, רד״ק, אברבנאל]. Others understand it as a description of the king's warlike nature. Judah turned to the Assyrian monarch, perhaps Sennacherib, because he was known as a warrior who fought with the entire world [אברבנאל], specifically asking him to take up the cause of Judah and fight its enemies [מלבי״ם, אברבנאל].

Ultimately, this reliance on human intervention ends in disappointment. The Assyrian king is entirely unable to cure their sickness or extract the pain and infection from their wound [רש״י, מלבי״ם, ביאור שטיינזלץ], let alone bring about any true improvement [מצודת ציון, אבן עזרא, רד״ק]. This failure occurs for two reasons. On a practical level, Assyria never actually helped Ahaz. Instead, the empire only applied more pressure on him and brought additional enemy forces against his land [רש״י, רד״ק]. More fundamentally, a mortal king has no power to save or heal when God does not will it. Because the people continue to sin rather than seeking out God, their political alliances remain entirely powerless [רד״ק, אברבנאל].