ישעיהו, פרק כ״ט, פסוק ח׳

The enemies of Jerusalem harbor grand illusions of conquest and wealth, but their hopes are destined to shatter against reality and vanish as if they never existed. To capture the sharp transition from fantasy to reality, the imagery relies on the universal experience of dreaming. When a person fixates on their needs while awake, they often dream of being satisfied [רד״ק]. Yet, upon waking, they find their body completely empty of the food they imagined eating [מצודת ציון]. In the same way, a person dreaming of drinking wakes up exhausted and parched [רד״ק, מצודת ציון], their soul still desperately longing for water [רש״י, אבן עזרא, רד״ק].

The primary approach among commentators is that this metaphor is directed at the massive armies of foreign nations gathering to wage war against the city [מצודת ציון]. These nations are convinced they are about to capture Jerusalem, but reality will strike them hard, leaving their desires unfulfilled [רש״י, מצודת דוד]. What appears to be a vast, physical military force will suddenly prove to be nothing more than a fleeting dream [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. While earlier imagery compared the soldiers who died in a plague to a lost dream, the focus here shifts to the survivors. These refugees will flee back to their own lands, discovering that their grand dream of plundering the city has left them as empty as they were before [שד״ל].

A deeper approach draws a sharp distinction between the dream of the hungry and the dream of the thirsty. While the starving person wakes up simply feeling empty, the thirsty person wakes up to a sudden shock of surprise and renewed longing [אבן עזרא, מלבי״ם]. This difference stems from the physical reality of the body. A starving person often wakes up weak and hollow, their active appetite dulled by sheer exhaustion. A thirsty person, however, awakens to a burning, active need for water. This distinction mirrors the different factions within the enemy army. The secondary nations, who joined the campaign merely to gather loot, will return home empty-handed, much like the hungry dreamer left with a dull sense of emptiness. In contrast, Sennacherib and the core Assyrian army, who lose both their military might and their imperial glory, are like the thirsty dreamer. They awaken to a harsh reality of burning frustration and an intense thirst for power that will never be satisfied [מלבי״ם].