Sanhedrin 96a — the Talmud in English

He said to him

the Holy One, blessed is He:

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and change yourself

[Go and alter yourself], so that they will not recognize you.

Sennacherib asked him:

How shall I change myself

[How shall I alter myself, so that they will not recognize me]?

He said to him: Go, bring me scissors, and I shall cut your hair

[Go, bring me scissors, and I shall cut your hair, and thus they will not recognize you].

Sennacherib asked him:

From where shall I bring them

[From where shall I bring scissors]?

He said to him: Enter that house and bring them

[Enter this house in front of you, and bring them from there].

He went and found them

[He went to that house and found scissors there].

Ministering angels came and appeared to him as men

[The ministering angels came and appeared to him as human beings],

and they were grinding date pits

[And they were grinding date seeds].

He said to them

Sennacherib:

Give me scissors!

They said to him: Grind one measure

[One measure]

of date pits, and we will give you

scissors.

He ground one measure of date pits, and they gave him scissors.

And this is what is stated: “With a hired razor beyond the River,” for they gave him the razor, the scissors, as payment for having performed work for them that is performed by a river, namely, grinding with millstones.

Until he came—

it became dark

[Until he returned to the Holy One, blessed is He, the day became dark].

The Holy One, blessed is He, said to them

the Holy One, blessed is He:

Go, bring fire

[Go, bring fire, so that I can see and cut your hair].

He went and brought fire.

While he was blowing on it

[While Sennacherib was blowing on the fire],

fire caught on his beard

[Fire became attached to his beard].

He went and cut the hair of his head and his beard

[He cut the hair of his head and his beard].

They said: This is what

is written concerning hair: “He shall shave, etc., the head,” whereas concerning the beard

it is written: “And also the beard you shall consume,”

which is an expression of destruction, because the beard was entirely consumed by the fire.

Rav Pappa said: This is what people say: If you singe the Aramean—

it pleases him

[If you singe the Aramean and it pleases him, because he has not yet become angry over it],

set fire to his beard

[Kindle a fire for him in his beard],

and you will not have had enough laughter from him

[And do not stop laughing at him].

He went

Sennacherib,

and found a plank from Noah’s ark

[He found one plank from Noah’s ark].

He said

This plank

is the great god who saved Noah from the Flood

[This is the great god who saved Noah from the Flood]!

Sennacherib said

Sennacherib:

If that man goes and succeeds

[If I go and succeed],

I shall bring the two of his sons near before you

[I shall bring my two sons as an offering before you]!

His sons heard

[His sons] this matter, that their father wished to kill them,

and they killed him

[And they themselves killed their father].

This is what is written: “And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword, etc.” “The house of Nisroch”—from the language of neser, a plank. Sennacherib worshipped that plank, which he had made into his god. And it follows from the verse that because he worshipped there, his sons killed him .

Dom Niserokha» — ot slova «neser», doska. Sankheriv poklonilsia etoi doske, kotoruiu sdelal svoim bogom. Iz stikha sleduet, chto ego synovia ubili ego iz-za togo, chto on poklonilsia tam.

And this is as we said above: Sennacherib said that if his god would make his way successful, he would offer his two sons before him. His sons heard his words and killed him.

And since the Gemara spoke about the angel who killed Sennacherib’s army, the Gemara brings the matter of Abraham’s war with the kings, where too there was an angel who assisted Abraham.

It is written concerning Abraham’s war with the kings:

“And he divided himself against them by night, he and his servants, and struck them, etc.” Rabbi Yohanan said: That angel who presented himself to Abraham—

“Night” was his name,

and he assisted him in winning the war .

And from where do we know that there is an angel whose name is Night?

As it is stated: “And the night said: A male child has been conceived.”

And Rabbi Yitzḥak Nappaḥa said:

What is stated, “And he divided himself against them by night”—this means

that he performed an act of Night with him,

for the stars of the night fought on his behalf, as

it is stated

in the war of Barak against Sisera:

“From heaven they fought, the stars from their courses fought against Sisera.”

Reish Lakish said: The statement of the grinder is better than the statement of the son of the grinder

[The words of Rabbi Yitzḥak Nappaḥa are better than the words of Rabbi Yohanan, who is called in several places in the Talmud bar Nappaḥa] .

It is further written concerning Abraham’s war with the kings:

“And he pursued them as far as Dan.”

Rabbi Yohanan said: Once that righteous man came as far as Dan—

his strength weakened,

because

he saw the descendants of his descendants who were destined to worship idolatry in Dan .

As it is stated

concerning the golden calves that Jeroboam made for idolatry:

“And he set the one in Bethel, and the other he placed in Dan.”

And that wicked one too,

Sisera,

did not prevail—

until he reached Dan. As it is stated: “From Dan was heard the snorting

of his horses.”

Rabbi Zeira said: Even though Rabbi Joshua ben Levi sent

these three matters:

A.

Take care with an elderly person

who forgot his learning because of circumstances beyond his control

to honor him, since his forgetting was caused by circumstances beyond his control.

B.

And take care with the veins

of a bird, which must be cut so that the blood will come out, since one roasts the entire bird at once and does not cut it and salt it as one does the meat of a wild animal and domesticated animal, and

in accordance with Rabbi Judah ,

C.

And take care with the sons of the unlearned

who became Torah scholars, to honor them, because

from them Torah will emerge,

for Shemaya and Avtalion were descendants of Sennacherib, and descendants of Haman learned Torah in Bnei Brak.

And although Rabbi Judah said that one must take care concerning the honor of the sons of unlearned people, nevertheless,

as for this matter

below , that Nebuchadnezzar merited great honor because of a small deed that he performed—he ran four steps for the honor of the Holy One, blessed is He—

we inform them of it.

For they too merit that same honor because of the slight merit that their father possessed .

The prophet Jeremiah asked:

“Righteous are You, O Lord, when I contend with You; nevertheless, I will speak judgments with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper, are all those who deal treacherously at ease? You have planted them, they have also taken root; they grow, they also bear fruit.”

Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why did Nebuchadnezzar succeed and conquer Jerusalem?!

What did they answer him

[What did they answer him from Heaven]—

“If you have run with footmen and they have wearied you, then how can you compete with horses? And in a land of peace you are secure, but how will you do in the pride of the Jordan?”

This may be compared to a certain person who

boasted and

said: I can run

a distance of

three parasangs

[which is a great distance], even

before horses,

which run swiftly, and even

among marshes of water,

where it is difficult to run.

A certain pedestrian happened upon him

[A person walking on foot]

and ran before him

a distance of

three mils

[A mil is a quarter of a parasang]

on dry land—

and became weary

[He became exhausted].

They said to him: And if

when you ran

before a pedestrian you became so

weary, if you run

before horses—

all the more so

will you become weary!

And if

when you ran

three mils you became so

weary, if you run

three parasangs,

which are a much greater distance—

all the more so

will you become weary!

And if

when you ran

on dry land you became so

weary, if you run

among marshes of water—

all the more so

will you become weary!

You too,

Jeremiah,

when, for the sake of the four steps that I paid that wicked one

[Nebuchadnezzar],

who ran after My honor, you wonder

why he deserves so much reward,

when I pay reward to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who ran

and served

before Me like horses, all the more

so

will you wonder at the great reward that I will pay them!

This is what is written: “For the prophets, my heart is broken within me, all my bones tremble; I am like a drunken man and like a man overcome by wine, because of the Lord and because of the words of His holiness.” “For the prophets” means Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. “My heart is broken within me”—that is, I wonder at the reward given to them .

Proroki» — eto Avraham, Yitskhak i Yaakov. «Razbito moe serdtse vnutri menia» oznachaet: ia udivlialsia ikh nagrade. ]Tak obiasniaet Rashi. Smotri Maharshu, kotoryi obiasniaet eto po-drugomu. Smotri takzhe Iyun Yaakov.

Those four steps,

mentioned above, that Nebuchadnezzar ran for the honor of the Omnipresent—

what are they?

As it is written: “At that time Merodach-baladan, son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters, etc.,

to Hezekiah, because he had heard that Hezekiah was ill.”

And one should wonder:

because Hezekiah was ill and recovered

[And was healed, as is recounted there],

he sent him

[Merodach sent him]

letters and a gift?!

Rather, as it is stated in Chronicles, Merodach’s messengers came

“to inquire about the wonder that had been done in the land,”

as follows.

For Rabbi Yohanan said: On the day on which

the king

Ahaz

the wicked died, a day of

only two hours

was

it,

so that there would not be time to eulogize him and bury him properly .

And when Hezekiah became ill and recovered

[And was healed]—

the Holy One, blessed is He, returned those ten hours to him

[The Holy One, blessed is He, returned those missing ten hours to him] , and that day on which he was healed was extended to twenty-two hours.

And this was the incident:

Hezekiah became ill, and Isaiah the prophet came to him and said that he would die from this illness.

Hezekiah wept and prayed to the Lord that He heal him, and the Lord heard his prayer and informed him that he would recover, and on the third day he would already come to the House of the Lord, and fifteen years would be added to his life.

Hezekiah asked Isaiah for a sign and wonder that this would indeed happen.

Isaiah said to him that he could give him a sign by having the shadow of the sundial—which was now at the place where the day begins to grow dark—remain in its place for ten hours. Or, alternatively, the shadow could return ten degrees backward and stand at the place where it stands in the morning.

Hezekiah said to him that if the shadow remained in its place and did not return backward, this would not be such a great wonder, since it would not be especially noticeable. Rather, let the shadow return ten degrees backward.

And so it indeed was,

as it is written: “Behold, I will bring back the shadow of the degrees, which has gone down on the degrees of Ahaz with the sun, backward ten degrees. So the sun returned ten degrees on the degrees by which it had gone down.”

And this is as above: those ten hours by which the sun suddenly descended on the degrees on the day on which Ahaz died would now return, and the degrees of the shadow would move ten hours backward.

King Merodach was accustomed to eat at the third hour of the day and sleep until the ninth hour. On that day when the solar sphere returned for Hezekiah, Merodach awoke at the ninth hour, as he was always accustomed to do, and found that it was morning, for the sun had returned backward.

He said to

his servants:

What is this,

did you let me sleep from yesterday morning until the following morning?! And he wanted to kill them for this.

They said to him: It is not so.

It is truly the ninth hour now. Rather, through a miracle the sun returned backward, and morning came to be.

And this was because

Hezekiah was ill—

and recovered

[Hezekiah became ill and was healed], and the Holy One, blessed is He, performed this miracle and wonder for him, extending the day.

He said: Is there a man such as this

[Is there such a great man],

and I do not wish to send him greetings

[And I do not need to inquire after his welfare]?!

Immediately he ordered that a letter of greeting be written and sent to Hezekiah.

They wrote to him

to Hezekiah as follows:

“Greetings to King Hezekiah, peace to the city of Jerusalem

[Peace to the city of Jerusalem],

peace to the great god.”

Nebuchadnezzar—

he was Baladan’s scribe

[He was Baladan’s scribe].

At that time,

at the time when they wrote the letter to Hezekiah,

he was not there

[He was not there].

When he came

[When Nebuchadnezzar returned from his journey and heard that they had written a letter to Hezekiah],

he said to them: How did you write

[How, and in what wording, did you write it]?

They said to him: This is how we wrote

[We wrote such and such], as mentioned above.

Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and

said to them: You called him

the god of Hezekiah

“the great god,” and you wrote to him at the end

[And mentioned him only at the end]?! They said to him: But how should we write?

He said

to them:

“Rather, write it thus,

in this order:

“Peace to the great God, peace to the city of Jerusalem, peace to King Hezekiah.”

They said to him: “The reader of the letter

let him be the messenger

[It is a parable. The reader of the letter should be the messenger.] That is to say, since your idea is this, you go and carry it out.

He ran after him

[Nebuchadnezzar ran after the messenger who had taken the letter to Hezekiah, in order to give him another letter, in the corrected wording] .

When he ran

[when he was running]

four

steps, Gabriel came —

and stopped him

[the angel Gabriel came and stopped him, so that he would not continue running].

Rabbi Yohanan said: Had it not been that

[if not]

Gabriel came and stopped him —

there would have been no remedy for the enemies of Israel.

For then his reward would have been much greater, and permission would have been granted to him to destroy Israel.

What is “

Merodach

Beladan son of Beladan,”

why was Merodach also called by his father’s name, Beladan?

They said:

at first

Beladan —

he was king, and his face changed and became like that of a dog

[and the appearance of his face changed, and it became like that of a dog ].

His son was sitting upon the kingship

[his son, Merodach, sat upon the kingship].

When he was writing

[when Merodach was writing a letter],

he would write his name and his father’s name

[he would write his name and his father’s name]

“Beladan the king,”

in order that his father would be honored . For had he written only “Merodach son of Beladan,” there would not have been honor for his father in this, since everyone writes his name and his father’s name. Therefore he wrote “Merodach Beladan son of Beladan,” in order to honor his father.

This is what is written

in the Book of Malachi:

“A son honors a father, and a servant his master.”

“A son honors a father” —

this is what we said,

that Merodach honored his father Beladan.

“And a servant his master” —

what is it? Who is the servant who honored his master?

For it is written: “And in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month, that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, chief of the executioners, he stood before the king of Babylon in Jerusalem, and he burned the House of Hashem and the king’s house.”

Thus, Nebuzaradan stood before King Nebuchadnezzar in Jerusalem.