(13) I the LORD am your God who brought you out from the land of the Egyptians to be their slaves no more, who broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk upright.
(13) I am the Lord your God, who brought you out redeemed from the land of Mizraim, that you should not be bondmen to them, and broke the yoke of their bondage from off you, and brought you out from among them, the children of liberty, and led you forth upright.
מטות are a kind of peg inserted in both ends of the yoke which hold back the strap from slipping off the head of the ox whereby the knot might become undone. Similar is (Jeremiah 27:2). “Make thee strips and poles (מטות)”; cheville, in old French.
(6) No, this is the fast I desire:
To unlock fetters of wickedness,
And untie the bars of the yoke
To let the oppressed go free;
To break off every yoke.
(7) It is to share your bread with the hungry,
And to take the wretched poor into your home;
When you see the naked, to clothe him,
And not to ignore your own kin.
(8) Then shall your light burst through like the dawn
And your healing spring up quickly;
Your Vindicator shall march before you,
The Presence of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
(9) Then, when you call, the LORD will answer;
When you cry, He will say: Here I am.
If you banish the yoke from your midst,
The menacing hand, and evil speech,
(10) And you offer your compassion to the hungry
And satisfy the famished creature—
Then shall your light shine in darkness,
And your gloom shall be like noonday.
6) "and I will break the bars of your yoke": To what may this be compared? One has a cow that he plows with and he lends it to another to plow with. That man has ten sons. This one comes and plows with it and leaves, and that one comes and plows with it and leaves — until the cow is exhausted and buckles under. All the cows (i.e., all the nations) enter and that cow (Israel) does not enter. It does not wait to be freed (of its yoke) by that man; but He comes immediately and breaks the yoke and cuts the yoke bars. So, Israel in this world. One power comes and subjugates her and leaves, and another power comes and subjugates her and leaves. And the furrow is long, as it is written (Tehillim 129:3) "Plowmen have plowed on my back; they have lengthened their furrow." Tomorrow, when the end arrives, the Holy One Blessed be He will not tell the nations: "This and this is what you have done to My children." But immediately He will come and break the yoke and cut the yoke bars, as it is written "And I will break the bars of your yoke." And thus is it written (Tehillim, Ibid. 4) "He has cut the cords of the wicked."
וָאוֹלֵךְ אֶתְכֶם קוֹמְמִיּוּת רַבִּי מֵאִיר אוֹמֵר מָאתַיִם אַמָּה כִּשְׁתֵּי קוֹמוֹת שֶׁל אָדָם הָרִאשׁוֹן
“And I will make you go upright [komemiyyut]” (Leviticus 26:13). Rabbi Meir says: In the future, the Jewish people will have the stature of two hundred cubits, equivalent to two times the height [komot] of Adam the first man, whose height was one hundred cubits.
And Rabbi Levi says: Come and see that the attribute of flesh and blood is unlike the attribute of the Holy One, Blessed be He. The Holy One, Blessed be He, blessed the Jewish people with twenty-two, and cursed them with only eight.
He blessed them with the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, from the first letter, alef, that begins the verse: “If [im] you walk in My statutes” (Leviticus 26:3), until “upright [komemiyyut]” (Leviticus 26:13), which ends with the letter tav, the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And He cursed them with eight letters, from the letter vav that begins the verse: “And if [ve’im] you shall reject My statutes” (Leviticus 26:15), until: “And My statutes were abhorred by their soul [nafsham]” (Leviticus 26:43).
And yet Moses, our teacher, blessed them with eight letters, and cursed them with twenty-two. He blessed them with eight letters, from the letter vav that begins the verse: “And it shall come to pass [vehaya], if you shall hearken diligently” (Deuteronomy 28:1), until: “To serve them [le’ovdam]” (Deuteronomy 28:14). And he cursed them with twenty-two letters, from the letter vav that begins the verse: “But it shall come to pass [vehaya], if you will not hearken to the voice of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 28:15), until: “And no man shall buy [koneh]” (Deuteronomy 28:68).