The Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael draws a connection between two seemingly unrelated legal passages in the Torah, both involving the concept of metaphorical language in legal contexts.
In (Deuteronomy 22:17), the Torah addresses the case of a bride accused of infidelity. Her parents come to court and "spread the garment" — a phrase that could be taken literally, as though they display a physical cloth. But the rabbis understand this metaphorically. "Spreading the garment" means making her innocence as manifest and visible as a spread-out cloth. It is a figure of speech for presenting clear evidence, not a literal description of displaying fabric.
The Mekhilta uses this as a precedent for interpreting another phrase. Elsewhere, the Torah uses the expression "al mishanto" — literally "on his staff" or "on his support." Just as "spreading the garment" is understood metaphorically — meaning to make something evident and clear — so too "al mishanto" is understood metaphorically as "on his own power," meaning the person recovered his strength and independence.
This passage illustrates a critical principle of rabbinic interpretation: the Torah sometimes speaks in figurative language, and the reader must recognize when a phrase is metaphorical rather than literal. The rabbis do not approach the Torah as a flat, literalistic text. They look for cues — and when one passage establishes that a phrase is figurative, it becomes a key for unlocking similar expressions elsewhere. One metaphor illuminates another, and the Torah's legal language reveals itself to be richer and more layered than a surface reading would suggest.