Commentaire sur Isaïe 23:13
הֵ֣ן ׀ אֶ֣רֶץ כַּשְׂדִּ֗ים זֶ֤ה הָעָם֙ לֹ֣א הָיָ֔ה אַשּׁ֖וּר יְסָדָ֣הּ לְצִיִּ֑ים הֵקִ֣ימוּ בחיניו [בַחוּנָ֗יו] עֹרְרוּ֙ אַרְמְנוֹתֶ֔יהָ שָׂמָ֖הּ לְמַפֵּלָֽה׃
Voyez ce pays des Chaldéens, ce peuple qui n’était pas jadis, ces nomades du désert qu’Achour a solidement établis: ils ont érigé des tours [contre Tyr], ils en ont démoli les palais et fait d’elle une ruine!
Rashi on Isaiah
Behold the land of the Chaldees, this people has never been It was not to be a people, for they are called, (Habakkuk 1:6) “bitter, impetuous nation.” They are a foolish nation, of the creatures that the Holy One, blessed be He, (so to speak,) regrets (creating) them. [Tractate Sukkah (52b)].
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Ibn Ezra on Isaiah
The land. The inhabitants of the land.
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Rashi on Isaiah
Assyria established it to station his fleets therein, his ships, huge battle ships, as (infra 33:21): “A mighty fleet (צִי).”
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Ibn Ezra on Isaiah
This people. The people of the Chaldæans.
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Rashi on Isaiah
they erected its towers They shall erect their fortifications (var., their siege towers) upon Tyre. (Heb.) בַּחוּנָיו, an expression similar to (infra 32:14): “tower and bastion (בֹּחַן),” bajjpred in O.F., which they erect for a siege against walled cities.
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Ibn Ezra on Isaiah
לא היה There was none like them.15A. V., Was not. Where no fear was.15A. V., Was not. Where no fear was. Comp. לא היה פחד There was no fear like it (Ps. 53:6). According to others: Would that it were not; for it founded the kingdom of Assyria for wild beasts,16A.V., Till the Assyrians founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness. that is, the Chaldsæans laid Assyria waste, and it became the habitation of wild beasts.17About 606 B.C. Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, was taken by the Babylonians in conjunction with the Medians. Comp. Nah. 1:3; Zeph. iii. לציים For the little wild beasts that live in the land.18The passage in the Hebrew text seems to be corrupt; the word ציים is explained by I. E. on 13:21, 34:14, to mean beasts that live in the wilderness. קטנות שהם is very likely a corruption for השוכנות, that dwell, and ציה desert is left out after בארץ. They set up the towers thereof etc. Although they, viz., the Assyrians, have set up the towers for defence, etc.
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Rashi on Isaiah
destroyed its palaces (עוֹרְרוּ). They shall destroy. (This is) an expression like (Psalms 137:7): “Raze it, raze it (עָרוּ עָרוּ),” an expression of demolition until the very foundation.
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Ibn Ezra on Isaiah
בחוניו The towers thereof. Comp. בוחן tower (32:14). More correctly, the suffix in בחוניו refers to the people of the Chaldæans: when they, viz., the Chaldæans, set up their towers of siege. עוררו They raised up. It is a transitive verb. The palaces thereof. It was as if the towers stirred up the palaces, but before they awoke, he brought her to ruin, that is, the Chaldæan brought Assyria to ruin.
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