Commentaire de citation sur Les Psaumes 83:9

מן הארץ ההיא יצא אשור, “from that land Ashur went forth, etc.” He was one of the sons of Shem as we are told in verse 22 that Shem’s sons were Eylam, Ashur, Arpachshad Lud and Aram. Seeing that most of the people alive during the generation of the Tower were descendants of Shem, the Torah mentioned that Ashur had left that land (the valley including Babel). He had not had part in the uprising against G’d that those people were planning in accordance with the statement by our sages in Bereshit Rabbah 37,4. the words מן הארץ ההיא mean that Ashur dissociated himself from these people and their land as he realised they were preparing to rebel against G’d. This also explains Psalms 83,9 גם אשור נלוה עמם, “also Ashur made common cause with them,” Seeing that on this occasion Ashur was on the side of G’d, the psalmist had to contrast this with a future occasion when also Ashur joined the forces of evil planning to wipe out the Jewish people.

ואת רסן בין נינוה , “and the great city of Nineveh situated between Ressen and Kolach”. He linked all three cities into one great metropolis. This is the reason why subsequently we find Nineveh referred to as: “the great city.”A different interpretation of the phrase: “and from this land Ashur emigrated.” The word Ashur is the name of a man, as suggested by Rashi, who described Ashur as being disgusted with his own children acclaiming Nimrod as deity, so much so that he decided to move far north east. In a Midrash, the source of which our author does not quote, the question is raised why G-d appointed a special prophet to warn the city of Nineveh of impending destruction if its people did not mend its ways. The answer given is that that this was in recognition of the courageous conduct of its founder Ashur, who had dissociated himself from Nimrod’s pantheistic kingdom. That Midrash cites our verse as the source for G-d’s special consideration for Nineveh’s people. The Midrash interprets the words: מן הארץ ההיא יצא אשור, as if the Torah had written: ‘the plan that prompted Ashur to move far away from the domain of Ni rod, eventually paid dividends by the inhabitants of their capital being given 40 days during which to reform heir lifestyle.” In Psalms 83,9, we are told that eventually also the Kingdom of Ashur turned anti Israel, as when they conquered the territories of the northern kingdom of the ten tribes and exiled its inhabitants in 722 B. C and that is why the Babylonians not long afterwards conquered the Kingdom of Ashur that had been predominant in that region. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish explains that the error made by the people of Ashur was that they thought the family of Put (verse 7) had become extinct, until we find in the Book of Ezekiel 30,5 that “both Put, Lud, and a mixed multitude of non pure ancestry,” is mentioned by the prophet as among the nations falling victim to conquerors together with the Egyptians whom they had supported. The reason that these details have not been spelled out in the Torah is that if you enumerate all these tribes we would think that there had been more than the 70 nations of which the Torah speaks after the fall of the Tower.