Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Jeremias 27:5

בראשית IN THE BEGINNING — Rabbi Isaac said: The Torah which is the Law book of Israel should have commenced with the verse (Exodus 12:2) “This month shall be unto you the first of the months” which is the first commandment given to Israel. What is the reason, then, that it commences with the account of the Creation? Because of the thought expressed in the text (Psalms 111:6) “He declared to His people the strength of His works (i.e. He gave an account of the work of Creation), in order that He might give them the heritage of the nations.” For should the peoples of the world say to Israel, “You are robbers, because you took by force the lands of the seven nations of Canaan”, Israel may reply to them, “All the earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He; He created it and gave it to whom He pleased. When He willed He gave it to them, and when He willed He took it from them and gave it to us” (Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 187).

מן הארץ, from the land of Ashur he went forth in the direction of Assyria. The Torah fails to tell us if Ashur belonged to the descendants of Cham or of Shem. In verse 22 we are told that Eylam and Ashur were sons of Shem, so that it is unlikely that here we speak of a descendant of Shem, the subject matter being the descendants of Cham, i.e. Kush. However, seeing the Torah did not mention another Ashur, it is most probable that he was a descendant of Shem. Perhaps he had made his home for a while in the land of Shinor, i.e. regions populated by the descendants of Cham, so that the words מן הארץ ההיא יצא אשור gain added significance, seeing that this was the first example of someone migrating from one region to another. Perhaps Ashur had even overcome Nimrod or his successor in the land of Shinor and founded a rival kingdom in Nineveh. His kingdom, as distinct from its capital, may have been named after its founder, Ashur. We definitely have evidence that the King of Ashur ruled over Babylon and its surrounding region. The various descendants of Cham were expelled from that entire region, being supplanted by the Chaldeans, כשדים, in the time of Avraham. These people were descended from Shem, [else how could Avraham have been at home there? Ed.]
This whole story is only meant to remind us that the entire universe belongs to G’d, no matter how great the conquerors on earth, (Psalms 24,1 and Samuel I 2,9) and if He decides to take away a country from its ruler and to substitute new inhabitants and rulers, He will do so at will. This is what the prophet Jeremiah 27,5 spoke about when he said ונתתיה לאשר ישר בעיני “I will give it (the land) to whoever is right in My eyes.” Ownership of a part of the earth is totally dependent on the deeds or misdeeds of the people living on that land. (Deuteronomy, 32,4). We are not sure if the word Ashur refers only to a city or to an entire kingdom. The verses (25,18 in Genesis, or Kings II 15,19), speaking of מלך אשור, or Kings II 19,11, speaking of מלכי אשור, do not give clear guidance on that point. According to Yuma 10, in the name of Rabbi Yossi, Ashur is equivalent to סלוק, (Silikia? in Iraq, on the banks of the Tigris)