And he will lift up a sign to the nations afar off, and will whistle to them from the ends of the earth: and behold they shall come with speed swiftly.
Rashi
And He shall raise i.e., the Holy One, blessed be He. an ensign to the nations and signal to them to gather and to come upon them. Raising an ensign (נֵס) is like a long pole (כְּלוּנָס), at the end of which they attach a cloth, [i.e., a flag,] and they climb to the top of a lofty mountain and see it from afar; and that is the sign for people to gather. Comp. (infra 49:22) “And to peoples I will raise My ensign (נִסִּי)”; comp. also (Numbers 21:8), “And set it upon a pole (נֵס),” meaning a pole (כְּלוּנָס), perche in French, but since it is for a sign, it is called נֵס. And He will whistle sibler in O.F. This too is a sign for gathering. from the end of the earth that they should come from afar to besiege Israel. swiftly he will come The enemy [will come] upon them [swiftly,] as Scripture proceeds to explain.
Hebrew and Aramaic words are the commentator’s citations of the sacred text; the English translation that follows each is the translator’s.
Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.