His watchmen are all blind, they are all ignorant: dumb dogs not able to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping and loving dreams.
Ibn Ezra
His watchmen are blind, etc. The false prophets in Israel are meant, who were like blind watchmen during the day, and like dumb dogs during the night, that cannot guard the house and are of no use whatever. לנבח To bark. The word has in Arabic the same meaning. הזים Dogs. It is hap. leg.; the ה is radical as in הורו והנו conceiving and uttering (59:13). The participle Hiphil has always מ at the beginning.—R. Jonah says that the Targum renders הזים by ניימין slumbering, because dogs are more addicted to slumber than all other animals. Loving the slumber. Repetition of the same idea.
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.