A thousand men shall flee for fear of one: and for fear of five shall you flee, till you be left as the mast of a ship on the top of a mountain, and as an ensign upon a hill.
Ibn Ezra
אלף Thousand. It is in the constr. st. אלף אחד The thousand men of one of you; אחד signifies the officer. The meaning of the whole phrase is: An officer over a thousand men will flee at the threatening of one man. Shall ye flee, shall all of you flee. Till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, etc., till a few out of many will be left. I think that the words as an ensign on a hill refer to those who remained in Jerusalem and did not go down to Egypt.
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.