Ibn Ezra on Isaiah

My God. The first person singular refers to the prophet, or these are the words which every one of the ancients is represented speaking (24:23). עצות מרחוק Counsels of old. Objective case governed by עשית thou hast done.—The counsels of oldare the plans of God predicted by the prophets. אמונה אמן With faithfulness and truth. As to the repetition אמונה אמן comp. עזי ומעזי my strength and my fortress (Jer. 16:19).

For thou hast made a city an heap, etc. Many cities will be destroyed, when Gog and Magog will come. According to R. Moses Hakkohen it refers to the period of Sennacherib. לגל An heap. Comp. Gen. 31:51. זרים Strangers. Non-Israelites. מעיר Of every city.

יכבדוך עם עז Shall a strong people glorify thee. Those who have escaped or are far off shall glorify thee, when they will hear the report.

For thou hast been, etc. It is wonderful how all well fortified towns were taken, and the city of the poor, that is, Jerusalem, escaped. A refuge from the showers, from the enemy who is compared to showers of water. For the blast of the terrible ones is as showers against the wall. This phrase is to explain the expression from the showers.

בציון In a dry place. Comp. בארץ ציה in a dry land (Jer. 2:6). חורב בצל עב ונו׳ The heat in the shadow of a cloud, etc. Repetition of the same idea. בצל עב In the shadow of a cloud, that is, in the shadow which hides the clouds and makes them invisible. זמיר עריצים The song of the terrible ones. It is the same as שאון זרים; comp. זמירות songs (24:16). יענה Shall be low. It is an intransitive verb of the same root as עני poor (Deut. 24:12); לענות to be humbled (Ex. 10:3)

In this mountain. In Zion. A feast of fat things, etc. God will feed them with fat things, ממחים with things full of marrow—comp. ומוח and the marrow (Job. 21:24); ממחים is participle Pual— and then he will give them to drink lees well refined, so that they will become drunk; comp. As you have drunk on my holy mountain, etc. (Obad. 16)

ובלע And he shall discover. Comp. כבלע when are discovered (Num. 4:20). הלוט The covering. Comp. וילט and he wrapped (1 Kgs. 19:13); it is the same as the corresponding מכסה = מסכה covering; comp. והמסכה and the covering (28:20)

בלע המות Death will destroy them. And the Lord will wipe away tears from off all faces. For they have caused great evils to all.

ואמר And they will say. The people mentioned before, will say. ויושענו And he saved us. And he saved us continually. It is the imperfect tense.

The hand of the Lord. His punishment. Moab, that will come to help the besiegers of Zion. ונדוש And shall be trodden down. Niphal of a verb (דוש) ע״ו or בְּהִדּוּשׁ .(דשש) ע״ע As is trodden down. Infinitive Niphal; וּ is here instead of וֹ; these two vowels are capable of interchange. מדמנה Dunghill.

And he shall spread forth. The Lord shall spread forth. In the midst of them. In the midst of Moab. השוחה He that swimmeth. Comp. שחו to swim (Ez. 47:5). His pride. The pride of Moab. ארבות Hap. leg.; the meaning must be found from the context. Some compare it with ארבות windows (Gen. 7:11), but their explanation is far-fetched.

Thy walls. The pronoun refers to Moab. השח השפיל He brought down, he laid low., Rashi: towers, Kimchi: the wrists, R. Jonah: the multitude, A. V., the spoils. Asyndeton; comp. כרע שכב נפל He bowed, he fell, he lay down (Judg. 5:27). The past is used here because the action was already completed in the time of Sennacherib.