This chapter commences a new
prophecy, but not without connection with the preceding. Zion will now be saved
from the hands of Sennacherib [his is the subject of the first chapter; the
second begins with describing the salvation of Israel, which will be effected
in the distant future.], and she will besides be highly distinguished in the
future. This will take place, as the prophet says, “In the last of the days.” That is, in the days of Messiah, which
are the last of the days of the world. [By “The last of the days of the world”
Ibn Ezra points to the furthermost period of time, the period of the highest
degree of perfection and salvation, which will undergo no fresh change, nor
suffer any relapse into former imperfections. Such a period, Ibn Ezra says, has
not yet come, because war has not yet ceased.] Those days have not yet come;
for since the days of Isaiah there has never been a period free from war. We
learn from Josephus, and the literature of the Persians and Medes,[
Another
reading for ומדי is רומי “and Romans.”] that during the whole time of the
second temple in Jerusalem war had never ceased. Moreover, [The meaning is,
“Even if the records here referred to were not trustworthy, and if for a
certain period war had really ceased, it has been resumed again; while the
period of Messiah requires ‘that war should not be learnt any more.’ ”] the prophet distinctly
declares, “Neither shall they learn war any more.”
2. And shall be
exalted. We know that the mount of the temple will not be physically
raised; but what the phrase means is, that it will be established in such a way
that people will hasten up to it from the four corners of the earth, as if it
were higher than all hills. ונהרו And they will flow. Root, נהר ‘to flow’; comp. נהר “river,”
which is so called on account of its flowing motion.
4. And he shall
judge. He, who is the judge, the Messiah, shall judge (comp. Numb. 26:59). [The
passage referred to is אֲשָׁר יָלְדָה אֹתָהּ, ‘whom she bare’: no noun precedes the
phrase, whose substitute the pronoun “she” should be. In this and similar
elliptical cases, Ibn Ezra usually supplies a participle or a verbal noun from
the verb; as, for instance, חיולדת ‘the mother,’ implied in the verb יָלְדָח, or הֵשֹׁפֵט implied in the verb וְשָׁפֵט; sometimes he completes the elliptical phrase
from the context; comp. ver. 8.] לְאִתִּים Into plowshares. Comp. אֵתוֹ “his plowshare” (1 Sam.
13:20); the Dagesh of the ת compensates for the omitted silent letter י; the same
purpose is served by the long vowel Zere under א in the word אֵתוֹ. למזמרות Pruning-hooks. Instruments for pruning the vineyards.
5. O house of Jacob, etc. With these words the prophet rebukes Israel,
as if he said, “Since Zion will now, as you are well aware, be redeemed for her
justice, and a time, besides, will come for her great salvation, we all owe
obedience to the words of the prophecies, which are true as the light.” The
prophet includes himself in this rebuke, by using the first person plural, pro formâ, as Moses did when he prayed,
“forgive our iniquity;” or because he grew up among the people and acquired
something of their mode of speaking, as I shall explain (6:5). (Abraham Ibn Ezra, The Commentary of IBN Ezra on Isaiah, 3 vols. [ed. . M. Friedländer; London: Trübner & Co.,
1873], 1:13-15)
