Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 23:3/אבן עזרא על דברים כ״ג:ג׳
אממזר. אחז״ל הבא מן העריות והשני ממי״ן נוספין כממי״ן נהרסו ממגורות ואחרים אמרו כי הוא שם גוי וישב ממזר באשדוד כי רחוק הוא שיקרא שם ישראל ואף כי בעת הישועה בשם גנאי והמתרגם תפש דרך קצרה ודרש:
1Our rabbis, of blessed memory, said that a mamzer (bastard) is a child that results from a sexual act which is deemed an uncovering of the nakedness.16 The two mems of mamzer are superfluous.17 is a variant of zar, (a stranger). A mamzer is a child born to people who must remain strangers to each other with regard to sexual relations. They are like the mems in mamgurot (barns) in the barns are broken down (Joel 1:17). Others say that mamzer is the name of a people. Compare, And a mamzer shall dwell in Ashdod (Zech. 9:6), for it is far-fetched for Israel to be given a shameful name.18. It is even more unlikely for this to happen in the time of the salvation.19 refers to Israel then the prophet is saying that the bastards (Israel) shall dwell in Ashdod when the messiah comes. Therefore what the prophet says is that in the messianic era a nation called mamzer will dwell in Ashdod. The Aramaic translator of the Bible was brief and midrashic.20 to Zech. 9:6 renders And a mamzer shall dwell in Ashdod, and the children of Israel shall dwell in Ashdod where they were strangers. Thus the Targum renders mamzer in Zechariah as strangers. Vat. Ebr. 38 says, the Aramaic translator of the Bible interpreted it midrashically. The latter reading appears correct, for the Targum elaborates on the text.