Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Exodus 1:21/אבן עזרא על שמות א׳:כ״א
אויהי כי יראו. בעבור שלא יראו ממלך מצרים רק יראו מהשם, וייטב אליהן, ודע כי זו המלה איננה מהפעלים העומדים ולא מן היוצאים כי הוא על דרך שיקבל האדם היראה מאחר על כן יראו מאת ד' הוא הנכון, ואחזו דרך קצרה לומר "ירא את ד'" (מ"א יח יב), על כן מלת נורא איננה בבנין נפעל כמו נולד (דה"א ב ג) נשבר ונדכה (תה' נא יט), והמשכיל יבין;
1AND IT CAME TO PASS, BECAUSE THE MIDWIVES FEARED GOD. Because the midwives did not fear the king of Egypt but feared the Lord, the Lord dealt well with them. Note that the verb yare’u (feared) is neither transitive nor intransitive, because its meaning is, to be afraid of someone.189 means to be afraid of someone. The one who is frightened does nothing to the source of his fright. Hence the verb is not transitive. On the other hand, the frightened person does nothing to himself; i.e., he does not scare himself. Hence the verb is not intransitive (Weiser). Hence the correct way of saying “feared the Lord” would be yare’u me’et Adonai.190 connects a transitive verb with the direct object. However, yare, as I.E. has noted, is not transitive. Hence I.E. notes that et is short for me’et., the literal meaning of our text being: were afraid of God. Obadiah used a short form when he said, yare et Adonai (fear the Lord) (I Kings 18:12).191 is short for me’et. It is for this reason that the word nora (revered)192 is the passive form of the kal. Since the verb yare is not transitive it does not have a nifal counterpart. The word nora (revered) is thus not a nifal verb even though it has the form of a nifal. does not come in the nifal form as the words nolad (was born) (I Chron. 2:3), nishbar (broken) (Ps. 51:19), and ve-nidkeh (and contrite) (Ibid.) do.193 verbs. The intelligent will understand why.194 is not a nifal verb even though it comes in that form (Krinsky). However, I.E. uses this formula when he hints at some secret meaning. He apparently does so here. However, it is hard to ascertain what he is hinting at.