Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah

Ibn Ezra on Exodus 2:4/אבן עזרא על שמות ב׳:ד׳

אותתצב. מלה זרה, כי שמו נח נעלם בין שתי התוי"ן תחת היו"ד, אמר ר' משה הכהן כי תי"ו לרדת, ולגשת, נוסף בעבור חסרון הפ"א מן פעל וככה לדעת, כי בעבור אות הגרון נפתח, ועתה החליפו התי"ו לה"א במלה לדעה כמו אשר תנה הודך (תה' ה):

1AND HIS SISTER STOOD AFAR OFF. The word va-tetatzav (stood) is irregular because a missing silent letter⁸⁸ of va-tetatzav is vocalized with a tzere. The tzere is sounded as if a yod, a silent letter, followed it, hence the phrase a “missing silent letter” for the tzere. has been substituted for a yod⁸⁹ is yod, tzadi, bet, and that its tav prefix is vocalized with a tzere rather than with a chirik to compensate for the missing yod. between the two tavs.Rabbi Moses Ha-Kohen⁹⁰ says that a tav is suffixed to the words laredet (to descend) and la-geshet (to approach) because the first root letter of these words is missing.⁹¹ is yod, resh, dalet. The stem of la-geshet is nun, gimel, shin. The yod is dropped in the infinitive and according to Rabbi Moses is compensated for by the tav. That is also the case with the word la-da’at (to know).⁹². This word is vocalized with a pattach because the ayin is a guttural.⁹³ and not la-de’et. I.E. makes this point because he wants to show that la-da’at and la-geshet belong to the same form even though they are vocalized differently. Now in the word le-de’ah (to know)⁹⁴, and is an infinitive. Prima facie, it should have been written la-da’at. the tav was changed to a heh,⁹⁵ is a variant of la-da’at, and what I.E. said about the latter applies to the former as well. as in the case of the word tenah (rehearsed)⁹⁶ is nun, tav, nun. The infinitive form is tet (or te-nat). In te-nah a heh has been substituted for the tav. Hence le-de’ah and la-da’at are similar to tet (te-nat) and te-nah. in Whose majesty is rehearsed above the heavens (Ps. 8:2).