Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Exodus 27:21/אבן עזרא על שמות כ״ז:כ״א
אאשר על העדות. דרך קצרה על ארון העדות, אמר יפת, כי יערוך כמו כערכך הכהן (ויקרא כז יב) שיערוך שמן שיספיק להיות הנרות מאירים מערב ועד בקר, וככה נרות המערכה (למטה לט לז), ונכון הוא להיות טעם יערוך בעבור היות הנרות כחצי עגול, ועוד אדבר על זה:
1WHICH IS BEFORE THE TESTIMONY. The testimony is short for the ark of testimony. Yefet says that ya’arokh (shall set)71. This root can mean to estimate or to arrange. Hence the two interpretations of ya’arokh (shall set). is similar in meaning to ke-erkekha (as thou valuest it)72 in as thou the priest valuest it (Lev. 27:12). It means that the priest shall estimate the amount of oil that will be sufficient for the lamps to give light from evening till morning.73 (shall set) means shall estimate. The same applies to the phrase nerot ha-ma’arakha (even the lamps to be set in order) (Ex. 39:37).74 (even the lamps to be set in order) as: the lamps to be estimated; that is, the lamps whose oil has to be estimated. Ya’arokh may also be properly interpreted as meaning shall set, for the lamps were set in a semicircle.75 I will yet speak on this.