Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah

Ibn Ezra on Exodus 3:1/אבן עזרא על שמות ג׳:א׳

אהר האלהים חרבה. ככה כתב משה, וטעם חרבה, מרוב החום שלא ירד שם גשם, כי הוא קרוב ממצרים דרך שלשת ימים כאשר דבר משה, ובעבור שהיאור רחוק על כן אין שם ליחה, ותגבר בו היבשות:

1THE MOUNTAIN OF GOD, UNTO HOREB. This is the manner in which Moses recorded it.¹ since the Lord had not yet revealed Himself on it. However, when Moses wrote the Torah about 40 years later, it was so known. Hence we see that Moses used contemporary terminology when he wrote the Torah. The place is called Horeb because of its great heat and lack of rainfall.², which means dry. As Moses noted,³ it is located three days’ journey from Egypt. There is no moisture there and the dryness is overpowering because the Nile is far away.