Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Exodus 32:16/אבן עזרא על שמות ל״ב:ט״ז
אוהלחת. קדמונינו אמרו כי נגזרו להיותם ככה כאשר פירשתי בראש ס' בראשית, ולפי דעתי כי פי' מעשה אלהים שהיו ככה כמדה הראויה נבראים, והזכיר זה בעבור שהשניים פסלם משה:
1AND THE TABLES WERE THE WORK OF GOD. Our ancients said that it was decreed86 that they be like this.87 5:6, “Ten things were created on the eve of Sabbath at dusk…the tablets.” I have already explained this at the beginning of the Book of Bereshit.88 (created) means to cut or decree. Hence Avot 5:6 may be interpreted as meaning, on the eve of the Sabbath, God decreed that ten things come into being. However, I believe that the meaning of the work of God is that they were created in their proper dimensions.89 This is mentioned because of the second tablets, which Moses hewed out.90
ביש אומרים כי חרות כמו חרוש, ויש מהפכים אותו, חתר (יחז' ח ח) והנכון שאין חבר לו, אולי הוא כדמות פתוח:
2[GRAVEN.] Some say that the word charut91 does not appear again in Scripture. Hence the difference of opinion concerning its meaning. means charush92 and shin interchange, as in the word pashar (explained) and patar (explained). (graven).93 (the work of an engraver in stone) (Ex. 28:11). Others invert the letters94, the root of charut. and come up with the word chatar (dig) (Ezek. 8:8).95 as if written chatur (dug), i.e., engraved. Actually, the word has no counterpart [is a hapax legomenon]. It is possibly similar in meaning to the word patu’ach (engraved).96 (the engravings of a signet) (Ex. 28:11).