Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Exodus 5:21/אבן עזרא על שמות ה׳:כ״א
אויאמרו. ירא ד'. חמסנו שהוא עליכם:
1AND THEY SAID UNTO THEM: THE LORD LOOK. At the violence done to us, the responsibility for which falls upon you.
בודע כי החמש הרגשות מתחברות במקום אחד למעלה מהמצח על כן יאמרו הרגשה אחת תחת חברתה, כמו ומתוק האור (קהלת יא ז) ורבי מרינוס אמר שאנו נמאסים ונבאשים בעיניו כריח רע:
2[YE HAVE MADE OUR SAVOUR TO BE ABHORRED IN THE EYES OF PHARAOH.] Note that the five senses are perceived in one place located above the forehead.134 Hence one sense is substituted for another sense,135 of Pharaoh, for it is the nose that detects smell. However, since the senses are perceived in one place, Scripture interchanges them and employs sight in place of nose. as in And the light is sweet (Eccles. 11:7).136 However, Rabbi Merinus says that its meaning is, we are as disgusting and abhorrent in his eyes as a foul odor.137