Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Exodus 8:25/אבן עזרא על שמות ח׳:כ״ה
אויאמר. התל. זה השורש משונה, כי היה ראוי להיות התי"ו בדגש, כי הה"א שרש, כמו "הנה לא ידעתי דַבֵּר" (ירמי' א ו), וככה התל תהתלו בי, והנכון "וַיְהַתֵּל בהם אליהו" (מ"א יח כז) ואמר לו משה כן, בעבור שאמר במכת הצפרדעים לשלח את העם ולא שלח:
1AND MOSES SAID…ONLY LET NOT PHARAOH DEAL DECEITFULLY. The word hetel (deal deceitfully) is irregular. A dagesh should have been placed in the tav, for its heh is a root letter. It should have been vocalized like the word dabber (speak) in behold, I cannot speak (Jer. 1:6).55 is a pi’el. Hence it should follow the paradigm of dabber, which is a pi’el and should be vocalized hattel. Since the word is not so vocalized it is irregular. We find the same irregularity in hatel tehatellu vo (mock, will ye mock him) (Job 13:9).56? Cf. Krinsky. The correct vocalization of this word is found in the clause va-yehattel ba-hem eliyahu (that Elijah mocked them) (I Kings 18:27).57 form va-yehattel. Compare, va-yedabber. Moses said, only let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more, because he had promised to let the people go during the plague of the frogs and then didn’t.