Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Genesis 19:19/אבן עזרא על בראשית י״ט:י״ט
אואמר לאחד מהם עבדך שהשב בעיניו שהוא גדול, גם יש במלאכים שרים ותי"ו מות מובלע בתי"ו וָמַתִּי כי התי"ו והיו"ד סימן היחיד בפעלים, והיה כן בעבור התחברות שני תוי"ן וכן אותו תשחית וְכָרָתָ (דברים כ, כ):
1He then turned to one of the angels and said, behold now, thy servant35 (thy servant) is in the singular. Hence I.E. says that this was addressed to the angel whom Lot considered to be the most important of the two. hath found grace in thy sight, etc. (v. 19). He did so because he considered this angel to be the more important of the two. The truth is that even among angels there are superiors who lord it over other angels. The tav of the root of mavet (death) is dropped in the word va-matti (and I die). The reason for this is that in the first person perfect a tav and a yod are added to the root. When the tav of the stem and the tav of the suffix come together, the tav of the root is lost in the pronunciation.36 would be written with two tavs, rather than with one. The tav of the root is dropped (swallowed is the term used by I.E.) because it is difficult to pronounce two tavs in succession. The word ve-kharatta (and cut down) in them thou mayest destroy and cut down (ve-kharatta) (Deut. 20:20)37 were not lost, ve-kharatta (and cut) would have two tavs, rather than one, for in the second person singular perfect a tav is added to the root. is similar.