Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah

Ibn Ezra on Genesis 21/אבן עזרא על בראשית כ״א

אלמועד אשר דבר אתו. המלאך ששאל איה שרה אשתך, גם שב אליו כי כן אמר לו

1AT THE SET TIME OF WHICH GOD HAD SPOKEN TO HIM. The reference is to the angel who had asked, Where is Sarah thy wife?¹ The same angel also returned to Abraham, for he had promised to do so.² (Gen. 18:10). I.E. points out that the angel kept his word even though this is not recorded in Scripture.

אולא הוסיף השם על שם יצחק ולא החליפו כי הוא צוה לקראו כן:

1[ISAAC.] God never added any letter to Isaac’s name; neither did He ever change it, for God Himself commanded Abraham to call his son Isaac.³

אמצחק. כי כן מנהג כל נער ותקנא בו בעבור היותו גדול מבנה:

1MAKING SPORT. Ishmael was acting as a boy is wont to act. Sarah was jealous because he was older than her son.

אאודות: כמו דבר:

1ON ACCOUNT OF HIS SON. Odot means account of.

אוחֵמַת מים. כלי ויתכן להיותו מעור או מעץ וכמוהו מְסַפֵח חַמָתְך (חבקוק ב טו) ורבים יתמהו מאברהם, איך גרש בנו, גם שלח בן עם אמו ריקם, ואיה נדבת לבו, והתימה מאלה שיתמהו, כי אברהם עשה ככל אשר צוהו ד', ואלו היה נותן ממון להגר שלא ברצון שרה, לא שמר מצות השם, והנה באחרונה אחרי מות שרה נתן מתנות לבני ישמעאל:

1AND A BOTTLE OF WATER. Chemet (bottle) is a vessel. It is possibly made out of skin or wood. Chamatekha (thy venom) in That puttest thy venom (chamatekha) thereto (Hab. 2:15)⁴ (thy venom) as thy vessel. is analogous. Many are amazed at Abraham’s behavior. They ask, how could Abraham chase his son out of his house? How could he send away mother and child empty handed? Where was his kindness? However, I am amazed at those who are amazed at Abraham, for Abraham acted according to God’s dictates.⁵ (v. 12). Had he acted contrary to Sarah’s wishes and given money to Hagar, then he would have transgressed God’s command. However, ultimately, after Sarah’s death, he gave gifts to Ishmael’s children.⁶

בלחם וחמת מים. נתן אל הגר, ושם על שכמה ואמר לה קחי אתך בנך וישלחה ויתכן שנתן לה כסף וזהב ולא פירש הכתוב, ונתן לה לחם ומים שיספיק לה עד באר שבע, כי בגרר היה אברהם, והנה היא הלכה ולא ידעה הדרך ותתע, והנה בנה חלה מחסרון המים, ואחר שלקחתהו בחיקה וראתה שנפשו יוצאה בצמא השליכתו:

2BREAD AND A BOTTLE OF WATER. He gave the bread and bottle of water to Hagar and placed them upon her shoulder. He then told her, “Take your son with you,” and he sent her away. It is possible that Abraham gave Hagar some gold and silver, although this is not mentioned in Scripture. Abraham at that time lived in Gerar. He gave Hagar enough bread and water to last her till she reached Beersheba.⁷ However, Hagar did not know the way and strayed in the wilderness of Beersheba. Ishmael became ill from lack of water. She took him to her bosom⁸ (Cherez). and when she saw that he was dying of thirst, she cast him under one of the shrubs.

אתחת אחד השיחים. האילנים:

1UNDER ONE OF THE SHRUBS. One of the trees.⁹

אכמטחוי קשת. בדד ישב, וטעמו ידוע כהשלכת החץ:

1AS IT WERE A BOWSHOT. Ki-metachave (as it were a shot) is not found elsewhere in the Bible. Its definition is known.¹⁰ It means the distance an arrow travels after being shot.

ארבה קשת. כמהו "השמיעו אל בבל רבים" (ירמי' נ כט) ואם הם שני שרשים כמו שרר ושרה גם רבה ורבב מגזרת רבה:

1AN ARCHER. Compare, Call together the archers (rabbim) against Babylon (Jer. 50:29). Although roveh (archer) in our verse and rabbim (archers) (in Jer. 50:29) come from different roots, they mean the same thing.¹¹ ; in Jeremiah it is resh, bet, bet. We find a similar case with the words sarar and sarah (ruled over),¹² (bear rule) comes from the root sin, resh, resh ; in Hos. 12:4 sarah (he strove or ruled over) comes from the root sin, resh, heh (Krinsky). also the words ravah and ravav, both of which mean increased.¹³ is resh, bet, heh. The root of ravav is resh, bet, bet.

בקשת. שם התואר, כמו גנב:

2ARCHER. Kashat (archer) is an adjective. Compare, gannav (thief).¹⁴ is a bow, kashat an archer. That this is the case can be seen from its vocalization of a pattach kamatz. This vocalization indicates an adjective, as seen from the word gannav. Hence roveh is not in the construct with kashat. The verse is to be read: he was a shooter, an archer (Krinsky).

גהגם הלום. ששם נראה לה המלאך בתחלה בפעם הראשונה:

3HAVE I EVEN HERE SEEN HIM THAT SEETH ME?¹⁵ The angel first appeared to her here.¹⁶

אאם תִשְקר לי. מהבנין הקל ואין לו אח:

1THAT THOU WILT NOT DEAL FALSELY WITH ME. Tishkor (thou wilt deal falsely) is a kal. This is the only place in the Bible that this word appears in the kal.

בנכדי. בן בני:

2MY SON’S SON. Nechdi is to be rendered the son of my son.

אמה הנה. לשון נקבות:

1WHAT MEAN THESE. Hennah (these) is feminine.

בלבדנה. עם ה"א והיא לבדה:

2BY THEMSELVES. Levaddanah (by themselves) is spelled with a heh at the end of the word. This is the only place in Scripture where the word is so written.

אלעדה. כמו לעדות ודע כי מלת שבועה עקרה. שבעה, ובמלת "או השבע שבועה" (במדבר ל, ג) אפרשנה:

1A WITNESS. Le-edah means a witness. It should be noted that the word for oath (shevu’ah) comes from the word for seven (shivah).¹⁷ comes from shivah, Abraham called the place be’ersheva, rather than be’er shevu’ah. I will elaborate on this point in my comments on the term oh hishavah shevu’ah (or sweareth an oath).¹⁸

אאשל. אילן גם ויטע לאות:

1A TAMARISK-TREE. Eshel (a tamarisk tree) is a tree.¹⁹ to mean an inn (Sotah 10a), hence I.E.’s comment. The word va-yitta (and he planted) which precedes it is also proof of this.²⁰ is a tree, our verse also indicates the same.