Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Genesis 21:20/אבן עזרא על בראשית כ״א:כ׳
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