Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Genesis 24:61/אבן עזרא על בראשית כ״ד:ס״א
אותרכבנה. על הגמלים שהביא העבד:
1AND THEY RODE UPON THE CAMELS. That the servant brought with him.
בוַיֵלַך. פתוח ואם הוא סוף פסוק, ולא נקמץ כי בתחלה היה בפתח קטן, ולא יוכל לעלות שתי מדרגות, וכן כל ויֹאמַר
2AND WENT HIS WAY. Va-yelakh (and went his way) is vocalized with a pattach rather than a kamatz even though it closes a verse,58 usually changes to a kamatz at the end of a verse. We would thus expect va-yelakh to be vocalized with a kamatz. the reason for this being that this word is normally vocalized with a segol, and a vowel cannot go up two steps.59 is usually written with a segol (ya-yelekh). However, since here it closes a verse, the segol changes to a pattach. It cannot change to a kamatz because it would then be going up two steps, that is, from a segol to a kamatz, skipping the step of pattach. The normal sequence of the vowels followed by I.E. is segol pattach, kamatz. The same principle applies to the word va-yomar (and he said).60 (and he said) is vocalized va-yomar with a pattach and not a kamatz, at the close of a verse.
גוטעם ויקח העבד את רבקה וילך, הוא היה הולך עם רבקה ולא הרגיש עד בא יצחק:
3The meaning of And the servant took Rebekah, and went his way is that he took Rebekah under his personal care until Isaac came up toward them and did not experience any hardship in caring for her.61