Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Genesis 25:23/אבן עזרא על בראשית כ״ה:כ״ג
אויאמר ד' לה. על ידי נביא, או אברהם בעצמו כי לא מת עד שהי' בניה בני ט"ו שנה:
1AND THE LORD SAID UNTO HER. Via a prophet, or through Abraham himself, for Abraham did not pass away until her sons were fifteen years of age.40
בורב. הוא הפועל וכן "בן יכבד אב" (מלאכי א ו) ועוד אפרש זה הפסוק:
2THE ELDER. Elder is the subject.41, the indicator of the direct object, is missing in our verse. I.E. points out that even so, elder is the subject and younger the object, the meaning of our verse being the elder shall serve the younger. Ve-rav ya’avod tza’ir is the same as ve-rav ya’avod et hatza’ir. One can argue that since this verse is poetic it has placed the object first and the subject last and that its intention is to teach that the younger shall serve the elder, hence I.E.’s comment. A son honoureth his father (Mal. 1:6) is similar.42 is missing. However, it is obvious that it is the son who honors the father and not the reverse. We thus see that the Bible at times omits et. Nevertheless, the syntax of the sentence remains subject (son), object (father). Similarly in our verse the subject (elder) is stated first and the object (younger) afterward. I will explain our verse later.43