Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah

Ibn Ezra on Genesis 28:10/אבן עזרא על בראשית כ״ח:י׳

אאמר הגאון, כי וילך חרנה. ללכת, ואיננו רק כמשמעו ושב לבאר מה שפגע בדרך, ולא הלך ביום אחד, כי בדרך לן:

1[AND JACOB WENT OUT FROM BEER-SHEBA.] Saadiah Gaon is of the opinion that va-yelekh charanah (and went toward Haran) is to be interpreted as, to go to Haran.⁶) in place of an infinitive (la-lekhet), with the perfect having the meaning of an infinitive. Saadiah thus translates our verse: Jacob went out of Beersheba to go to Haran. However, this is not so. Va-yelekh charanah is to be interpreted literally.⁷ After telling us that Jacob left Beersheba and went to Haran, Scripture returns and tells us what he encountered on the way to Haran.⁸ Jacob did not arrive in Haran on the day he left Beersheba,⁹ 68:9 which states that Jacob arrived in Haran on the same day that he left Beersheba. because Scripture explicitly tells us that he spent a night on the way.