Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Genesis 3:8/אבן עזרא על בראשית ג׳:ח׳
אוישמעו מתהלך בגן., קול השם, וזה היה סמוך לערב בעת התנופף רוח היום, ומצאנו לקול הליכה, כמו "קולה כנחש ילך" (ירמי' מו בב) "קול השופר הולך וחזק מאוד" (שמות יט יט), ויאמר ר' יונה המדקדק הספרדי כי הטעם והאדם מתהלך בגן, גם הוא אמר שפי' ביום אכלך ממנו אלף שנים כדרך הדרש, ואחרים אמרו ביום ששי נברא וביום ששי מת, ואחרים אמרו אז תהיה חייב מיתה, ואחרים אמרו כי יש מות עונש, כמו "כי בן מות האיש העושה זאת" (ש"ב יב ה), ואחרים אמרו כי מאז תחול שתמות והביאו ראיה מהתינוק, והישר בעיני מה שאמרו הקדמונים שעשה תשובה, כטעם רגע אדבר:
1AND THEY HEARD THE VOICE OF THE LORD GOD WALKING. They heard the voice of God walking toward evening, at the time of the day when the breeze blows. Scripture employs the term holekh (walking) when referring to a voice as seen in The sound thereof shall go (yelekh) like the serpent’s (Jer. 46:22), and And when the voice of the horn waxed (holekh) louder and louder (Ex. 19:19). However, the Spanish grammarian, Rabbi Jonah ibn Janah, says that this verse is to be interpreted as follows: And they heard the voice of God as man was walking in the garden. He also interprets the day referred to in for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Gen. 2:17)27 as meaning a thousand years, as the Midrash does.28 19:14. Others say that Adam was created on a Friday and died on a Friday.29 Others say that the meaning of for in the day…thou shalt surely die is that on that day you will incur the death penalty. Still others say that die at times means punishment, as seen in the verse the man that hath done this deserveth to die (II Sam. 12:5).30 Still others say the meaning of this verse is that on the day you eat of this tree you will begin to die. They bring proof from a child.31, Chap. 4). Thus man’s decline sets in with his sexual maturity. Since, according to I.E., man’s sexual maturity came with the eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, his decline, too, started at this time. According to my thinking the correct interpretation of this verse is to be found in the words of the Rabbinic sages who said that Adam repented.32 Their interpretation is in keeping with the words of Jeremiah who says, At one instant I may speak concerning a nation…to destroy it, but if that nation turn from their evil.. J repent of the evil that I thought to do unto it (Jer. 18:7, 8).