Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah

Ibn Ezra on Genesis 30:37/אבן עזרא על בראשית ל׳:ל״ז

אמקל. בפתח הקו"ף בעבור שהוא סמוך:

1RODS OF. Makkal (rods of) is vocalized with a pattach because it is in the construct.

בלבנה לוז וערמון. עצים הם, רק לח שם התואר, והגאון אמר כי לוז שקדים בעבור שנקרא כן בלשון ישמעאל, כי הב' לשונות והארמית ממשפחה אחת היו:

2POPLAR…ALMOND…AND PLANE TREE. Livneh (poplar), luz (almond) and armon (plane tree) are names of trees. However, lach (fresh) is an adjective.⁶⁵. Conceivably lach could be taken to be the name of a tree. Hence I.E. points out that lach is an adjective modifying livneh, i.e., fresh Saadiah Gaon says that luz means almond since that is its meaning in Arabic, and Arabic, Hebrew and Aramaic belong to the same family.

גמחשף הלבן. שחשף הקלף, כמו "חשף ד'" (ישעי' נב י):

3MAKING THE WHITE APPEAR. He peeled the bark. Compare, The Lord hath made bare (chasaf) His holy arm (Is. 52:10).⁶⁶ means to lay bare. Hence machsof ha-lavan means he laid bare the white (Weiser). He did this by peeling the bark. I.E. makes this point because the root chet, sin, peh can also mean to strip. Hence machsof ha-laven might be translated, stripping off the white.