Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Genesis 30:39/אבן עזרא על בראשית ל׳:ל״ט
אויחמו. נתעברו, ובאה זאת המלה משונה בנקוד בעבור אות הגרון, והיה ראוי להיות כמו "וישבו לאכל לחם" (בראשית לז כה), ואל תתמה בעבור שאמר על הצאן לשון וכרים כי משפט הלשון להפריש בין זכרים לנקבות בלשון יחיד, רק בלשון רבים לא יחושו:
1AND THE FLOCKS CONCEIVED. Va-yechemu means: and they conceived.71, meaning to be hot, that is, hot with sexual desire and by extension to conceive. This word is irregularly vocalized because of the chet which is a guttural. It should have been vocalized as va-yeshevu (and they sat down) in And they sat down (va-yeshevu) to eat bread (Gen. 37:25).72 is yod, chet, mem. Being a peh yod it should follow that paradigm. Thus the yod should be vocalized with a tzere as the yod of va-yeshev. However, since the chet is a guttural and is vocalized with a chataf segol, the yad is vocalized with a segol (Cherez). Don’t be surprised at Scripture’s use of the masculine73. Females conceive, hence Scripture should have stated va-techamna hatzon rather than va-yechemu hatzon. when referring to female sheep. Hebrew is strict in differentiating between the masculine and feminine forms only in the singular and not in the plural.
באל המקלות. מן המקלות ורבים יתמהו, ויאמרו כי זה פלא, ואמת שהוא מפלאות התולדות וכן המשפט אפילו האשה שנבראה בצלם המלאכים:
2AT THE SIGHT OF THE RODS. El ha-maklot should be rendered at the sight of the rod. Many are amazed at what is reported in our verse74 and say that it can only be described as an out of the ordinary phenomenon. Really, what Scripture describes is indeed one of the wonders of nature. However, it is a natural law. Even a woman who is created in the image of the angels affects her fetus by what she looks at while she is pregnant.75
גוטלואים. הם הברודים כי שם כלל הוא:
3AND SPOTTED. Grizzled. This is so because telu’im (spotted) is a general term for all types of spots.76 is a general term for speckled, streaked and grizzled, and speckled and streaked are specifically mentioned in our verse, telu’im can only refer to grizzled (Krinsky). The Bible sometimes uses a general term for the particular (Weiser).