Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Genesis 4:1/אבן עזרא על בראשית ד׳:א׳
אוהאדם. כאשר ראה שלא יהיה בגופו בעצמו לעולם הוצרך הוא להחיות המין על כן אמרה קניתי איש את ד', ואין שם זכר למלת אלהים כי הנה נמצא בארץ במין כאשר הוא במעלה בעצמים, ומלת טוב כלל, וכן כתוב וירא אלהים את כל אשר עשה, והנה טוב מאוד ורע חלק:
1AND THE MAN. When Adam realized that he would not live forever he saw the need of perpetuating the human race. Eve concurred and therefore exclaimed, upon giving birth to a child, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.1 Eve used the Tetragrammaton, and not the term Elohim, because the Lord’s spirit now rested upon the earth via the human race even as it does on the heavenly bodies.2 The term good3 (term or word) to milleh (filled). This would give: God filled the whole with good. refers to creation as a whole. We thus read, And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good (Gen. 1:31). Evil is found only in a part of creation.4, Part III, Chap. 10, and I.E.’s introduction to Ecclesiastes. In the latter I.E. maintains that the little evil found in the world is overshadowed by the preponderance of good in creation.